REINHOLD, HANS A.

Liturgical innovator; b. in Hamburg, Germany, 1897; d. Pittsburgh, Pa., 1968. He was educated at Freiburg, Innsbruck, Münster, and the Pontifical Institute of Archaeology in Rome. During World War I he served as an artilleryman on both the Eastern and Western fronts, and, after being wounded, in the intelligence corps. He tried his vocation as a Benedictine at Maria Laach, but was advised not to continue, and in 1925 was ordained priest for the Diocese of Osnabrück. In his autobiography he lists as the strongest influences in his formation Romano Guardini, the Jesuits at Innsbruck, and Abbot Ildefons Herwegen, Prior Albert Hammenstede, and Dom Odo Casel of Maria Laach. Assigned to organize an apostolate to German seamen at Bremerhaven and Hamburg, he began such liturgical experimentation (dialogue Mass, Mass facing the people, nocturnal celebration of the Easter Vigil) as was startlingly novel at the time. Not long after Hitler rise to power he was threatened with arrest and prosecution for criticizing Nazi leaders and politics, and escaped to England in 1935. A year later he came to New York to work for the placement in the United States of German Catholic refugees, but found himself under suspicion in ecclesiastical circles because of his alleged sympathy with communism and with liturgical reform. Incardinated at last in the Archdiocese of Seattle (later, when that diocese was erected, in the Diocese of Yakima), he founded a seamen's club, served as a curate, and was pastor at Sunnyside, Washington, from 1944 to 1956. Misunderstandings with his bishop led to his requesting a leave of absence. After long illness and painful sufferings in the spirit, he was received by Bishop John Wright in Pittsburgh.

By temperament Reinhold was timid and sensitive—characteristics which were aggravated by his misfortunes—but seemed unable to evaluate the effect his own outspokenness had on others, especially his superiors. This forthright style, however, was very effective in his writings, which appeared through many years in Commonweal and Orate Fratres (later Worship ) and in several books, advocating not only liturgical reform but also social reform as deriving from liturgical awareness and participation, and reaching out to allied topics in catechetics, art and architecture, and theology. He lectured widely, having achieved a mastery of idiomatic English. He served on the first board of directors of the Liturgical Conference and presented a paper at the annual national Liturgical Week for many years. He helped to organize the Vernacular Society of America and attended international meetings of liturgical scholars in Europe, where the reforms that were later adopted by Vatican Council II were first proposed and endorsed.

Bibliography: Works of Reinhold. The Soul Afire: Revelations of the Mystics, ed. (New York 1944). Churches, Their Plan and Furnishing, with p. f. anson (Milwaukee 1948). The American Parish and the Roman Liturgy (New York 1958). Bringing the Mass to the People (Baltimore 1960). The Dynamics of Liturgy (New York 1961). Liturgy and Art (New York 1966). H.A.R.: The Autobiography of Father Reinhold (New York 1968).

[w. j. leonard]