Latin mass a looming headache for Catholic parishes

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's decision to promote the old Latin mass is a dream come true for delighted Roman Catholic traditionalists and a looming headache for the harried priests now expected to celebrate it.

By issuing his decree on Saturday, Benedict aimed to end a 40-year "culture war" between the overwhelming majority of his 1.1-billion strong Church and a small minority that never accepted the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

His solution was to allow the long-sidelined traditionalists to ask their local priests to offer the 16th-century liturgy and protest all the way to the Vatican if they don't comply.

His letter to bishops explaining the step skated over some practical problems that local pastors now face. Few priests know how to say the old rite mass. The clergy's thinning ranks already have their hands full saying the usual masses on Sunday.

Many mainstream clergy are also worried by the tenacity of the traditionalists, who have spent decades bucking the trend and are expected to promote the Latin mass with renewed vigour.

"Where there are groups that want it, it's going to be a real pain in the neck for the pastor," said Father Tom Reese S.J. of the Woodstock Theological Centre at Washington's Georgetown University. "He's going to be pressured to do it."

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, head of the French Bishops' Conference, chose a old baker's saying to hint the transition to using two very different rites may not be smooth. "There'll be some lumps in the dough," he quipped to journalists in Paris.

MISSING MYSTERY AND AWE