{"id":67263,"date":"2025-05-12T19:47:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=67263"},"modified":"2025-05-13T08:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T13:44:28","slug":"fr-karol-wojtyla-celebrates-versus-populum-in-the-1950s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/12\/fr-karol-wojtyla-celebrates-versus-populum-in-the-1950s\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr. Karol\u00a0Wojty\u0142a celebrates\u00a0versus populum\u00a0in the 1950\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today there is a tendency to see the many changes in the manner liturgy was celebrated in the second half of the twentieth century as being radical. However, for many who lived through the period these were simply common sense. The fact that they were so obvious to those that lived them, has contributed to the lack of contemporary writing about them. Today, critics of the reforms often emphasize the lack of documentation on the new practices as being evidence of disobedience. But I think it is important to simply accept that these reforms had a very broad support from the vast majority of Catholics across the spectrum accepted them as being a good idea and the best way forward to meet the pastoral; challenges the Church faced in the difficult post-war period. Before the changes were introduced, many forerunners could be found in different places and even promoted by individuals that might surprise us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post I would like to share a small example that I have recently come across. In an\u00a0article in\u00a0First Things<\/em><\/a> last year, Fr.\u00a0Jaros\u0142aw Kupczak, O.P. writes about the pastoral practices of the future Kohn Paul II when working with the young people entrusted to his pastoral care.\u00a0\u00a0Here Fr. Kupczak says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

On the summer kayaking trips that have entered into legend, Wojty\u0142a would give everyone a small bilingual missal in which it was possible to follow the entire text of the Tridentine Mass in Polish. Mass was celebrated every morning wherever the group spent the night: in forests, in meadows, on the shore of a lake. The altar was built every day by the students from whatever was available: branches from the forest, even the kayaks themselves. Wojty\u0142a usually celebrated Mass facing the students<\/em><\/strong>, reading the liturgical texts in Latin and preaching in Polish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of his earliest published works, written for the Polish pastoral review Homo Dei<\/em> in 1957, Wojty\u0142a emphasized that active holidays in the bosom of nature\u2014in the forest, by the lake, or by the sea\u2014are an ideal way to introduce the mysteries of the faith, especially to the young. \u201cAn altar on oars, an altar on snow, an altar on backpacks\u2014living nature (not only the product of human art) takes part in the sacrifice of the Son of God. Holy Mass becomes a morning prayer and the first thing we do together after waking up. A few words: a thought for the whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For English-speakers George Weigel\u2019s Witness to Hope<\/em><\/a> is the most accessible source for the life of Karol Wojty\u0142a. Chapter 3 mentions these Masses with young people and the Saint\u2019s adherence to the best of the Liturgical Movement. However, it doesn\u2019t mention that these Masses were often celebrated versus populum. <\/em>So, I reached out to Fr. Kupczak for more details and he kindly put me in contact with Professor Teresa Malecka, former Rector of the Krakow Academy of Music, who, together with her husband, participated in the trips in question. She confirmed the details for me and provided me with a photograph of Fr. Karol Wojty\u0142a presiding one of the liturgies in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I share this image with her permission, not to enter polemics, but to share this example of what was happening liturgically in the difficult pastoral reality of Communist Poland with one of the most important pastors of the twentieth century. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEIL XAVIER O’DONOGHUE — Today there is a tendency to see the many changes in the manner liturgy was celebrated in the second half of the twentieth century as being radical. However, for many who lived through the period these were simply common sense. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":67265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,619,32,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mass","category-liturgical-movement","category-vatican-ii","category-youth"],"yoast_head":"\nFr. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Karol_Wojtyla_MASS.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67263"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67271,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67263\/revisions\/67271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}