Obedience to whose authority?

[promultisguy]

This Sept 14th marks the 3rd year aniversary of the Holy Fathers Apostolic Letter- ‘Summorum Pontificum’ to the faithful. Why is it that its content has not seen the light of day in most parishes? The Holy Father wishes to make available to all priests and the laity the traditional Latin Mass to those who request it. Why is it that most Catholic people never heard of this? Bishops are no longer allowed to forbid the celebration of this Extraordinary Mass in their dioceses. Yet those of us who have read the Document understand the clear teaching of the Holy Father in this regard. Is there a conspiracy among our priests and shepards to keep this light under a bushel basket?

 

[MarkThompson]

Why isn’t SP’s “content” in your parish? If you mean why don’t parishes publish the text of the document or have it read aloud from the pulpit, it’s because parishes generally aren’t in charge of publishing or disseminating papal documents in any way, shape, or form. If you’re asking why there aren’t more TLMs in your area, it’s impossible to say exactly because this varies from place to place, from parish to parish, etc. In some places, there are plenty of TLMs. For the most part, though, demand is fairly low and there are few priests with sufficiently good Latin to reliably say the Mass.

As to a “conspiracy,” it’s definitely true that in the past there have been some bishops who sought to make sure that only the modern form of the rite could be used. That doesn’t amount to a conspiracy, though. And there are other bishops who actively promote it, say it themselves, ask priests to learn it and send them to seminaries to do so, etc. Yet even in those dioceses, it’s certainly not the case that most or even many parishes have a TLM, nor that there would be sufficient demand to support such a thing in the first place.

 

[Seamus_L]

I’d say the official excuse given, is that they don’t have enough priests capable of saying the TLM. 3 years should be enough time to learn though. And while things have improved a good deal in the 21st century, the fact that less than 50 parishes in the USA offer a daily TLM is utterly disgraceful.

 

[MarkThompson]

I’d say the official excuse given, is that they don’t have enough priests capable of saying the TLM. 3 years should be enough time to learn though. And while things have improved a good deal in the 21st century, the fact that less than 50 parishes in the USA offer a daily TLM is utterly disgraceful.

Of course, most parishes only offer one daily Mass in the first place, so, for the most part, a parish that offers a “daily TLM” will be, or nearly so, a TLM-only parish. How many are you expecting there to be, exactly?

 

[Corki]

This is a sore point for me. In our diocese, it is the Archbishop who is responsible for the lack of EF Masses. Even when large numbers of people in parishes have requested it, they have been told “no”. Even when priests have gone on their own initiative to learn the EF Mass from the FSSP group that does seminars, they haven’t been allowed to offer the Mass publically. In spite of SP, the Archbishop maintains that EF Masses must have his permission and that he is not giving any more permissions “at this time”. We have one regularly held EF Sunday Mass in the whole diocese. This is one of the largest diocese in the US and that’s disgracefull.

 

[Seamus_L]

Take your case to Rome, if you haven’t already.

 

[promultisguy]

Of course, most parishes only offer one daily Mass in the first place, so, for the most part, a parish that offers a “daily TLM” will be, or nearly so, a TLM-only parish. How many are you expecting there to be, exactly?

I am not saying that a daily Latin Mass should be offered in parishes. I was thinking of a Sunday Mass. Certainly it is true that many priests are untrained to say this Mass. Summorum Pontificum states that if a significant number of people in a parish request the TLM, the pastor is obliged to make one available. If he cannot, the bishop must see that one is provided. If the bishop cannot make provision, he must request help from Rome. If the bishop refuses to comply, the interested group may take the issue to the Vatican.

The Fraternity of St. Peter priests will train interested priests. A while back the Fraternity was willing to send a priest into our diocese to shepard us and provide TLM. The bishop when presented with the idea, said no. Fortunately we have been provided with a diocesan priest who offers the TLM for us every Sunday. We fill the pews largely with home-school familys. I know that, given the opportunity, the TLM would draw a surprisingly substantial number of people if more parishes were open to it. The Holy Father, in fact, has made known that he would like to see a TLM in every parish church.

 

[Bob_Aliano]

We have an FSSP TLM parish, anyone from anywhere in the diocese may register there and of course anyone can attend at any time. It is the presence of this parish that probably allows the OF parishes to pass on celebrating any TLM Masses.