Le Monde des religions, September-October 2007 —
I was somewhat surprised by the avalanche of criticism, including within the Church, that the Pope's decision to reinstate the Latin Mass has provoked. For the past two years, I've pointed out Benedict XVI's ultra-reactionary policies in all areas quite often, so I can't resist the pleasure of coming to his defense here! That the Pope wants to bring back the stray sheep of
Archbishop Lefebvre is obvious. But there's no opportunism on his part, because Cardinal Ratzinger has been tirelessly reiterating for over thirty years his unease with the implementation of the Vatican II liturgical reforms and his desire to give the faithful back the choice between the new and the old rite inherited from Pope Pius V (who promulgated it in 1570). This will be done starting September 14th. Why complain about a measure that, in a very rare occurrence, offers the faithful genuine freedom of choice? Once the old ritual was stripped of its anti-Jewish phrases which testified to the old Christian anti-Judaism that had persisted until the Second Vatican Council, I do not see how the Mass of Pius V, said with his back to the faithful and in Latin, would constitute a terrible step backwards for the Church.
Three personal experiences, on the contrary, convince me of the Pope's soundness. I was struck, upon visiting Taizé, to discover that these thousands of young people from all over the world were singing in Latin! Brother Roger explained the reason to me then: given the diversity of languages spoken, Latin had established itself as the liturgical language that could be used by everyone. A similar experience occurred in Calcutta, in a chapel of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa, during the Mass celebrated for the many volunteers who had come from all over the world: almost everyone could participate in the liturgy because it was said in Latin and, clearly, the participants' childhood memories were still vivid. Latin, the universal liturgical language of the Catholic Church alongside Masses in vernacular languages—why not? A recent experience, encountered during a sociological survey I conducted about ten years ago with dozens of French followers of Tibetan Buddhism, surprised me greatly when several of them said they appreciated Tibetan rituals because they were performed in a language that wasn't their native tongue! They told me they found Sunday Mass in French impoverished and lacking in mystery, whereas they felt the sacred in Tibetan practices. Tibetan served as their Latin. Who knows: Benedict XVI might not bring only fundamentalists back into the fold of the Church. (1).
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Founded in September 2003, Le Monde des Religions is celebrating its fourth anniversary. You can judge the quality of the magazine for yourselves. But the financial results are extremely positive. The magazine's circulation averaged 42,000 copies in 2004. It jumped to 57,000 copies in 2005 and continued its strong growth with an average circulation of 66,000 copies in 2006. According to Stratégies magazine, Le Monde des Religions experienced the third-highest growth rate among French publications in 2006. This is an opportunity to thank you, dear readers, as well as everyone who contributes to the magazine, and to highlight the redesign of the Forum pages, which are now more dynamic. I would also like to thank Jean-Marie Colombani, who stepped down this summer from his position as director of the La Vie-Le Monde group. Without him, Le Monde des Religions would never have existed. When he recruited me as editor-in-chief, he told me how important it seemed to him that there be a journal addressing religious issues from a resolutely secular perspective. He consistently supported us, even when the journal was still operating at a loss, and always gave us complete freedom in our editorial choices.
(1) See the debate on p. 17.