[after a discussion of multiculturalism]

There is something else that I think we need to pay more attention to. There is also such a thing as Catholic culture, which is at a deeper level and connects us all. It is a sacramental view of the world and we need to keep that vision before us because if we don’t, the Church is going to become an association of different cultural groups. The Church will be international, but it won’t really be universal[....]

After your appointment to Oakland was announced, there were lots of comments on blogs about your support of the Latin Mass. What do you see as the role of that liturgy in the life of the diocese?

Latin is one element of the Catholic culture that I mentioned earlier. Language is such a fundamental part of what a culture is. I think not that the whole liturgy should only be in Latin, but that a greater use of Latin to bring people of different language groups together to pray in the ancient tongue of the Church has value.

Pope Benedict’s vision is that the liturgical reform of Vatican II has kind of gotten off track and a greater familiarity with the pre-conciliar liturgy will help us get back on track with authentic liturgical reform. It doesn’t mean that we go back to the pre-conciliar liturgy, but we understand better the principles that are spoken of at the Council and see them in the context of what he calls an organic development.

This is part of a long process of liturgical reform going back to Pope Pius XI who first spoke about the full active and conscious participation of the faithful. So we see this in a context that there is a continuity rather than a rupture.

Just about everyone probably knows that I have celebrated the Tridentine liturgy so I’m not revealing any secrets. When I do celebrate it, it helps me to understand better what the bishops at the Council were thinking when they were talking about liturgical reform. So I think it has a value in that sense, and neither Pope Benedict nor I would want to force in on anyone.

But he also wants to respect those who prefer to worship in that form and an accommodation as much as possible should be made. I think if we are comfortable with the availability of that, with the familiarity with that, we would be more at peace in terms of liturgy, rather than allow it to be a cause of conflict.

I acknowledge at the same time that there is a need for inculturation, not that it becomes showy, but there are authentic prayer lives of different cultures that can be legitimately incorporated into the liturgy for those cultures[....]