I’d like to take issue with the column in the Catholic Messenger by Miles Chiotti (9/29/11) that participation in the Tridentine Mass is somehow a celebration of “diversity” in the Catholic Church.
That reflects a unique spin. Young people may find that form of the Mass to be a novel, mystical or “other-worldly” ritual, but many of us Catholics who are older and remember that Mass see it as a ritual of a Church that celebrated anything but diversity. That Church celebrated everything being the same and conformity. Remember the phrase in Church history that “error has no rights?”
Is sexism a “celebration of diversity?” Or clericalism? Or support for pedophiles? The Tridentine Mass ritual symbolizes for some Catholics a Church that had an extreme paternalism toward the laity, which many would argue still exists today by the Vatican and some bishops and priests. So, call it what it is, a part of our Catholic tradition. But don’t call it a celebration of diversity. After all, “diversity” on the conservative end is more tolerated in the Church today than on the progressive end, as we can see from recent examples in the Diocese of Phoenix.
Keith Soko, Ph.D.
Bettendorf
