6 July 2007

Motu Proprio Text?

[Taken from Whispers from the Logia]
LITTERAE APOSTOLICAE
MOTU PROPRIO DATAE

BENEDICTUS XVI

Summorum Pontificum cura ad hoc tempus usque semper fuit, ut Christi Ecclesia Divinae Maiestati cultum dignum offerret, «ad laudem et gloriam nominis Sui» et «ad utilitatem totius Ecclesiae Suae sanctae».
Ab immemorabili tempore sicut etiam in futurum, principium servandum est «iuxta quod unaquaeque Ecclesia particularis concordare debet cum universali Ecclesia non solum quoad fidei doctrinam et signa sacramentalia, sed etiam quoad usus universaliter acceptos ab apostolica et continua traditione, qui servandi sunt non solum ut errores vitentur, verum etiam ad fidei integritatem tradendam, quia Ecclesiae lex orandi eius legi credendi respondet»....

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[Some details?]
1. Implementation has been fixed for 14 September -- the feast of the Triumph of the Cross.

2. As for the review period, the Pope says to the bishops: "I invite you, dear Brothers, to send to the Holy See an account of your experiences, three years after this Motu Proprio has taken effect. If truly serious difficulties come to light, ways to remedy them can be sought."

3. Also “lawful,” according to the normative text – which, like its cover letter, comes in at four pages – are the erection of “personal parishes” for the celebration of the 1962 rites or the appointment of a “rector or chaplain” designated for the task, and the unimpeded use by clerics of the Roman Breviary as likewise promulgated by Bl. John XXIII.

4. According to the text, only the diocesan bishop is granted the faculty to administer Confirmation according to the pre-Conciliar Roman Pontifical.

5. “The Latin Liturgy in its various forms has stimulated in the spiritual life very many Saints in every century of the Christian age and strengthened in the virtue of religion so many peoples and made fertile their piety,” Pope Benedict reiterates in the motu proprio itself that while the Second Vatican Council “expressed the desire that with due respect and reverence for divine worship it be restored and adapted to the needs of our age,” the ensuing years have yielded “not a small number of the faithful [who] have been and remain attached with such great love and affection to the previous liturgical forms.”

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

7. At the same time, the Pope says he finds it “true that there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition.” However, even in this the onus is placed on the prelates, whose “charity and pastoral prudence will,” he expects, “be an incentive and guide for improving these.”

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