I heard that a priest cannot regularly schedule a public EF Mass celebrated cum populo without his bishop’s consent because the bishop has the right to regulate the liturgy in his diocese.
You’re right, priests were not given carte blance, but the authority for approving regularly scheduled Masses falls to the pastor, no the bishop. A very large point of
SP was getting obstructionist bishops out of the way. Thus while a priest who is not a pastor has to find a willing pastor in order to celebrate a “public” Mass of this sort, a pastor is free to add one (or several) in his own parish on his own authority. The bishop cannot prevent him from doing so.
SP is very careful in its choice of words. Observe the part that you selected. It does not use words such as “Must, have to, shall”. The Holy Father avoids these terms, because he knows that he cannot demand this of secular priests, since their promise of obedience does not require that they obey in this area.
You’re overreaching a bit on this point. Under the current canonical norms the pope has chosen for himself and the Church, the pope cannot demand of individual priests, secular or religious, that they celebrate the EF. But that doesn’t mean that this lies entirely outside his power. For instance, the pope is perfectly capable of abolishing the OF with the stroke of a pen and requiring every priest of the Roman Rite to revert to the EF. He’s a pastor so he’s not going to do that, but that point remains that the pope is the legislator for the universal Church, and he is thus capable of making various sorts of laws that
would, in virtue of being universally binding laws and not simply personal commands, require all or certain classes of secular priests to celebrate the EF. One version of this might be to require by law that every parish offer at least one Mass in the EF on Sundays, and requiring the pastor to either celebrate it personally or see to its celebration. That said, your point remains true that
as things stand the pope and/or bishop cannot require any individual priest to celebrate the EF.
That’s why the pope uses the term “requested”. He is asking the bishops to work to make the EF happen when it’s requested by the laity. Just as the laity aks for the EF, it cannot demand it, the pope also asks for it, he does not demand it of the bishops.
No argument here, other than to point out that bishops really do need to make a good faith effort to fulfill the legitimate aspirations of the faithful. If they have honestly assessed the diocese, its resources, and its needs and conclude that they
cannot fulfill those aspirations, the Holy Father has made it clear that they should punt up the ladder to the PCED. We certainly can’t canonically demand that they arrange celebration of the EF, but we can
ask that they show the
good will to follow the process they’ve been asked to follow.
He also says that it must be done under the guidance of the bishop and avoding conflicts. This is important. The secular clergy of a diocese may celebrate the EF without having to ask for permission. However, the Holy Father recognizes that the bishop remains the pastor. The pastor calls the shots for his parishes. A priest can celebrate the EF, but a bishop can legally say, “Not in one of my parishes.” He cannot stop the priest from celebrating the EF, but he can say where they celebrate it. Normally, bishops are not that harsh. But they have that right. The Holy Father acknowledges it and does not take it away from them.
Since the EF is a form of the Roman Rite, I don’t believe a bishop can bar the Roman Rite from his churches. That would be a sort of legal absurdity. Now, I think the bishop can impede a
priest from celebrating in his churches if he has canonical grounds,* but if a priest is legally able to celebrate the Roman Rite, the choice of form for private Mass cannot be dictated to him or denied to him, and for public Mass this will remain at the discretion, as
SP says, of the pastor. You’ll note that
SP nowhere mentions a bishop having authority to bar the EF from one or all of his churches, so you’ll have to support that claim from a different part of the code. Considering that
SP was issued to prevent bishops from barring the EF from their dioceses, I anticipate that being difficult.
*Barring such an impediment, a priest is to be allowed to celebrate in a church:
Can. 903 A priest is to be permitted to celebrate even if the rector of the church does not know him, provided that either he presents a letter of introduction from his ordinary or superior, issued at least within the year, or it can be judged prudently that he is not impeded from celebrating.
