VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI spent about an hour with an international group of bishops June 27 discussing his decision to allow 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 encounter was to inform the bishops about the coming papal document and help ensure its favorable reception.
“The Holy Father is obviously most concerned about trying to bring about reconciliation in the church,” Cardinal O’Malley said later on his Web log. He said an estimated 600,000 Catholics participate in the Tridentine liturgies of the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist group that broke with the Vatican in 1988.
“The Holy Father was very clear that the ordinary form of celebrating the Mass will be the new rite, the ‘Novus Ordo.’ But by making the Latin Mass more available, the Holy Father is hoping to convince those disaffected Catholics that it is time for them to return to full union with the Catholic Church,” the cardinal said.
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