Liturgical Reform- a personal view 5

In the summer of 1979 I spent thirty six hours of a weekend in Berne in Switzerland and on the Sunday morning went in search of a Catholic church for mass. My grasp of German being somewhat limited I was pleased when I came upon a neo-gothic church with a signboard which had what looked like the word for catholic enmeshed in the text. I went inside and mass was in progress. It was in Latin and the choir were singing the Sanctus but from the outset despite my being familiar with the new rite in Latin (I had spent Easter in Rome) I felt that something was not quite as it should be. Glancing around I could see that the congregation was somewhat sparse, well heeled, middle aged and elderly. It seemed strange to be at a Sunday mass and not see children. After the Agnus Dei servers spread cloths over the altar rails and as people started to make their way up to communion I went to the end of my bench and a lady stopped to let me out.
"Excuse me," I whispered, "do you speak English?"
On being told that she did I asked, "Can you tell me? Is this a Catholic church?"
"Zis is the Old Catholic church," she replied.
"Aren't you in schism with Rome?"
"Not wiz Rome, " she said "but wiz Canterbury."
Clearly she had confused my "schism" with "communion" but I had got the information I needed and so I thanked her and left. Somewhat miffed at having been unable to find the genuine article by my own efforts I went to the tourist information office and asked for help in finding a (real) Catholic church. The young lady I addressed there seemed to have some difficulty in finding out -so I was at least able to comfort myself with the thought that it wasn't just stupid me- but eventually got it and marked a map with directions.

The real Catholic church when I found it was, as one might expect post Vatican 2, brutally reordered, the organ having been placed at the head of the apse. It was however the people I warmed to. They were, as usual, a mix of every age group from bothersome babies to doddering ancients and a wide spread of social classes and crowded. In short a veritable mob and, in spite of the German language, I knew from the start that this was home.