The Catholic Church refers to the liturgy as the Mass. What does Mass mean? What is the word's etymology? The name Mass comes from very end of the celebration of the liturgy. The priest pronounced in Latin "Ite, missa est," which means "Go, it is dismissed." Missa is the root word for "dismissed," but also "mission." Pope Benedict XVI once wrote: "In antiquity, missa simply meant 'dismissal'. In Christian usage, however, it gradually took on a deeper meaning. The word 'dismissal' has come to imp