And speaking of more rumors… Everybody’s getting into the act. That most well-worn of rumors is making the rounds again, speculating that Pope Benedict XVI will issue a motu proprio allowing a universal indult for the Tridentine Mass. Yes, I do believe this is going to happen, but everyone’s been predicting it since the Pope was installed.
So is now the time? As I’ve said before, I have a sneaking suspicion that the apostolic exhortation for last year’s Synod on the Eucharist, expected next month, will furnish the occasion for some “reform of the reform” and a universal indult. And I do believe that the two will go together. I don’t Pope Benedict is interested in just returning to the Tridentine, but he wants to return to that organic development of the Liturgy that was promised from Vatican II.
It will also be very interesting to see how Traditionalist groups will react. Some will jump for joy, while others will dismiss it as an evil plot by the sedevacantist Masonic plant to deceive True Catholics in joining the apostate neo-Church, or however it goes.
Really, their problems go much deeper than the Tridentine v. Novus Ordo.
The pope is expected to issue a document “motu proprio,” or on his own initiative, which will address the concerns of “various traditionalists,” said the source, who asked not to be named.
The source said the new permission, or indult, was a papal decision, but was being done in cooperation with agencies of the Roman Curia. He would not elaborate on the extent of the indult, when it would be established or how it would work.
Technorati Tags:Latin, liturgy, Mass, Pope, pope benedict xvi, Traditionalist, Tridentine, Vatican
The threats that abound nowdays focus things mightily. I believe that he will not do later what he can do sooner, whatever that is under whatever conditions he is working.
I believe that Benedict is very sure we are in for a seige and he will do what he sees necessary to give us what we need to weather whatever comes. It remains to be seen what that turns out to be. I am good with whatever that is, I believe. I trust the man, maybe even more than I should. Even though a man can make mistakes, I think he’s doing his level best to listen to God as only a pope can and relay truth to us. And God is near, make no mistake. The adversity we confront makes it crystal clear what is important and what is not—maybe for the first time in many years.
I have to say that for an 80 (or so) year old man, Pope Benedict is one of the most courageous men I have ever seen. He goes out there every Wednesday and smiles at the crowds and tells the truth. Amen. This one will be the saint.
When PJP2 passed away, something happened. The universe changed. We entered another place far from the old one—crossed over some kind of threshold—entered a new age in the life of the Church. I’ve heard many people say this. It has been remarkable, distinct, undeniable.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I have both reasons to be positive, and reasons to be less positive, about this.
* Taking my own situation, I’m working at improving the quality of how we celebrate the Pauline Rite in my two parishes. If this happens, I wonder how much of the energy going in that direction might have to be diverted to my learning the Pian Rite, and facilitating its celebration. So one immediate effect could be the celebration of the Pauline Rite stops improving, and gets worse.
A lot of folks hope this move will produce an improvement in the current, normative rite. I earnestly hope so; and no doubt I am not farsighted enough, but I can see it having the opposite effect, in the short-term anyway.
On the other hand:
* Could the holy father be aiming for a new “middle,” with a “re-enchanted” Pauline Rite as the new mid-ground between the normative Mass we know experience, and the revived Pian Rite? Hmmm.
People do not realize that many of our problems with the Pauline mass originate in the condition of the Pian mass before the reform. On the other hand, the reform has resulted in a deep rupture in the liturgical consciousness of most Catholics, including most clergy. We need the Tridentine mass as a reference point or a benchmark to facilitate the recovery of that liturgical consciousness. The old 20 minute low mass mumbled in Latin while the laity followed along in their missals or prayed the rosary will not help.
What I would like to see is a universal indult for the Tridentine mass to be celebrated privately combined with permission to celebrate solemn high mass publicly and a requirement that the full Tridentine rite (low mass excluded) be offered in some fixed church in the diocese – preferably the cathedral. It should be offered in a manner that permits people attached to the old rites to fulfill all their obligations as Catholics in the old rites.
Carrie,
My contention is that many of our liturgical problems today are rooted in common liturgical practices of the pre-V2 mass. If parishes could manage a single solemn high mass on Sundays before the reform, the entire diocese could manage to do it somewhere on Sundays and days of obligation.
We need the Tridentine mass at its best to serve as a reference point for the renewal of the Pauline mass.