Blueboard: Traditional Latin Mass at the Ateneo: an Invitation to Form a Stable Group

Dominus Vobiscum!

If you say “Et cum spiritu tuo,” then you know the Traditional Latin Mass.

The Traditional Latin Mass was codified during the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and became the mass of the Latin Rite Catholics all over the world for five centuries. Even the Church Fathers during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass. In 1969 Pope Paul VI replaced the Traditional Latin Mass with the New Mass, which is the same mass that we know today at the Ateneo de Manila University. But because of the continued request of many bishops, priests, and faithful around the world, Pope Benedict XVI, through his encyclical Summorum Pontificum of 2007, liberalized the use of the Traditional Latin Mass. He calls it the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and Pope Paul VI’s New Mass as the ordinary form. Pope Benedict XVI decreed that a Traditional Latin Mass may be celebrated in any parish if there is a stable group of faithful who requests it and if there is a priest who is willing to say it.

In Ateneo de Manila University, there is one priest who knows how to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. His name is Fr. Timoteo Ofrasio, S.J., a professor of Liturgy at the Loyola House of Studies. In his private chapel he celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass everyday. He is willing to celebrate it regularly in public if there is a stable group who requests it. If you wish to be part of this stable group, please email Dr. Quirino M. Sugon Jr. at qsugon@ateneo.edu or qsugon@observatory.ph. In your email please state if you know how to serve at mass or sing in Gregorian chant.

As Ateneo de Manila University celebrates its 150th founding anniversary, it is worthwhile to look back and recover Ateneo’s lost Latin heritage. Let us restore the ancient mass that molded many generations of Ateneans from Jose Rizal to Ninoy Aquino, the ancient mass that strengthened many Jesuit missionaries in the Philippines and other countries, the ancient mass that St. Ignatius himself lived. Let us restore the Traditional Latin Mass.

Deo gratias.