A diocesan bishop has undergone a personal “conversion” toward the traditional Latin Mass.
Bishop Donald Lippert of Mendi, Papua New Guinea, has come personally to see the beauty and power of the traditional Roman rite.
He told AdVaticanum.com on September 29 that he had “over the last year or so, a bit of a conversion myself into the Traditional Latin Mass.”
“I am, as many of us are, an amphibian. I exist mainly in the Novus Ordo, because that is the reality in which I live, and the Church that I have been called to serve at the moment.”
He has “no problems with the Novus Ordo”, but sees the power of the traditional Mass particularly in its reverence: “The Traditional Latin Mass has a mysticism about it, and a reverence about it, that can touch the hearts of people and draw them closer to God in a world where there are so many distractions pulling them away.”
He is still learning to celebrate the Mass.
Mass not primarily for educated Western people
When someone told him that the Mass was for highly cultured people in the West, he replied: “It would be absolutely even more acceptable and more powerful for our simple people, who understand symbol, who understand the mystical world better than many Westerners do.”
He believes people would embrace it “if they were given that opportunity by the Church to do so”.
“I feel that our people know immediately what it is about, without much explaining—although catechesis would always be very important.”
Latin Mass should become an option in the diocese
There is no regular traditional Latin Mass in Mendi diocese. “This is a long-term plan.”
Bishop Lippert would like to make it “an option in the diocese”: “I am hoping and praying that the Church opens up that possibility.”
However: “I do not want to cause any kind of conflicts.”
“There would not be any problems in the diocese. I think our people would certainly be open to it. I do not know if all of our priests would be, but it would have to be something natural and respectful.”
Bishop Lippert added: “In my own experience, and given what it has meant for me, I would like to be able to share that in a broader way with the diocese.”
Here is the ‘but’: “It seems that that is not, at this moment, a possibility, but I am hoping and praying that at some point it will be more of a possibility.”
Bishop Lippert also noted that it was the traditional Latin Mass that evangelized Papua New Guinea in the mid-1950s:
“It was still the Latin Mass in those days. Some of our elder people actually remembered it. When we had the Mass, they remembered it. They came to me afterwards and were speaking some of the responses that they remembered from when they were children.”
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