Priest's opposing views on Latin Mass

I was reading this man's bulletin articles last night and was surprised at his antipathy for the Pope and for the extraordinary form of the Holy Mass.

Father Father J. Patrick Wissman, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and St. Catherine of Siena Mission in Bolivar, Mo., wrote, in part:

'The Pope seems to be out of touch with the ordinary church. He seems to be acting in good will, but giving into the 'letter writers' who have been complaining for years, he will create a shadow church and cause great divisions in every diocese. Such will be that when churches are built, they would have to accommodate both rites and seminarians would have to take courses in Latin. During many centuries seminarians have fallen through the cracks and not been able to reach the goal of the priesthood because Latin was too difficult for them. This was a scandal! To return to such a course would be lunacy!....

'The gospel is meant to enlighten and challenge us! It is my opinion that the use of Latin should have been done away with hundreds of years ago. This is one of the things that Martin Luther was right about. After WWII Christians worldwide shook their heads in sober sadness and declared that Christianity had failed in Europe because it had let Hitler and his hateful and mad ways to succeed. Some very holy people said: 'No, Christianity was just never tried.' I fault the use of Latin as partly responsible for the rise and success of Hitler and his neo-pagan mythology which was obviously the religion he was supporting and that actually managed to capture the German imagination. I say the people, because of Latin never were confronted by the gospel. The Mass and the sacraments never really reached down deep into the soul. There are some notable exceptions of priests and laity and some very heroic ones as well as Protestant theologians who confronted the lies of Hitler — of course, they were gotten rid of...."

Fr John Trigilio responds to the charges made by Wissman here in an article by Matt Abbott.