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"Pope set to ease OLD Latin Mass restrictions"


By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 12 minutes ago

VATICAN CITY -
Pope Benedict XVI has decided to loosen restrictions on use of the old Latin Mass, making a major concession to ultraconservatives who split with the
Vatican to protest liberalizing reforms, a Vatican official said Wednesday.


Our Papa celebrating the Old Tridentine Mass, after the Consecration [during "the Unde et memores"]
Papa (when Cardinal) at Weimar, celebrating Tridentine Mass.

The Pope's intent is to "help overcome the schism and help bring (the ultraconservatives) back to the Church," said the official, who asked that his name not be used because the papal document has not yet been released.

It was not immediately clear when the Pope will make his decision public, but the Vatican official said it was expected soon. The Times of London, in a report Wednesday, said the pope had already signed the order and it could be published in the next few weeks.

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X in 1969 in opposition to the reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, particularly allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages instead of Latin. The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent.

Benedict has indicated he wants relations with the St. Pius X group to be normalized. He met last year with the current head of the society, Bishop Bernard.

Archbishop of Bordeaux, France, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Bernard Ricard kisses a cross, a gesture which symbolizes the taking possession of his titular church, Sant' Agostino, during a ceremony, in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006. Ricard was elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in a solemn ceremony at the Vatican on March 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The Tridentine Mass, the name of the old Latin Mass, can now only be celebrated with permission of the local bishop. In addition to the use of Latin, the priest faces the altar away from the worshippers and there are no lay readers as in the modern Mass.

The issue of the Mass will only be one of the points in the papal document that will reach out to the ultraconservatives, the Vatican official said.

The Pope already took a concrete step in that direction when in September he approved an institute for French priests who left the movement. The small group based in Bordeaux, made up of five priests and some seminarians, is allowed to celebrate the old-style Latin Mass in exchange for their recognition of the Pope's authority.

In the 1960's, the Second Vatican Council along with other changes meant to bring the rite closer to the faithful, such as having the priest face the congregation replaced the traditional liturgy with Mass in local languages. To celebrate the Latin, or Tridentine rite, today, a pastor needs special permission from his bishop. Pope Benedict XVI is said to be preparing to widen the use of the old Latin rite again. He expected to issue a"motu proprio,"a document of his own initiative, which would loosen the permission requirement.

The new permission, or "indult," would most immediately address a longstanding schism with the ultra-traditionalist group founded in 1969 by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed the Vatican II reforms. Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. But Benedict is believed to want to bring the Lefebvrites back in the fold.

Yet his olive branch may complicate matters in the American Church. Certainly, traditionalists who had to drive a hundred miles to find a priest with permission will be thrilled. More theologically liberal Catholics, however, may see it as a Lefebvrite-tinged step back from the principles they feel inspired Vatican II. "This would make it much more difficult for people to engage in full conscious and active participation, which was the goal of the Council," says Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit magazine America. Congregations could theoretically split on the issue, and many current priests would have to learn the old Mass (and more Latin, if they wanted to understand it).

Even some Vatican conservatives are skeptical. The Lefebvrite critique extended beyond the Mass to other reforms such as efforts to build bridges with other faiths. A senior Vatican official comments that the Mass is "only one demand they have. The real problem is that they don't recognize the authority of the Pope."

There is no clear indication exactly how loose an indult would be, and whether some approval would still be required for individual priests to perform the Latin rite.

"The Return of the Tridentine Mass"
Pope Benedict is preparing to widen use of the old rite. Some see it as a retreat from the reforms of Vatican II
By JEFF ISRAELY/ROME AND DAVID VAN BIEMA/NEW YORK
___
Associated Press writer Daniela Petroff contributed to this report from the Vatican.
Universal Indult

It's still just a rumor, but . . .
. . . the mainstream newspapers are starting to say that Pope Benedict has signed some sort of document that loosens restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass.

The rumor (or scoop, perhaps) seems to have started with Hong Kong's Cardinal Zen, who supposedly told an English priest (Fr. Martin Edwards) that the document had been signed. A resourceful Catholic blog, the Cornell Society for a Good Time, reported it, and the London Times wrote an entire piece based on the blog post.

An...

NewAdvent's report
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"Pope set to liberalize use of Pre-Vatican II Mass"
Posted on 12 Oct 2006 03:46am CST. by
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. in Rome:

According to reports presently making the rounds, Benedict XVI appears set to issue a document that would liberalize permission for celebration of the Mass in use prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), referred to in popular parlance either as the Latin Mass or the Tridentine Rite.

