Posted on 05/02/2003 7:36:55 AM PDT by Tantumergo
The Pope might soon allow the world's Catholic priests the right to celebrate the old rite Latin Mass on Sundays and holy days without the permission of their bishops, according to sources close to the Vatican.
John Paul II is understood to be ready to grant a "universal indult" by the end of the year to permit all priests to choose freely between the celebration of Mass in the so-called Tridentine rite used up to 1962 - before the disciplinary reforms of the Second Vatican Council - and the novus ordo Mass used after 1970.
It will mean that a priest who wants to celebrate old rite Masses will no longer need to apply for an indult to Ecclesia Dei, a pontifical commission set up to study the implications of the Lefebvrist schism, after first gaining permission from his bishop. The indult may be announced as part of the publication of forthcoming juridical notes on Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the new encyclical on the Eucharist, published on Holy Thursday, in which the Pope affirmed the Church's traditional teaching of the sacrificial nature of the Mass.
It might also be announced at the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome on May 24, when Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy and the president of Ecclesia Dei, becomes the first cardinal prefect to celebrate an old rite Mass in a main Roman basilica for 30 years. Organised by the Latin Mass movement, Una Voce, the event is one of many indications that Rome is dropping restrictions on the celebration of the old rite.
Last month, the Holy Father, who celebrated a Tridentine Mass last summer, published a command called Rescriptum ex Audientia to authorise the celebration of the old rite Mass in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, by any priest who possessed an indult. The Vatican also asked the Scottish bishops, ahead of their five-yearly ad limina visit to Rome in March, to reveal what provisions they made for the celebration of the old rite Mass in their dioceses. Since the meeting, the Scottish bishops have stepped up their provision from just four a year in the whole of the country to at least one a month in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The same requests have been made in a questionnaire to the English and Welsh bishops, whose next ad limina visit to Rome will take place in the autumn. The bishops have invited the Latin Mass Society (LMS), set up to promote the practice of the old rite, to submit a report on the provision of the Tridentine Mass ahead of their low week meeting in London this week when they were scheduled to discuss the issue.
John Medlin, LMS development officer, confirmed that a "full document" had been circulated to the bishops but refused to discuss its contents.
I learned last year that a female coworker was also a Baptist minister. Last Easter, a local newspaper featured a picture of her in the church's baptismal pool (a cover on the floor lifts up to reveal this buried treasure). Surprisingly, her dress was fully immersed as well. She tipped me off to the trick. The dress has weights sewn into the hem to keep it submerged while she baptizes members of the congregation. And, yes, the "pool" is heated.
Guess the NO priests will have to implement a similar alteration to their robe.
SSPX, come on home!
No comment ;-)
I know nothing will happen - but you can document it. After all, these projects are always done "for the good of the laity" - if you let them know the good of the laity was not served, they can't claim ignorance.
I think many Catholics are assured of an eventual return of the Church to its liturgical heritage, mostly because the "progressives" of the 1970s are busy aborting, contracepting and divorcing themselves into obscurity.
At my parish, probably 25-30% of the congregation are children under the age of 12.
As I mentioned earlier on the thread, we baptized my little daughter on Divine Mercy Sunday according to the traditional rite.
Out of the 60 or so people present, only five regularly attend the old Mass and about 15 weren't even Catholic.
A few made Godfather references ("Michael Francis Rizzi, will you be baptized?"), a few of the non-Catholics asked questions about the theology of the rite and everyone said it was moving and impressive.
No one walked away confused or indifferent.
Interesting you should bring up the BCP. At our Anglican Use parish, we already say the Credo in Latin and the Kyrie in Greek, and are gradually adding more Latin -- we started the Gloria this week (using the excellent "John Carroll" setting!) And, as at all AU masses, our priest faces the Sanctuary in the Nave during mass, and we receive on the tongue from the priest himself while kneeling at the altar rail.
It's my understanding that ICEL is toast. Looks like Latin isn't quite as dead as many have thought! Gloria in excelcis Deo, et in Terra, Terra pax!
But notice in Toronto the word went out: "no Communion on the tongue!" - and not a word about the dang handshake.
When I was in high school, there was a priest who was in his eighties and who was of entirely Irish ancestry.
He celebrated "Mass" in Navajo medicine man garments and made frequent references to "The Great Spirit".
By my calculation he was ordained in 1931.
I call those guys Edomites.
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