Marshall McLuhan believed that the microphone led to the priest facing the congregation and the end of the Latin Mass, explains Kevin White:
In 1974, Marshall McLuhan argued that the microphone was the proximate cause both of the elimination of Latin from the Mass and of the turning around of the priest to face the congregation. Before microphones, a priest quietly said Mass in Latin, with his back to the congregation. From any distance, his voice was indistinct, although an instructed Catholic could follow what he was saying from a missal containing the Latin text of the Mass or a translation of it.
McLuhan’s suggestion was that, once microphones began to make every syllable spoken by the priest crystal clear to all, it became intolerable for him not to be speaking in a language understood by all. And since it seemed urgent to have him understood by all, it also seemed unnatural for him to have his back to the congregation. He was turned around to face them, and started to say Mass in their language.
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December 8th, 2012 | 11:40 pm
So if the medium is the message then the message isn’t the meaning of the Word but the transmission of it.
Doesn’t that mean it doesn’t matter what’s being said but only the Word’s amplification that “means”and hence the priest could be speaking Latin or English? Or even Canadian French?
At least this solves the problem of doctrinal confusion. But all those poor Anglicans who thought they were finding an orthodox refuge in the Ordinariates…
From Logos to Legos I guess. Make it up as you go along. It doesn’t actually have to mean anything. I guess Marshall McLuhan really was a Catholic…
December 9th, 2012 | 7:50 am
I completely do not understand the pining for Latin. If we want to be traditional we should have the mass in Greek. Wanting it in Latin just seems so silly.
December 9th, 2012 | 12:02 pm
Tradition isn’t originalism. Tradition includes all the points in time between Then and Now, and for a long time in the West, Latin was the language of the liturgy (to say nothing of academic discourse). I think for many Latin puts them in deeper touch with the long tradition of the Western church and reminds them that the Church is bigger and older than their current existence in Wherever, USA. Latin suggests transcendence.
December 9th, 2012 | 12:04 pm
The microphone did give rise to a good joke, regarding a priest trying to say mass with a dodgy microphone. He attemts to say “The Lord is with you”, but the mic doesn’t seem to pick up his voice, thus:
Priest: “There is something wrong with this mic…”
People: “And also with you”
December 10th, 2012 | 12:44 am
Most Catholics now assume that Mass will come to them. The idea that they have to exert themselves mentally (“with your whole mind, your whole . . .”) has faded. I’ve occasionally noticed this misunderstanding among those who are introduced to the traditional Latin Mass for the first time. They sit there waiting for the priest to reach out to them, but for the most part he’s dedicated to the business of reaching out to God.
He’s not going to visit us there in our pews. Rather, the Church invites us to join him mentally and spiritually up at the altar.
We’re meant to take our cue from his first words, which are “Introibo ad altare Dei,” not “Sacerdos introibit ad populum.”
If we want to participate in the Latin Mass, we need to get down to business and attend to our missals. Typically, though not exclusively or necessarily, the traditional Latin Mass is a prayer that we pray with a book. If we don’t know any Latin, that’s why the right-hand pages are in the vernacular.
We can pray the traditional Latin Mass without engaging in deep reading of the missal, but that requires even more concentration than does the deep reading.
For too many contemporary Catholics, the Mass they know, Mass in the vernacular, appears to borrow from popular entertainment — specifically, from the idea of a show, with the priest being the host, they the audience.
The more traditional notion of the congregation as being in formation like an army behind the priest as he performs the work of sacrificing to God has waned over the past forty years, but it remains alive among liturgically conservative Catholics. There are indications that it may be slowly building again.
December 10th, 2012 | 11:29 am
So I’ve been to many Eastern catholic churches where the microphone is used and where the rites in ancient languages (with appropriate silence) is preserved. I’m not sure the microphone is the determinative factor (although it probably is an influence…)
December 10th, 2012 | 8:56 pm
I’m not entirely sure on the premise, but I would say that one thing it did facilitate was the priest as lounge act.
“Who’s from out of town? C’mon, let’s see those hands!”
“Good evening, everyone, how are you?”
“Hey, shout out to Mrs. Krabapple’s second grade, who are serving today. Give ‘em a hand, folks! Weren’t they wonderful?”
December 11th, 2012 | 9:52 am
This assumes all traditional Latin Masses are Low Masses, without music. Of course, that is not the case for many Sunday, holy day and other largely attended traditional Latin Masses.
In a well-designed cruciform church, the priest’s chanting when he turns around to face the people is going to carry, sans mic. The choir, in the choir loft in American churches, will be even more audible due to multiple voices for the responses, Mass ordinary, Mass propers and motets. The pipe organ is naturally audible.
So what this boils down to is a debate on whether every word of the Mass needs to be heard by every single person in the church. It does not, at least according to Pope Benedict XVI and hundreds of years of writings by saints and liturgists prior to the Second Vatican Council.
I would add that if the microphone was so successful at Mass, then Mass attendance would not have dropped from 75% to 15% in our oh-so-wonderful age of technology.
Timeless tradition is always going to be more successful than gadgets and novelty.
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