Hey, nice sheepskin missal...!

Some have asked me for news of the so-called Dominican Rite at the Dominican Univeristy in Rome. Here's the scoop: During this 2005-2006 academic year, there has been a weekly Mass every Friday at one o'clock for students and faculty, in the Dominican Rite, at Rome's famed Pontifical Univeristy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. This Mass was initiated in the Year of the Eucharist as was proclaimed by H. H. Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory.

The Dominican Rite is the rite particular to the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). It is, to say the least, gorgeous! The Dominican Rite is very ancient. The present missal was approved by Pope Clement IV in A.D. 1267. The holy Dominican priests and sisters of old prayed this rite every day, including, Pope Saint Pius V, the first Dominican pope!

During the 1960s, with the spirit of "change all or be square," everything was indeed changed. At that time, some peddled the idea that the last hurrah for the Dominican Rite was passing quickly. They said that the backwardness of the Dominican Rite would not fit us moderns (me, born in 1979?) .

...however, just for a quick post scriptum note, these same persons also forgot that some legacies aren't overcome. But then again, what beady-eyed liberal was ever tolerant of the Church's liturgical patrimony? For the autocratic liberals, the church was born during or just after the 1960s. Voodoo-style or polka Masses are okay for them, but never a Mass in Latin.

We thank the Dominicans in Rome for their hearty generosity. The Dominican convent at the Angelicum is for those friars from the Italian Province as well as for those on the faculty of the Pontifical Univeristy there. Many thanks to all of them for sharing this heritage with us! Laus Deo Beatae Mariae et Beato Dominico!