mrblue:
Every parish should have a tridentine rite Mass every Sunday. If this were done, Catholics would slowly come to recognize it as a superior expression of reverence and holiness, and would gradually abandon the sentimentality and congregationalist hoo-hah of the Novus Ordo. As the current generation of bishops gratefully slips into retirement, all things become possible.
and “all things” may be beginning tomorrow… when an
English priest to celebrate Latin Mass in St Peter’s
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
An English priest will this week celebrate what is believed to be the first Tridentine Rite Mass for 20 years in St Peter’s in Rome, the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. Fr Andrew Southwell. The historic service, hailed as a breakthrough by traditionalists, will be led by Fr Andrew Southwell on Friday, a month after the Pope lifted a long-standing ban on the “Old Rite” in the world’s most famous church. Devotees of the Tridentine Rite, which was virtually outlawed after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, believe that the Pope is now poised to relax restrictions on the traditional Mass throughout the world.
Speculation is mounting that he will grant a “universal indult” to allow all priests to celebrate the Mass without first having to gain permission from their bishops. Under the Old Rite, which dates from the 1570 Council of Trent, the priest says high Mass facing east with his back to the congregation, intoning the Latin liturgy in clouds of incense. Since Vatican II, however, the rite has been displaced by Mass in the vernacular, which traditionalists believe lacks the mystery of its predecessor.
Although individual bishops can authorise its use, a significant number discourage it because it has been favoured by traditionalists who oppose Vatican II reforms. The Tridentine Rite was associated with the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who founded the traditionalist Pius X Society and was excommunicated after illegally consecrating bishops.
The St Peter’s service is the latest in a series of concessions to traditionalists which suggest the Pope is relaxing the Vatican’s opposition to the rite and seeking a rapprochement with the society.
On Saturday Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos will hold a Tridentine Rite Mass in St Mary Major, the first cardinal to do so in a main Roman basilica for 30 years. Last month the Pope, who is keen to heal the rift with traditionalists, published a command permitting the use of the old Latin rite in St Peter’s. Members of the Latin Mass Society will leave on a pilgrimage to Rome today for what the society believes will be the first Old Rite service in St. Peter’s since 1984, certainly by an English priest. They will also attend the Saturday service said by Cardinal Hoyos.
Fr Southwell, a Benedictine monk based at St Bede’s church in Clapham Park, south London, will preside at the morning service in the crypt of Our Lady of Hungary chapel before a congregation of about 60 or 70 pilgrims. “As a priest, to be able to offer the traditional Roman rite of the Mass at the tomb of St Peter is an immense privilege,” he said. “It represents a great breakthrough for traditionalists and a sign of hope. Not only is our existence being acknowledged but we are being encouraged.”
