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  • #1418
    Anonymous
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    <img decoding=” title=”Very Happy” /> Vatican source says pope to expand use of Tridentine Mass

    By John Thavis
    Catholic News Service

    VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to expand permission to use the Tridentine Mass, the pre-Vatican II rite favored by traditionalist groups, said an informed Vatican source.

    The pope is expected to issue a document “motu proprio,” or on his own initiative, which will address the concerns of “various traditionalists,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

    The source said the new permission, or indult, was a papal decision, but was being done in cooperation with agencies of the Roman Curia. He would not elaborate on the extent of the indult, when it would be established or how it would work.

    The Tridentine rite is currently available to groups of Catholics who ask and receive permission for its use from their local bishops. The old rite is celebrated in Latin and follows the Roman Missal of 1962, which was replaced in 1969 with the new Roman Missal.

    Among those who have strongly pushed for wider use of the Tridentine rite are the followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated in 1988.

    Canadian Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, Manitoba, told Catholic News Service Oct. 10 that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Congregation for Clergy, had spoken briefly to Canadian bishops about the expected step.

    “It sounded to me like it was a sort of concession somebody has made,” the archbishop said.

    Archbishop Weisgerber said the new indult was apparently motivated by a desire to bring comfort to older people who may miss the old rite. But in his archdiocese, he said, the few people asking for it are “young people who never experienced it.”

    Pope Benedict has made new efforts to reconcile with leaders of the Lefebvrite religious order, the Society of St. Pius X. In a meeting last year with the pope, Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, asked for the restoration of the Tridentine rite as a sign of good will.

    Bishop Fellay later told CNS that he thought the Vatican should simply declare that the Tridentine rite can be used freely because it was never really abrogated. Bishop Fellay also said wider use of the Tridentine Mass would not solve all the problems the Lefebvrites have with the Second Vatican Council.

    The pope discussed potential reconciliation terms with the Lefebvrites in two meetings earlier this year, one with heads of Vatican curial offices and one with the world’s cardinals. In both meetings, sources said, there were mixed views on wider use of the Tridentine Mass.

    In 1984, Pope John Paul II first made it possible for groups of the faithful to worship according to the old rite under certain conditions. In 1991, the Vatican established more liberal guidelines, encouraging bishops to grant permission and retaining just one basic condition: that those seeking the old Mass form must also accept the validity of the new rite.

    Pope Benedict has long questioned the wisdom of the liturgical changes made after the Second Vatican Council. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was sometimes outspoken about what he considered the dismantling of the church’s liturgical tradition.

    “I was dismayed by the ban on the old missal, since such a development had never been seen in the history of liturgy. The impression was given that this was completely normal,” he wrote in a 1997 book.

    In the same book, he said it was important for the faithful to understand that for liturgy and other areas, Vatican II was not a break but a “developing moment.”
    http://www.catholicnews.com/data/storie … 605776.htm

    #7292
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    French bishops say expanding use of Tridentine Mass threatens unity

    By Catholic News Service

    METZ, France (CNS) — The possibility of a papal indult expanding permission to use the Tridentine Mass and the recent establishment of a traditionalist religious community in France threatens the unity of the church, said a statement from 10 French bishops.

    An Oct. 30 statement said the bishops from the Archdioceses of Besancon and Strasbourg and the Diocese of Metz expressed “their concerns” over wider use of the Tridentine Mass, the pre-Vatican II rite favored by traditionalist groups. The old rite is celebrated in Latin and follows the Roman Missal of 1962, which was replaced in 1969 with the new Roman Missal.

    “The bishops fear that the extension of the use of the Roman Missal of 1962 makes the direction of the Second Vatican Council relative,” said an Oct. 30 statement released on the Web site of the Diocese of Metz.

    Moves to extend its use “would also risk harming unity among priests as well as among the faithful,” it said.

    The statement, signed by 10 bishops from the eastern French region, came after a provincial meeting of bishops in the city of Lons-le-Saunier Oct. 25.

    In early September, the Vatican approved the establishment of the Good Shepherd Institute, a religious society of apostolic life that uses the traditional Mass in Latin according to the Tridentine rite.

    The society was founded by a group of priests and seminarians, many of whom were members of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X.

    Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux had said Pope Benedict made the decision to approve of the new religious community as “a sign of welcome” to those who once belonged to the schismatic society.

    The archbishop, who is president of the French bishops’ conference, met with the pope in a private audience Oct. 26 before the start of the bishops’ Nov. 4-9 plenary session in Lourdes.

    In mid-October Vatican sources confirmed to Catholic News Service that the pope was preparing to issue a document “motu proprio,” or on his own initiative, that would expand permission to use the pre-Vatican II rite.

    The Tridentine rite is currently available to groups of Catholics who ask and receive permission for its use from their local bishops.

    The group of French bishops said the latest events had brought confusion to the faithful, deacons and priests in their dioceses, and that they wanted to alert the Vatican about their concern “for the common good and unity of the church.”
    http://www.catholicnews.com/data/storie … 606193.htm

    #7634
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    If we follow that mindset then we should also ask the Pope to supress the Eastern Rites, the Rites of Toledo, Braga and Milan in the west, all of which are of ancient origins, but do not follow the Ordo of the Normative Roman Rite.

    I myself would like to see the Traditional Roman Rite restored, and priests around the world who use the Post Vatican II rites follow the rubrics so there is some unity from parish to parish.

    #7638

    [quote:1jwq5lt6]I myself would like to see the Traditional Roman Rite restored, and priests around the world who use the Post Vatican II rites follow the rubrics so there is some unity from parish to parish.[/quote:1jwq5lt6]
    The unity from parish to parish is something I see as an issue as well. Parishes are electing to stand where we normally have knelt in the past and various other things.

    It’s a pain because people then waste time debating about which is better when the time could be better spent on other pressing world issues rather than liturgical mannerisms.

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