Hand Missal History Project

I’m back with a new research project! It's a study of vernacular congregational participation at Mass between 1861 and 1961. Everything you think you know about liturgy before the Second Vatican Council is probably wrong 🧵⤵️

@Monocarp_ If you have time, be sure to check out All Saints Way! It's just a few minute walk away

Barely contained my jubilation upon discovering Paul Revere’s House is surrounded by Wop Mecca

@uxixu Many prominent priests in Madison were progressive by the 60s I believe that Breines simply thought that his interpretation was the truest and most correct way, and would not necessarily have thought of it as disobedience to O'Connor

@uxixu O'Connor was an earnest, simple, old school, mostly hands-off bishop. He did not appear to be an enthusiast for the reforms but attempted to implement them reasonably. He wasn't playing games.

I’m back with the fourth installment of “The ‘New Mass’ of 1964” series Part 4 is titled “What went wrong?”: Pastoral Accompaniment, Disillusionment, and Blame 🧵⤵️

@WordHandedDown There must be a similarly named priest, because the John Donald Conway I profile in the article was a priest of Davenport, Iowa until his death in 1967.

H/T @HandMissals Msgr. Conway served in the diocese of Greensburg Pennsylvania, which saw around 35% of their parishes close or consolidate from 1970 to the present - and we all know how it's going for the rest of the Church.

@DavidGr08051597 I conducted a study of this period which touches on some of these details: handmissalhistory.com/newmass1964par…

@DavidGr08051597 Different countries did this at different times, but the United States and England implemented their first changes in November of 1964. The bishops conferences arranged the details, and the Holy See/consilium granted approval.

I missed the brouhaha over this yesterday setting that aside, it is remarkable to me that almost *literally identical* statements were being published in diocesan newspapers in 1966 about the failures of the New Liturgy e.g., The Catholic Transcript, September 2, 1966, page 3:

@PhilOutsider @amywelborn2 I quote and cite an NCR opinion columnist in the article that Amy is referencing: “On consulting the faithful,” The National Catholic Reporter, August 25, 1965, page 3. #_ftnref16" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">handmissalhistory.com/newmass1964par…

Read the thread, read the article, read the entire series. What an odd, perfect storm this period was. A period in which convictions about change and modernity were promulgated by a hierarchy imposing the fruit of the movement of the Spirit on the supposedly now-empowered People of God with old-school authoritarian means. Ironically (or not), one of the only voices that saw the irony of forcing change on the supposedly newly-empowered People of God was in the National Catholic Reporter: “Vatican II does not say to Catholics: “Hear and obey– and like it!" I'll have more later.

@crean_fr Yes, it is a goal of mine to eventually revise and edit this series into a manuscript for an academic press. But that isn't something I'll be able to do in the immediate future, so I wanted to share the initial research and make it available on my website.

@HandMissals Is this series going to be published as a book?

@threadreaderapp unroll

Check it out and let me know your thoughts!