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Unless you're trying to tell us that any priest, at any time, could celebrate the Old Rite motu proprio.

Nah... what I'm saying is that traditionalists must respect the process. Where they do not, they do themselves more harm than good. In the case of our diocese, the bishop offered a weekly indult, since he felt this best reflected the needs of our diocese. I strongly suggested to the traditionalists that they take it and build on it.

They did not. This is because a neighboring diocese has a full tridentine indult parish, and those in our diocese demanded the same. What our local traddies forgot is that we have a much smaller, older and more spread-out population than the other diocese, which makes it harder to sustain a full parish. Additionally, the traddy population next door goes back further. The bishop knows this. He also knows that a parish is not sustainable to begin with, because with no competition the SSPX have not been able to get a parish going in our diocese and they have been at it for fifteen years. (I think their mass is offered once a month and draws about fifteen people.)

Rather than say no, however, the bishop simply gave the traddies a copy of what the average small parish budgets in a year, and asked them to show him a bank account balance with the money to sustain a parish for a year. (He didn't ask for the money personally or for the diocese, just proof that they could sustain their own small parish). Three or four years' later, he's still waiting and there is no indult.

Had the traditionalists yielded to my advice, there would be.