Though several sources have confirmed that a text is on its way generally held to be a motu proprio, or an exercise of the popes personal authority there are varying accounts of what it might contain. Whether it will amount to a universal indult, meaning blanket permission for any priest to celebrate the older Mass at any time and in any place, remains to be seen, though most observers seem to believe the authorization will be somewhat more circumscribed, perhaps dependent upon a minimum number of faithful who request it.

Most sources expressed caution in drawing conclusions about the implications of the document before it appears.

Assuming a document is eventually issued, it appears to have been worked out at the most senior levels, bypassing many normal channels. Officials in the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Ecclesia Dei Commission this week all told NCR that they had not been consulted about the text, and in many cases learned about it for the first time from accounts on blogs or in the press.

Speaking on background, Vatican officials repeatedly stressed two points about the older Mass:
Nothing prevents any priest under current law from celebrating the post-Vatican II, new Mass in Latin, and in some cases traditional Catholics dont notice the difference between the old Mass and the new Mass celebrated reverently in Latin.
Even if permission for the older Mass is liberalized, its unlikely to significantly alter the churchs liturgical practice. The number of Catholics committed to the old Mass, one official said, is less than one percent of the global Catholic population, and most of them have already found parishes or religious orders which provide it. Hence, these officials said, its unlikely that pent-up demand on a large scale will be unleashed by the new decree.

Vatican sources stress that whatever the document may say, it does not mean that the church is "going back to the Latin Mass." While the pre-Vatican II Mass may become somewhat easier to find, the vast majority of weekly and Sunday liturgies around the world will still be celebrated according to the post-Vatican II rite in the vernacular languages.

While the document may be interpreted in some quarters as a conservative move, sources in Rome said that it's actually more of a pastoral concession in an attempt to heal the only formal schism after Vatican II, which involved traditionalist Catholics attached to the old Mass.

Whether this gesture will be enough to convince them to return, however, remains to be seen. In recent years, the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X, the main body of breakaway traditionalists, has insisted upon two preconditions for any return. One is a "universal indult" for celebration of the old Mass, the other is a right of dissent from teachings of Vatican II which they consider faulty, such as the documents on ecumenism, inter-faith dialigue, and religious freedom. Nothing suggests the new document will address that second point.

Uncertainty as to the fate of the old Mass has been circulating for some time.

During the March 2006 consistory, a gathering of cardinals from around the world, the question of the pre-Vatican II Mass was on the agenda. At the time, several cardinals told NCR that a variety of views were expressed, with no clear consensus.

At the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in October 2005, by way of contrast, there was little discussion on the issue. Colombian Cardinal Daro Castrilln Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission set up to promote reconciliation with traditionalist Catholics, proposed during floor debate that the synods final message contain a gesture of outreach to Catholics attached to the old Mass, but that request went unheeded.

A decision to liberalize celebration of the pre-Vatican II Mass, however, would be consistent with Pope Benedicts appreciative view of the older liturgy, as well as the conviction of senior Vatican officials that the adoption of a new Mass after Vatican II never meant that the older liturgy was abolished.

Most recently, this view was expressed by Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, in an interview in the September issue of 30 Giorni: The fact that the Holy See recently approved the creation in Bordeaux, France, of a society of apostolic life of pontifical right characterized by the exclusive use of the pre-conciliar liturgical books shows unequivocally that the Mass of St. Pius V cannot be considered abolished by the so-called new Missal of Paul VI, Ranjith said.

Ranjiths reference to a new religious community was to the Institute of the Good Shepherd, erected to provide a home for Catholic traditionalists who previously were part of the schismatic movement launched by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
read comments here

The motu propio declaration by which Pope Benedict XVI would allow for the universal use of the Missal of St. Pius V (called the "Tridentine Mass") unequivically to be celebrated freely (as an open alternative to the "Novus Ordo" doing away with the current requirement to have the explicit permission of the local bishop), will be declared officially by Christmas.

Sources confirmed the recent statements to reporters by Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, who told them after participating in a meeting of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, where the text of the motu propio was reviewed, that the document would come soon....The apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, according to the same sources, has already been finished by Pope Benedict XVI and is being translated into the different languages in which it will be presented. The document, which sources say will be issued after January 15, reaffirms the Churchs commitment to a celibate priesthood, encourages the use of Latin in liturgical celebrations, and even requests that seminarians learn the language as part of their formation. It will also promote the recovery of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphonic music as a replacement to modern music, which would result in a gradual elimination of musical instruments that are inappropriate for the solemnity and reverence of the Eucharistic celebration.
Freedom for the Tridentine Mass celebration and new required Vatican directives for the Celebration of the Novus Ordo