We Interrupt This Program For This Special Bulletin
This just in...

Despite what The California Catholic Daily just reported on, priests really don't need "permission" from their bishops to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. Who says so? Rome, that's who.

Here's a bit from Catholic World News, followed by a rather disconcerting comment that was posted on the CWN site;

No more permission needed for Latin Mass, cardinal says

Rome, Sep. 14, 2007 (CWNews.com) - With the formal implementation of Summorum Pontificum, the Pope's motu proprio providing wider access to the 1962 Roman Missal, diocesan priests do not need permission to celebrate the Latin Mass, a top Vatican official has stated.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos-- the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, which supervises Vatican outreach to traditionalist Catholics-- says that "from this point, priests can decide to celebrate the Mass using the old rite, without permission from the Holy See or the bishop."

In an interview with Vatican Radio on September 13, broadcast just before the motu proprio officially took effect, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos explained that Pope Benedict's motu proprio affirms the right of any priest to use the "extraordinary form" of the Latin liturgy. "It is, therefore, unnecessary to ask for any other permission," he said.

Some diocesan bishops have cautioned their priests against using the 1962 Missal without explicit permission from the diocese. But the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission-- which would hear any appeals regarding the new liturgical rules-- contradicted that notion in his Vatican Radio appearance. While affirming the bishop's authority to resolve any liturgical conflicts within his diocese, the Colombian cardinal said that the bishop should exercise that power "without negating the right that the Pope has given to the entire Church."

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that the motu proprio involves "no big change" in the liturgy of the Roman Church, since the older liturgy was never banned. Vatican II affirmed the freedoms of the faithful, he said, and one such freedom, which Pope Benedict has now confirmed, was access to the older liturgical form.

"Nothing is imposed on anyone" by Summorum Pontificum, the cardinal said. In allowing for greater use of the old Missal, he explained, Pope Benedict is merely "opening a possibility to the faithful who request it."

________________________________________________________________ Add A Comment

Posted by: Leo XIII - Sep. 15, 2007 10:33 AM ET USA
Such great fanfare over the motu proprio? It is doomed because liberals in chanceries all over the world will simply dig in until there is a new Holy Father. Never underestimate the power of entrenched bureaucracies. The Ancient Mass will never become established in my diocese because our force of 60's priests will quietly oppose it. It may take hold in a few places, but that will not be enough to catalyze the reform of the reform. Pessimistic? Yes. But realistic, I am afraid.

I hate to admit it, but there's a lot of truth to what Leo says. Unless The Holy Father sends a message (in Cavemanese: jump real high and stomp on their necks with both feet... figuratively, of course) he can count on transparent/phony lip-service and out-right disloyalty from a number of what his professed "loyal" bishops. This is what so-called collegiality spawns.

If a bunch of Protestant-mind set bishops want to play authority chicken with The Holy Father... bring it on. I for one would love to see Pope Benedict break out his Boomstick. (Can't you just picture His Holiness doing this to some of our more progressive bishops? In that light, that makes this scene all the more hilarious)