Pre-Vatican liturgy - the Tridentine Mass

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0703702.htm

Pope meets bishops, discusses decision on pre-Vatican II liturgy

By John Thavis and Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI spent about an hour with aninternational group of bishops June 27 discussing his decision toallow greater use of the Tridentine Mass.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, who attended the meeting,confirmed to Catholic News Service that the purpose of the encounterwas to inform the bishops about the coming papal document and helpensure its favorable reception.

Cardinal O'Malley and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis werethe only bishops from the United States participating, sources said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reportersJune 28 that "about 15" bishops from around the world were invited tothe meeting organized by the Vatican Secretariat of State.

A Vatican statement said officials explained "the content and thespirit of the announced 'motu proprio' of the Holy Father on the useof the missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962." The term "motuproprio" is Latin for "on one's own initiative" and signals the pope'sspecial personal interest in the subject.

Pope Benedict stopped by to greet the bishops and "engaged with themin a thorough conversation for about an hour," the statement said.

"The publication of the document -- which will be accompanied by anextensive personal letter from the Holy Father to individual bishops-- is expected within a few days, when the document itself will besent to all the bishops with an indication for its implementation,"the statement said.

Sources said the pope's document and accompanying letter were each afew pages long.
Vatican officials have said the document will allow for wider use ofthe Tridentine rite, but have not provided details about how this willbe accomplished.

The new Roman Missal replaced the Tridentine rite in 1969. In 1984,Pope John Paul II first established the indult by which, under certainconditions and with the permission of the local bishop, groups coulduse the Tridentine Mass, which was last revised in the 1962 Romanmissal.

Speaking with reporters, Father Lombardi provided the names of some ofthe participants at the June 27 meeting. They included:

-- Cardinal O'Malley.
-- Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar for Rome.
-- Italian Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, president of theItalian bishops' conference.
-- French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon.
-- Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bourdeaux, president of the Frenchbishops' conference.
-- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, president of thebishops' conference of England and Wales.
-- Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, president of the German bishops' conference.
-- Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel, president of the Swiss bishops' conference.

Like Cardinal O'Malley and Archbishop Burke, some of the participantswere neither presidents of their national bishops' conference norchairmen of their conference's liturgy committees, a Vatican sourcesaid.

In mid-May, during the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops ofLatin America and the Caribbean in Brazil, Colombian Cardinal DarioCastrillon Hoyos said that Pope Benedict planned to "extend to theentire church" the possibility of celebrating the so-called TridentineMass of 1962 "as an extraordinary form of the single Roman rite."

Cardinal Castrillon is president of the Pontifical Commission"Ecclesia Dei," established by Pope John Paul to ensure pastoral careto former followers of the late traditionalist Archbishop MarcelLefebvre, who was excommunicated in 1988 after ordaining bishopswithout papal approval. Archbishop Lefebvre had rejected theliturgical reforms and concepts of religious freedom and ecumenism asformulated by the Second Vatican Council.

Wider use of the pre-Vatican II Mass in Latin "is not a stepbackward," Cardinal Castrillon said, but a sign that the pope "wantsto make available to the church all the treasures of the Latin liturgythat have, for centuries, nourished the spiritual life of so manygenerations of Catholic faithful."

In an early June interview, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vaticansecretary of state, said the pope was "personally interested in makingthis happen" and that the pope's personal letter accompanying thedocument would explain why he wanted to expand access to the olderMass as well as expressing his hope for a serene reception by thechurch.