By Kellen Henry

For the Saturday Gazette-Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Some Catholic congregations in West Virginia are changing Mass to engage parishioners in worship and help people reconnect with their spiritual roots in faith and tradition.

But the shift reflects a style more Middle Ages than modern mega-church. After a 40-year hiatus, the words, motions and chants of the traditional Tridentine Mass in Latin are being regularly shared again in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

 "Historically, it's the Mass of saints and it is tragic that it was thought to be abolished. It was never abolished, but it was thought to be forbidden for the last 40 years," said Rev. Timothy Grassi of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Thomas, where the Tridentine Mass is now offered two Sundays a month.

Though the Tridentine Mass was the norm for more than four centuries, the church moved away from using the service in the mid-1960s, when it opened to changes during the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, often called Vatican II.

The church replaced it with the "Novus Ordo" Mass, conducted in everyday language.

In some instances, Catholic churches abruptly abandoned the Latin Mass for the Novus Ordo, leaving parishioners with a sense of loss, said Greg Gray, organist for Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Charleston and house clerk for the West Virginia Legislature.

Gray, who converted to Catholicism in adolescence and also studied for the priesthood, said he still feels a deep connection to the Mass he first heard in a small coal camp church in Scarboro.

"I just think that the Tridentine Mass has a spiritual level we do not find in the Novus Ordo," he said. "What happened after Vatican II [to] those of us that held fast to those traditions because we found great validity to them, is that we were scorned."

Then, in July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a document inviting priests to freely practice the Tridentine Mass. Over the last year and a half, several churches in the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston have resurrected the traditional Latin worship service.

While the Latin text is a conspicuous difference between the two types of Mass, calling the Tridentine Mass the "Latin Mass" is a misnomer.

The Novus Ordo Mass can be practiced in Latin as well, providing the beautiful language but also a meaningful participation by the parishioners, said Monsignor Edward Sadie of Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Charleston.

The new form brought more flexibility to the Mass, involving the worshippers in the service and delivering the message in a language they could understand. In the Tridentine Mass, the priest and the congregation both face east, meaning his back is toward the congregation through the service and he delivers much of the Mass quietly.

"The Tridentine Mass limits the involvement of anyone other than the priest, the choir, and the acolyte. For the most part, people sit or kneel in devotional silence," Sadie said.

For the Saturday Gazette-Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Some Catholic congregations in West Virginia are changing Mass to engage parishioners in worship and help people reconnect with their spiritual roots in faith and tradition.

But the shift reflects a style more Middle Ages than modern mega-church. After a 40-year hiatus, the words, motions and chants of the traditional Tridentine Mass in Latin are being regularly shared again in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

 "Historically, it's the Mass of saints and it is tragic that it was thought to be abolished. It was never abolished, but it was thought to be forbidden for the last 40 years," said Rev. Timothy Grassi of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Thomas, where the Tridentine Mass is now offered two Sundays a month.

Though the Tridentine Mass was the norm for more than four centuries, the church moved away from using the service in the mid-1960s, when it opened to changes during the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, often called Vatican II.

The church replaced it with the "Novus Ordo" Mass, conducted in everyday language.

In some instances, Catholic churches abruptly abandoned the Latin Mass for the Novus Ordo, leaving parishioners with a sense of loss, said Greg Gray, organist for Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Charleston and house clerk for the West Virginia Legislature.

Gray, who converted to Catholicism in adolescence and also studied for the priesthood, said he still feels a deep connection to the Mass he first heard in a small coal camp church in Scarboro.

"I just think that the Tridentine Mass has a spiritual level we do not find in the Novus Ordo," he said. "What happened after Vatican II [to] those of us that held fast to those traditions because we found great validity to them, is that we were scorned."

Then, in July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a document inviting priests to freely practice the Tridentine Mass. Over the last year and a half, several churches in the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston have resurrected the traditional Latin worship service.

While the Latin text is a conspicuous difference between the two types of Mass, calling the Tridentine Mass the "Latin Mass" is a misnomer.

The Novus Ordo Mass can be practiced in Latin as well, providing the beautiful language but also a meaningful participation by the parishioners, said Monsignor Edward Sadie of Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Charleston.

The new form brought more flexibility to the Mass, involving the worshippers in the service and delivering the message in a language they could understand. In the Tridentine Mass, the priest and the congregation both face east, meaning his back is toward the congregation through the service and he delivers much of the Mass quietly.

"The Tridentine Mass limits the involvement of anyone other than the priest, the choir, and the acolyte. For the most part, people sit or kneel in devotional silence," Sadie said.

"It's a beautiful Mass and I love it very much. That said, I see no strong desire for most Catholics here to be present at a Mass where the Latin is said inaudibly."

Sadie, who has a master's degree in Latin, held the Tridentine Mass multiple times with the permission of the bishop before Pope Benedict's declaration, but saw attendance decline after those who came out of curiosity or nostalgia were sated. Sadie holds Mass in Latin daily and the choir incorporates Latin hymns into worship at Sacred Heart.

He said that the Tridentine Mass has great spiritual worth, but the new Mass in English could mean to worshippers today what Latin speakers in the 16th century found in the Tridentine Mass. It provided them with a chance to hear the words in their own tongue rather than the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic of those that went before them.

"Those who complain about the Novus Ordo ought to come to Sacred Heart and see if it is not devotional, reverent and spirit enriching," Sadie said.

The pope declared the Tridentine Mass the "extraordinary" form of worship, with the Novus Ordo as the "ordinary," and Grassi said there is room for both in spiritual life.

However, the return to traditional worship is refreshing for those seeking a reverent answer to the occasional distractions of modern worship.

Grassi said his services attract worshippers from Clarksburg and the Baltimore area, but the number of those attending ebbs and flows with the tourist season at nearby Blackwater Falls. He said several other churches have seen steadier attendance at Tridentine Mass, including St. James Parish in Charles Town, which has attracted young professionals from the Washington, D.C. area.

"I will say that the older people are very interested in it, but I'm more impressed with the younger people. They come, I think, looking for the contemplative, the mysterious, the sacred, the transcendent," Grassi said.

He became personally interested in the Mass after considering the statistics of people actively pursuing the priesthood. In 1965, around the time of Vatican II, there were about 48,000 seminarians studying to be priests in the United States. In 2002 that number had shrunk to about 2,000, Grassi said.

"I do think there's a sense in the world that things don't have to be as methodical and accurate as maybe they once were. When you see the traditional Mass, the Tridentine, every movement, every action is very orchestrated," he said.

"It's not like a dialogue between the priest and the people. Rather, it's a dialogue between the people, the priest and God."

Gray believes that reflection of tradition and closeness to God will help the Tridentine Mass take root beyond a handful of churches in the diocese.

 "There is an outgrowth of spiritual awakening of the Catholic Church due to this traditional form of worship and I hope it is fostered and promoted," Gray said.

"The people who attend these Masses are not just nostalgic old people who like to listen to oldies on the radio. There is great substance and great spiritual nourishment."