ST. PETER'S BASILICA: Privilege of Private Masses withdrawn

VATICAN II FINALLY COMES TO THE VATICAN BASILICA

The following document recently released from the Vatican has caused no little disquiet in some Catholic quarters.

For the document introduces new measures for the celebration of Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, in particular, suppressing private Masses and promoting more communal celebrations.

Besides the document’s stated aim of ensuring “that the holy Masses in the Basilica of St. Peter’s are conducted in a climate of recollection and liturgical decorum”, I think that the document also seems to be putting into practice, albeit nearly 60 years later, some of the provisions of the Second Vatican Council.  Vatican II has finally arrived at the Vatican Basilica.

Communal nature of the Mass

Until now, it has been possible for individual priests, with valid celebrets or other such documentation, to show up at the Basilica before 7:30am or 8:00am, and celebrate a private Mass at one of the 45 side altars or 11 chapels.  I myself have had the privilege of celebrating such Masses with my guests, when I was a student in Rome and even more recently when I visited Rome.  It is like Grand Central or Termini Train Station in the Basilica at this time with priests coming and going from the sacristy to the side altars.  The document suppresses such Masses. 

The suppression seems to give priority to communal celebrations of the Mass rather than private celebrations, thus implementing Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC) 27 that clearly states:

"It is to be stressed that whenever rites, according to their specific nature, make provision for communal celebration involving the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of celebrating them is to be preferred, so far as possible, to a celebration that is individual and quasi-private.

This applies with special force to the celebration of Mass and the administration of the sacraments, even though every Mass has of itself a public and social nature."

That is why the invitation has been made to individual priests to concelebrate and the faithful to attend the already scheduled Masses.  At the same time, groups of pilgrims who have a bishop or priest to celebrate a Mass for them, will still have the opportunity to celebrate Mass in one of the chapels in the Vatican grottoes, prior planning and reservation being presumed.  Thus, the only Masses still allowed are those of a more communal nature.

That is not to say that private Masses are not efficacious; of course, they are. The privation or loss in private Masses is not of grace (res), but a privation of the sign (sacramentum).  For private Masses have the bare minimum of signs for a valid celebration of the Mass, for the reception of grace from the Eucharist.  And yet the same council, teaching about the value of the sign says, “In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs” (SC 7).  These signs, which are listed throughout the Vatican II document on the liturgy, include the communal dimension, ministers, music, and other signs (or what some call the bells, yells and smells) of Catholic liturgy.  A private Mass is deprived of these signs in varying degrees.  That is probably why this document explicitly states that the concelebrations are to be animated by lectors and cantors.  These signs are important for the fruitfulness of grace.  The use of these signs avoids the minimalism of what has been called a "low Mass" mentality.

Promotion of Concelebration

Another little-used prescription of the Second Vatican Council is concelebration. Sacrosanctum Concilium 57 extended the use of concelebration, which up to that point was rather limited.  Following the Council, among the occasions indicated for concelebration, always within the competence and discretion of the ordinary, are “at the conventual Mass, and at the principal Mass in churches when the needs of the faithful do not require that all priests available should celebrate individually.”  That is why this document seems to put this prescription into practice by providing for concelebration at the scheduled Masses in the Basilica.

The Council, however, goes on to say that “Nevertheless, each priest shall always retain his right to celebrate Mass individually, though not at the same time in the same church as a concelebrated Mass, nor on Thursday of the Lord's Supper.”  Thus, every priest always has the right to celebrate Mass individually.  But what this paragraph does is only to give priests the right to celebrate individually, not the right to celebrate individually anywhere.  So, priests in Rome, retain to celebrate Mass individually wherever they have permission to celebrate Mass, such as in their churches, residences or colleges.  Just like a priest does not have the right to show up at any Church or Cathedral in the world and demand access to an altar, the same thing will now apply at St. Peter’s Basilica.  Celebrating individually is a right; doing so at St. Peter’s Basilica is a privilege.

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

And since the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (according to the 1962 Missal) virtually does not admit of concelebration, provision has been made for such celebration by authorized priests, probably for groups of the faithful who have a predilection for that Mass.  The irony is that now priests cannot celebrate the Vatican II Mass individually, but they can celebrate the older Mass individually.  Once again priests who wish to celebrate in that form have not been denied the right to celebrate Mass in that form; they just don’t have the permission to celebrate it at the Basilica.  And recognizing the extraordinary nature of this usage (even according to Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum), these Masses have been limited to the Clementine Chapel.

Privilege vs Right

While I will miss the privilege of celebrating Mass with a few friends at the Basilica, I fully understand the rationale for these Basilica.  The loss of this privilege might lead to a loss of an exotic spiritual experience of celebrating in that beautiful Basilica and perhaps even some bragging rights; but it is not a loss of Eucharistic spiritual experience per se, since the Mass celebrated in that Basilica is no more efficacious that the Masses I have celebrated on a coffee table under a tree in Uganda and the Masses celebrated by 99.99 % of Catholics in the world.