Posted on 05/25/2021 4:18:58 PM PDT by ebb tide
ROME, Italy, May 25, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A website dedicated to promoting the Traditional Latin Mass has warned that “multiple sources” within the Conference of Italian Bishops say that Pope Francis wants to “reform” Summorum Pontificum “for the worse.”
The unsigned article in “Messa in Latina” (MIL or messainlatina.il) alleges that the pontiff told the Italian Bishops at the opening of their General Assembly yesterday that he had finished the third draft of a document that will restrict the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also called the Traditional Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass.
“After once again warning against accepting ‘rigid’ (that is, faithful to doctrine) young men into the seminary, Francis told the bishops that he had reached the third draft of a text that contains measures restricting the celebration by Catholic priest of Mass in the Extraordinary Form made accessible by Benedict XVI, who according to [Pope Francis] wished with Summorum Pontificum to encounter only the followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,” Messa in Latina reported.
Pope Francis then suggested, the website alleged, that there are many young priests who want to celebrate the “Tridentine Mass” even if they don’t know Latin. The sources also apparently told Messa in Latina that the pontiff told a characteristic story about a supposedly rigid young priest and his wise, in the eyes of Francis, bishop.
“To illustrate he told the story of a bishop to whom a young priest had turned to express his intention to celebrate in the Extraordinary Form,” MIL reported.
“When asked if he know Latin, the young priest told the bishop that he was learning it. At that the bishop told him that it would be better to learn Spanish or Vietnamese because there were many Hispanics and Vietnamese people in the diocese.”
The MIL blogger fears that there will be a return to the days of the “indult” — when priests could say the Traditional Latin Mass only with the permission of their bishop, or an even stricter situation, in which they can celebrate it only with the Vatican’s approval, “ghettoizing” priests and laypeople dedicated to the ancient rite. He contrasted the Pope Emeritus and Pope Francis in dramatic terms.
“After Moses the liberator, the Pharaoh would return,” he wrote.
The unknown author also underscored, correctly, that Benedict XVI did not address only “Lefebvrians” with his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, but the whole Church. As evidence, MIL pointed to an interview the Pope Emeritus gave to Peter Seewald, in which he explicitly said that he had not written Summorum Pontificum as a concession to the SSPX (the Society of St. Pius X priests).
Although the English-language blog Rorate Caeli swiftly posted MIL’s story, it was greeted with scepticism by Rome-based liturgical expert Gregory Di Pippo. Upon hearing the allegations that Pope Francis wants to water down Pontificum Summorum, Di Pippo, editor of New Liturgical Movement, said, “Again? How many times have we heard this in the last 8 years?"
It is a matter of public record that Pope Francis opened the socially-distanced 74th General Assembly of the Conference of Italian Bishops at the four-star Ergifle Palace Hotel yesterday afternoon. The theme of the four-day meeting, which will end on Thursday, is “To announce the Gospel in a time of rebirth; to start a synodal journey.”
According to the Sala Stampa, the Vatican Press Office, the pontiff gave an “off-the-cuff" address to the assembled Italian bishops, followed by an interview with those present. It did not publish Pope Francis’s remarks.
Pope Francis then suggested, the website alleged, that there are many young priests who want to celebrate the “Tridentine Mass” even if they don’t know Latin. The sources also apparently told Messa in Latina that the pontiff told a characteristic story about a supposedly rigid young priest and his wise, in the eyes of Francis, bishop.
“To illustrate he told the story of a bishop to whom a young priest had turned to express his intention to celebrate in the Extraordinary Form,” MIL reported.
“When asked if he know Latin, the young priest told the bishop that he was learning it. At that the bishop told him that it would be better to learn Spanish or Vietnamese because there were many Hispanics and Vietnamese people in the diocese.”
Ping
The desperate starts and spurts to squelch the Tridentine Mass will probably only cease if TLM’ers turn out to be massively generous in the collection plate and special collections. That is the only value they have to the bishops and Vatican.
The only “profitable” masses where I live in Florida are the TLM folks, who are extremely generous. But it’s a small group with a limited number of masses, so the diocese doesn’t make them a priority, although it tolerates them.
But our relatively tolerant bishop has retired and will be replaced soon, so I don’t know what’s going to happen with the new, improved Bergoglio bishop, whoever he may be.
I’d say the TLM must have grown by about 300% last year here in my diocese, because they kept on going during the “shutdown” and have just been doing their thing. Also, people who were afraid to go because they thought they’d be poorly received by TLM people (not dressed right, not knowing the old mass, etc.) got up their courage and went, and I think a lot of the somewhat unfriendly old guard just backed off and it has been better all around.
I go to that mass and it’s very full now and will only get bigger when the diocese (which has been holding it back) reduces the restrictions.
That said, as soon as BXVI dies, Bergoglio - who it appears will live forever, since Satan looks after his own - wil totally kill the TLM.
And btw, for non-Catholics on this thread, the Latin language is not the important thing…it’s the mass, which is very different from the current “Novus Ordo” mass, much more focused on God the Father and on Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Frankie has only one lung, so there's that.
Two of my young adult sons and I have been attending the Traditional Latin Mass for the last several Sundays. I have nothing against the Novus Ordo, reverently presented, but I have to say that after the TLM, I feel like going into battle. I can’t put my finger on it but I think it’s because even a TLM Low Mass has a certain discipline, manliness, and majesty to it.
He’s fine. He doesn’t have only one lung. He had a small part of one lung removed as a young man, and he’s been promoting the myth ever since. It obviously hadn’t impeded him. The devil looks after his own.
It’s entirely different, and it’s not just because of the language. Sometimes people obsess on the Latin, but before VII, certain parishes had permission to say the (low mass) TLM in English or French or whatever was the official translation into the local major vernacular language. It was great and many people at the time hoped that VII was just going to permit a translated version of the old mass. But instead VII destroyed it.
The entire mass was different, and totally focused on Our Lord.
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