Pope Francis took sudden steps on July 16, 2021, to curtail the traditional Latin Mass, in an abrupt reversal of his predecessor’s policy.

To non-Catholics – and many Catholics – the decision may seem on first glance to be a technical, even obscure action not worth very much attention.

But it sent shock waves through the Roman Catholic Church. As a scholar who studies the Catholic Church’s relationship to the world, I believe the move may be the most important action Francis has taken in an eventful papacy.

A history of the Mass

The Mass is the central act of Roman Catholic worship. During the earliest centuries of Christianity, there was widespread variation in the Mass. Local irregularities thrived at a time before printed books, and easy communication, were available.

But after the Reformation of the 16th century split the Western Church in two, the Roman Catholic Church regularized the form and the language of the Mass. At the Council of Trent, a gathering of Catholic bishops in northern Italy between 1545 and 1563 prompted by the rise of Protestantism, the Mass was codified. Disseminating the new rules to churches across Europe was made easier with the help of the newly invented printing press.

From that time, the ordinary celebration of the Mass followed a precise format that was set forth in printed books – and was always celebrated in Latin.

This Mass held firm in Catholic life for 400 years.

That was until the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965. Also known as Vatican II, the council was convened to address the position of the Catholic Church in the modern world. Vatican II decreed that Catholics should be full, active participants in the Mass. Among other changes favoring that decree, the Mass was to be translated into local languages.

Read more:
https://theconversation.com/how-limiting-latin-mass-may-become-the-defining-moment-for-pope-francis-164826