Dear Editor: I am 60 years old and have absolutely no memory – and therefore no fondness or nostalgia – of the Latin (Beautiful Missa Cantata, Readers’ Forum, Dec. 28 – Jan. 5). I get annoyed when just the Kyrie and Gloria are sung in Latin in our parish. Are we encouraging rote memorization of words we don’t understand? …because it sounds ‘pretty’? As I understand it, when the Latin Mass is celebrated, no female altar servers or lectors are permitted on the altar. Given dwindling attendance everywhere, this exclusion makes absolutely no sense to me.
MAURA MCCARTHY
Via website