Traditionalists train priests for Tridentine Mass

In 1988, the Vatican created a society of apostolic life for Catholics who wanted to celebrate the older Tridentine liturgy while remaining in communion with Rome.

When the Society of St. Pius X broke away from the Catholic Church in 1988, many followers stayed with the traditionalist group because of its Latin Mass. Yet just before the schism, the Vatican created an international body precisely for those Catholics who wanted to celebrate the older Tridentine liturgy while remaining in communion with Rome. Thus was established the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter — a society of apostolic life that grew in prominence when Pope Benedict XVI permitted wider use of the extraordinary rite in 2007.

"The Fraternity of St. Peter, as a whole, has put a lot of effort into training priests to say the extraordinary form. The mind of the Holy Father is that the extraordinary form goes back into the mainstream of the Church, into the normal life of the Church. And that means that priests in dioceses and religious orders and usually saying the new Mass are learning--and want to learn--how to say the old form. And our job is to help them do precisely that."

A new generation of Catholics is changing attitudes about the 1962 Missal, according to the pastor of the sole parish in Rome regularly celebrating the extraordinary rite. After three or four lessons, priests celebrate the Tridentine Mass with a diverse congregation that includes parishioner Magdalen Ross, who perceives a connection between the liturgy and her Jewish heritage.

"This particular form of mass, being as ancient as it is, is actually closer to the Jewish roots of Christianity. (...) I think there's even a closer relationship to the ancient form of Temple sacrifice, before the Temple was destroyed. (...) So that, of course, is of great value for me."

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