"Just allowing it (which is the last hurdle to reconcilliation) could drive the liberals to schism."
This may turn out to be an auspicious time to allow it.
The liberals would like to leverage the current crisis to their advantage, but recognize that they are far more vulnerable as a result of all that has transpired than are any other group. They're gettiing a little traction with calls to give more "power" to the laity, but frankly, are losing lots more ground at every other point. Many ordinary Catholics are waking from their decades-long sleep and realizing that their are consequences to heterodoxy. They are scarcely going to embrace the heterodox among us as the solution to everything.
This is a bad moment for the liberals to effect a formal schism; few would follow at this point in time. Thus, if our Holy Father were to give permission without restriction for any priest to say the Tridentine Mass, it is likely that the liberals would swallow hard, gnash their teeth, and realize that this isn't the battle that they should pick to fight at this time.
That being said, I don't think that our Holy Father will give such permission, not without some practical restrictions.
The right to say the Tridentine Mass would have to be subordinated to the right of the pastor and the bishop to enforce liturgical disipline in the parish and diocese. It could be a bit disconcerting to show up at Mass one Sunday and discover that the celebrant had decided Saturday evening to reconfigure the interior of the church, and was about to launch into a Mass for which the typical Catholic has no preparation or experience. If the pastor of a parish were to decide that the parish would have one rite or the other, would the other priests at that church, or who occasionally celebrate Mass at that church be governed by that decision? Could pastors institute the old Mass against the wishes of their congregations (my own answer here would be: well, of course - which leads to various other cans of worms)?
I can see that our Holy Father would grant the right to each priest to privately celebrate the Tridentine Mass. I can see a more liberal method for allowing public celebration of it. But to avoid disorder and chaos, it would still need to be regulated. I'm not familiar enough with the SSPX folks to know whether that would be acceptable.
Any thoughts?
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