More Motu Proprio Rumblings in the Italian Press

(Taken from Rorate Caeli)
Vaticanist Luigi Accattoli joins the fray in today's Corriere della Sera:
Return to the Latin Mass. The Pontiff's text is ready.

Luigi Accattoli

[Rorate Caeli Disclaimer: As always, we wish to make clear our great skepticism regarding specific dates or date ranges. This translation is published here for the general record of events.]


CITTÀ DEL VATICANO — The "motu proprio" which will liberalize the use of the old Missal, that is, the "Latin Mass" from before the Council, could be published by Easter: the time "draws nigh", it is said in the Vatican, but there is still not a date. Some predict it for March 25, others for April 5, Holy Thursday, which does not seem to be an appropriate day for a legal text, destined as it is to great celebrations.

The use of the old Mass must today be authorized by the bishop, who evaluates its convenience, [but] after the reform it will not be denied when at least thirty faithful demand it. The use of the old Missal had been forbidden by Paul VI at the time of the promulgation of the new [one], in 1969, but this [gesture] has been constantly asked by the Traditionalist Catholic wing, in particular by the "Fraternity of Saint Pius X", founded by the French bishop Marcel Lefebvre. After the excommunication of Lefebvre and of the bishops ordained by him in 1988, John Paul II promulgated an "indult" which authorizes the old Mass by a request to the local bishop and at his discretion.

Benedict XVI now wishes to widen the access to the old rite, in view of the recovery of the Lefebvrists to "full communion" and for [his] personal conviction on the possibility that several rites may live together, mutually favoring pluralism and attachment to tradition.

18 marzo 2007
Tip: Gilbert (Cattolici Romani); Transcript: Papa Ratzinger.