Incoming!

18 comments

• Just in time for Sunday mass at your local parish!

• Not if the implementation date isn’t tomorrow…

• Dom – at what time of day (Eastern Daylight Time) is the transmittal likely to occur?

• Well, Rocco Palmo is already discussing it at Whispers in the Loggia. It so happens he has a copy.

• While Rocco fancies himself a journalist, he should learn well that one respects an embargo, if one ever wants to be accepted by the people whose embargo you’re breaking as a journalist. It’s a journalistic ethics thing.

  Father: My guess is that it will happen sometime around 6 am since the embargo specifies noon Rome time as the earliest release.

• I’ll be honest, I am very skeptical that this will have a major impact in the U.S. church. I think it mainly helps priests who want to celebrate it but may have a bishop who’s hostile to the celebration of the 1962 Mass. If you’re a priest who serves under a bishop who would give you permission under the “old” rule but you didn’t take advantage of it, is this motu proprio all of a sudden going to change your heart and give you this fire to celebrate it? That makes me ask, well then why didn’t you just celebrate it before?

  I’m trying really hard to see positive effects this will have around here, but I honestly don’t see much changing liturgy-wise. I really hope I’m wrong.

• I agree pretty much. I think the larger significance is that it should lay the groundwork for the bigger “reform of the reform,” also known as Vatican II: The Way It Should Have Happened, also known as Taking the Bugnini Out Of The Mass.

• Sounds about right, Dominic. I’m curious to see the biggest effect is on the JPII and BXVI generations of priests and seminarians. Perhaps they may find more courage to embrace it without fearing a backlash.

• Yeah, there isn’t much demand for this in New England…

  

  

• You would be surprised at the number of priests who would be interested in learning and saying a Tridentine Mass on a regular/occasional basis.  And among the young seminarians its even more, at least at the Josephinum.

• The Motu Proprio with its cover letter will be released around noon by the Vatican Press Office (6:00 a.m. Easter Time) and can be seen on the Vatican Website’s link to the Daily Bolletino (in Italian). Though lately, the Bolletino has not been updated until around 6:30.

  http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/bollettino.php?lang=en

  However, it will be released by the Holy See tomorrow in Latin and Italian.

  The MP was sent to all the bishops via their episcopal conferences. The word on the street is that the Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy translated both the MP and the cover letter into English and sent those to the US Bishops (one of whom, or his staff member, leaked the copy to Palmo). They also worked out a 30 question F.A.Q. to accompany the unofficial translation.

  I understand that those texts will be appear precisely at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning on the main page of the USCCB website.

  http://www.usccb.org

• While some say there isn’t much interest in the Tridentine Rite, it could be that most people have never attended such a Mass.

  If priests are indeed allowed to say it whenever they desire, I suspect the Mass will grow “organically” and will get more and more appreciation as people learn from it.

  In Detroit several years ago Cardinal Maida finally allowed the Tridentine Mass to be celebrated at an inner city parish, against extraordinary opposition from the clergy that gets named to the Presbyteral Council and other advisory committees.  Maida noted in just about all of his statements about why he finally relented that the schismatic groups were growing.

• “[A]s a matter of principle,” Benedict tells the bishops, even those priests ordained for 1962-exclusive communities “cannot… exclude celebrating according to the new books.” Said “exclusion of the newrite,” he says, “would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.”

  This, I think, is going to be the sticking point for many traditionalists.  This is going to be the end for separate parishes run by the FSSP et al.  The MP will bring some back from SSPX and independent parishes, but I think it will drive others away. 

  ~G

• I got a leak from Europe but decided not to publish it in light of the embargo. That’s just plain rude. The arguing from some Clinton-talk-alikes that the embargo only is from 9am to 12pm has to be seen to be believed…

• Be careful.  The USCCB translation does not match the Vatican text.

• I hate that I read these documents sometimes looking for the buzz words that opponents will use to justify ingoring directives. In this document, I see this line as key:

  Art. 5.1. In parishes where a group of faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition exists stably, let the pastor willingly accede to their requests for the celebration of the holy Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962.

  I can see the definition of “stably” being argued and used as justification not to cede to a group’s wishes to have the Mass celebrated, even though BXVI tells such groups to petition the bishop if they are ignored. What is an accurate definition of “stably”?

• Michigancatholic,

  There is no official Vatican translation of the Motu Proprio yet. The English translation of the MP provided by the Vatican Information Service this morning is not an official translation.

  At noon, Rome time, the document was presented in Latin. When a document is officially translated, it is presented at the Press Conference itself. That didn’t happen today. See here: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/20558.php?index=20558〈=en

  Both the USCCB and Vatican Information Service provide unofficial translations, both of which will give way to an official translation when it’s ready. For that, you’ll want to keep an eye on the Vatican website, under the Pope’s Motu Proprio’s:

  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/index_en.htm

  The cover letter, however, was issued at noon in official translation in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, and Portegeuse. See:
  http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/20559.php?index=20559〈=en

• “This, I think, is going to be the sticking point for many traditionalists.  This is going to be the end for separate parishes run by the FSSP et al.  The MP will bring some back from SSPX and independent parishes, but I think it will drive others away.”

    I don’t believe this is the case. First off, this comes from the letter, not the motu proprio, which is the only thing that has authority. Secondly, it almost certainly doesn’t mean that traditional communities are going be forced to say the missal of Paul VI by their local Ordinary or by anyone else. It more likely means that they can’t publicly reject it as illegitimate and/or that their superiors can’t forbid them from ever saying the new Mass. This was all covered in Protocol 1411 a few years ago, and I think this is what the Holy Father is referring to. Thirdly, the motu proprio specifically allows the establishment of personal parishes where only the old Mass would be celebrated, so it certainly will not be the end of the personal parishes of the FSSP and ICKSP already in existence. This Pope helped to erect communities like the FSSP, and he is certainly not going to oversee their demise.