Are non traditional Masses still Catholic?
21st June 2009 - 12th Sunday In Ordinary Time

I went to a Catholic church with an African American congregation. The music was lively and everyone was clapping. I enjoyed it, but was it really Catholic? - Feeling Guilty

Dear Feeling Guilty,

Yes, it was an authentic and valid Catholic Mass. The word catholic means “universal,” but that doesn’t mean the Church is supposed to look exactly the same everywhere in the world. As the Vatican ll Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy [Sacrosanctum Concilium] says “The Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity...; rather does she respect and foster the genius and talents of the various races and peoples” (37).

The Church is universal in that the great truths given voice in liturgies and sacraments are expressed in all manner of ways by all manner of people. Some parts of liturgy “can be changed...to adapt to the culture of recently evangelized peoples” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1205). As Pope John Paul II said, “a faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully accepted, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived” (Towards a Pastoral Approach to Culture, I).

The liturgy, however, was not what was different about the Mass you attended. Many of the guiding principles of Vatican II have yet to sink deep roots into both our writing about worship and the actual worship we do.

God’s people will continue to fashion their response to God’s plentiful redemption in the Mass. And their response will be noticed by, among others, laity, priests, bishops, and theologians, who will write on this and help the Church know, as well as feel, its catholicity.

Rick Potts, C.Ss.R.