From the desk of the pastor for Jan. 4, 2026

The Lord be with you! In our last article we briefly mentioned the liturgy without going into detail about the reforms of the Mass. Although far more ancient than the Council, what would be called the Tridentine Rite would become the most influential liturgy in the Church.

The original Roman Rite developed around the Fifth Century under Pope Gregory the Great. This liturgy could have been ever older, but it was Pope Gregory’s codification of it that gives us a definitive date. We can see even at this early time a clear difference between it and the eastern liturgies in Greek.

Over the next five hundred years, the Roman Rite spread through Europe. It did not remain one universal rite. In almost every diocese and religious order, local customs prevailed and reshaped the Mass. By 1000 AD the Western Church had dozens of liturgies grouped in a few major families. Almost all of these used the Roman Canon - Eucharistic Prayer I - but differed in how the priest started Mass and how the people participated. Although the Pope controlled the Roman Rite in Italy, outside the liturgies were controlled by local bishops and religious heads.

The Protestant Reformation forced the Church to standardize. Whereas before local customs may have been odd, with Luther and Calvin the Mass was stripped of its essence. Accordingly, the Council of Trent suppressed any liturgy younger than 200 hundred years and called for the Roman Rite to be reformed and made the standard.

Thanks to the Franciscans having used the Roman Rite, it had been spread throughout Europe anew in the 13th Century so that almost every Catholic diocese had some experience with it. Nevertheless, many Catholics were not happy to be told that they had to use it. A number of papal legates in Germany were beaten and some were even killed by angry Catholic mobs over the Mass changes.

Even though it is called the Tridentine Rite, the Council did nothing directly with the liturgy. Instead, Pope Pius V was entrusted with the work. He barely changed the form of the Mass but mandated that no one but the pope could change it or the liturgical calendar in the future. Over time almost all of the other liturgical rites died off with a few exceptions, such as the Ambrosian Rite in Milan, Italy.

The most controversial decision of Pope Pius V’s reform was to mandate Latin. Many of the bishops at Trent argued that the liturgy should be in the vernacular. At the time the use of common languages was seen as too open to abuse. Many bishops expected that in a century or so Latin would be replaced with other languages. Sadly, it would not be until the Second Vatican Council that the Church changed her liturgy significantly.

The Tridentine Rite is beautiful and moving, but its dominance in the Church need not have happened. Like all traditions, liturgies evolve and change. We should all approach our worship with the humility to be moved as God wants us to be.

In His Sacred Heart,

Fr. John