August 3, 2025 - Pastor Message
August 20, 2025JUBILEE 2025 SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM (cont.)
JUBILEE 2025
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM (cont.)
“Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See, and, in accordance with the law, on the bishop…Therefore no other person whatsoever, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on their own authority” (SC, 22).
Maybe the most controversial outcomes of Vatican Council II were the changes in the liturgy, since these were closest to people’s immediate experience of the Church on a regular basis. The problem was that many, maybe even most, of the changes people experienced were not what Vatican II mandated but were imposed by perhaps well-meaning but either ignorant or radical ministers. Ask your average Catholic about Vatican II, and, if they’ve even heard of it, since it ended sixty years ago, they will likely say something like, “Oh, that’s when they changed the Mass from Latin to English.” Though Fr. So-and-so or Sister What’s-her-name may have told you that, that could not be further from the truth.
SC, the constitution on the liturgy, actually says: “The use of the Latin language except when particular law prescribes otherwise, is to be preserved in the Latin rites. But since the use of the vernacular, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or in other parts of the liturgy, may frequently be of great advantage to the people, a wider use may be made of it, especially in readings, directives and in some prayers and chants…These norms being observed, it is for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority…to decide whether, and to what extent, the vernacular language is to be used. Its decrees have to be approved, that is confirmed, by the Apostolic See” (SC, 36).
SC envisions that Latin would remain the standard language of the liturgy but that the vernacular, the common language of the various peoples, would be permitted to the extent that their local bishops’ conferences, the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority, allowed for the “advantage of the people.” The territorial authority for us was the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) at that time, which allowed for a broad use of English in the liturgy and worked to produce and have approved by the Apostolic See (the Vatican) English translations of the various liturgical texts. Later translations have been produced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the successor to the NCCB, and approved by the the Apostolic See, but that is how we wound up with an English Mass, not because Vatican II mandated it, which is what many people mistakenly think.
What has confused many people about many things related to Vatican II is the renegade behavior of Church ministers - bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, and lay ministers - who either out of ignorance or malice have misrepresented Vatican II and tried to convince people that it said things it did not say. That is why I always encourage people to read the documents yourself. You don’t have to take my world for it or any other minister’s. The documents are available for all to read anytime you want, for free, online. Check out Sacrosanctum concilium here (https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html). No minister is free to alter the liturgy as he or she sees fit. We are all part of a bigger Church, and that Church has given us this beautiful document to help us adapt the liturgy to our needs. May our prayerful reading of the document lead us to a more fruitful celebration of the liturgy in all its various forms.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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