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To accept Aturo's challenge not to call an aberration something which I have not personally experienced:
a) I remember only too well from the days shortly before Vatican II being present on any number of mornings at my high school, where there was a Mass going on at the high altar - which Mass was provided for us schoolboys, which we attended after a fashion (described in a moment) and at which those of us who were inclined to receive Holy Communion did so - while "private Masses" were going on at more or less the same time at the side altars, again only a meter or so in either direction from the high altar. Did we also attend those Masses? Maybe. In point of fact, we were reciting some sort of "morning prayers" throughout the whole time (these prayers had no connection whatever with the Mass) but whenever one or another of the priests arrived at the elevation of the Canon, the morning prayers stopped so that the elevation could take place in silence. However, there was no guarantee that we would be in the chapel for the beginning or the end of the private Masses.
b) I am only too familiar with a very large urban church located near an enormous and world-famous train station. I worked in an office building close by. Being of the Mass-attending persuasion, I made use of a semi-secret during my morning coffee break. Traveling priests (between trains) would often say "private Masses" at this church. All I had to do was stand by the sacristy door and, as soon as a vested priest with a chalice emerged, bow to him and lead him to an altar for his private Mass, which I proceeded to serve. This usually earned me a dirty look when I would start the second Confiteor to indicate that I intended to receive Holy Communion (because communicating me took another few seconds and required the priest to prepare a Particle for me from the Host). This all took less time than my coffee break. Others of the cognoscenti would meanwhile be doing the same thing at other side altars.
Are these aberrations? You bet your Tridentine Missal they are! Did they really happen? Yes. Incognitus

Dear Incognitus,

I accept that you have experienced the Tridentine Mass, so I apologize for that. But I ask you, are you any worse for having experienced these "abberations"? Are they as scandalous as altar girls, Communion in the hand, children's Masses,"gay" Masses etc.? It is certainly true, at least from what I heard, that priests would bet on who could say the "quickest" Mass, who could breeze through their Breviary quickest, etc. It is also true that, in most parish churches, liturgy practically did not exist. (My godfather has told me that in his parish, a sung Mass was celebrated only twice a year, both times sung by an all-female choir) These are unfortunate things. But they are not abberations. I am the one who grew up with abberations, not you. (I am twenty four years old, and for three years, from the time I was twelve to the time I was fifteen, going to Mass at my parish church was a prolonged martyrdom, until I lost the Faith due in large part because of the liturgical and doctrinal chaos.) I re-found my Faith because of those "abberations" you talked about, private Masses, Gregorian sung Masses where priests "mascarade" as deacons, etc. So please, call abberations those things that deserve the name, and not something that is perfectly holy and grace-filled WHEN DONE WITH THE RIGHT DISPOSITIONS.

I can only add that, within the Society of St. Pius X, regardless of what else you say about them, the attitude of speeding through the Mass and brievary did not exist. I never encountered it as my one year as a lay oblate with them and two years as a seminarian. A private Mass would always last about a half an hour, without speeding through or short cuts. The Breiviary was more a source of spiritual strength than a spiritual burden. THE LITURGY WAS NOT BROKEN. But if people did not take the time to really study it and appreciate it, of course they would find it boring and have the mentality that "I did what I had to do and thank God it's over." But doesn't this also exist amongst us Byzantine Catholics? The mandatory one hour liturgies, the fasts that are reduced to laughable symbolic proportions, the shortened services in general, etc.
The real culprit is the modern, utilitarian mentality, that wants to reduce our relationship with God to a purely legal exchange, and it is not simply a problem of the pre-Vatican II Latin Church. (In fact, I would argue it is worse now than it was then.) Until you break through this, it doesn't matter how fast you say your Mass, what Liturgy you say, or whether or not the priests concelebrate. (My sister just complained to me that the Mass at the local Latin Church she attends takes under a half and hour WITH SERMON.) The fault is not the private Mass. So please, sir, refrain from calling something holy an "abberation".

Sincerley,
Arturo

Check the pontifical for the Tridentine Rite of priestly ordination. The newly ordained priest says ALL of the Canon, including the consecration with the primary celebrant. If he was not effecting anything liturgically by just saying the words, this would certainly be a "vain repetition". This is definitely concelebration, regardless of the arguments of the SSPX that I have heard that they do not support any type of liturgical concelebration.

The practice of concelebration had simply fallen out of use after Trent, primarily because there was no need for a common celebration of the Mass since priests could simply say the 20-30 minute "private mass" (which I believe is an aberration) and therefore the communal single "one altar" Liturgy as is still held in the East fell out of use.

Concelebration is provided for in the Gallican, Ambrosian, Mozarabic, and most monastic uses of the traditional Roman rite. To say it is an aberration in the Roman Rite is to negate about 1500 years of organic liturgical development. While I do love the traditional Latin Mass this is one aspect that absolutely needs restoration. There is no innovation involved here, as ancient rituales for concelebration still exist for the Roman Rite.

There is a significant ecclesiastical aspect of unity with concelebration, which had been held in high regard since the early Church. To say that concelebration is proper for one liturgical tradition of the church and not another is to create a sort of liturgical schizophrenia, because the symbolism, reasons and ends of concelebration are the same, regardless of liturgical tradition or rite.

Try Archimandrite Robert Taft's book *Beyond East and West* - preferably the second edition - for his comments on "private Masses" and concelebration.
As for what is and what is not an aberration - the term does not necessarily imply sinful wickedness (as would be, for example, willful bestiality). But yes, what I have described is liturgical aberrations. And I could cite more examples. I know of nobody who was edified at the time. The Lefebvrists are suffering from a severe case of the "remembered past", as opposed to the reality of that past. Incognitus