The Latin-Heavy Novus Ordo Funeral of Pope Francis

A canonisation sermon with a whole lot of Latin chant and polyphony.

Crowd at Pope Francis’s funeral this morning

Pope Francis will go down in history as only the second Roman Pontiff who ever turned his face against the ancient Roman Rite and persecuted it. With Traditionis Custodes of 2021, he reversed the policies of his two most recent predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

And unlike those two Popes, Pope Francis began to issue official documents from Rome without the Roman tongue.

All of his predecessors used the Roman tongue as the official language of the Roman Church, including in the New Catechism, which was written originally in French and then translated into Latin to make an “official text.”

Way back in the Spring of 1962 (before Vatican II opened that same fall), Pope John XXIII had warned all bishops of the world to:

be on their guard lest anyone under their jurisdiction, eager for revolutionary changes, writes against the use of Latin in the teaching of the higher sacred studies or in the Liturgy.

Despite this legislation, by the 1970s the official language of the liturgy in Rome was quickly become Italian, and the language of instruction was… (you guessed it!) German! (Pius XII may have been happy about this, but I digress.)

In any case, by his abandonment of the Roman tongue and his attacks on the ancient Roman Rite, Pope Francis appeared to be that very revolutionary that John XXIII warned about (even Paul VI retained more Latin!).

Despite all this, the funeral of Pope Francis was remarkably Roman in the sense of using the Roman tongue, Latin.

I tuned in at around 4:55am EST to hear the canonisation sermon (“Pope Francis, from heaven, pray for us….”) but here’s the liturgical context:

• Latin Requiem Aeternum Introit + Polyphony prelude

• Latin greeting and Confiteor (reformed version)

• Kyrie in Greek (polyphony)

• (No Gloria)

• Latin Collect

• Female lector - Reading in English

• Latin Responsorial Psalm

• Latin Gospel (chanted!)

• Canonisation Sermon

• Latin polyphony Offertory

• Latin Sursum Corda

• Latin Preface

• Latin Sanctus Gregorian chant + Polyphony

• Latin Canon (Eucharistic prayer 2 or 3 or something - not the Roman Canon, but still! CLICK HERE for the time stamp of the consecration)

• Pater Noster (in Latin - the whole crowd chanted it)

• Pax in Latin (CLICK HERE to see President Trump passing the Peace to President Macron of France while what looks like a Saudi representative stands without participating)

• Agnus Dei (more Latin)

• Litany of the Saints (yet more Latin)

Then some eastern priests came in and chanted:

• Christos Anesti (in Greek - the traditional three times)

• Arabic chants of repose

(The use of traditional eastern liturgical rites was something very significant and different than Benedict’s funeral. Thank God for this!)

Then the coffin was removed, with the traditional In Paradisum chanted, as at the TLM requiem Mass.

This funeral, organised no doubt, by all of Francis’s buddies, is a testament to the traditional power of the Roman tongue for all things liturgical, doctrinal, and reverent for Europe and the world. It represents the failure of the New Iconoclasts, who hate Latin and want to destroy all Latin from the Church.

But still, they can’t allow the ancient Roman Rite, the Latin Mass?

Thanks be to God, thousands were exposed to beautiful Latin chant, by means of Pope Francis in his death!

Rest in peace, Holy Father.

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Timothy