By Ricardo Stuckert/PR - Agência Brasil : Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva e o papa Bento XVI,
durante encontro reservado no Palácio dos Bandeirantes, CC BY 3.0 br,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2087682
Excellent commentary on the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum can be found at Fr. Tim Finigan's blog:-
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.co.uk/
"The Catholic blogosphere had started to take off as a vehicle of
commentary and discussion, untrammelled by official censorship. I joined
up in April 2006. One of the subjects of discussion throughout 2006 and
the early part of 2007 was the rumour of a "universal indult" for the
celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. The rumour mill became
entertainingly farcical as it became clearer that Pope Benedict was
indeed going to do something.
One or two fellow bloggers had managed to get an advance copy of the
document a few days before. (One incurred universal opprobrium by
breaking the generally-agreed voluntary embargo.) I did not have a copy
but did have a friend in Rome who had one on his desk and phoned me up.
He knew that I regularly celebrated the traditional Mass - I even had
the short-lived "
Celebret", a rescript from
Ecclesia Dei
giving me permission to do so fairly freely. My friend was not a devotee
of the traditional Mass, but not particularly opposed to it either. He
said, from his position of neutrality "It is incredible. It gives you
everything you lot have been asking for, and more." Indeed it did. Hence
the mood of celebration then and now.
That "more" was that the Pope did not give a "universal indult" or wider
permission to celebrate the traditional Mass. He said that no
permission was necessary. One of the crucial provisions of Pope Benedict
was to settle once and for all a long-running argument over the
legality of the traditional Mass. In his letter accompanying
Summorum Pontificum, he wrote
As for the use of the 1962 Missal as a Forma extraordinaria of
the liturgy of the Mass, I would like to draw attention to the fact that
this Missal was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in
principle, was always permitted.
This was
res extraordinaria indeed. The Pope just affirmed the
view held by the Remnant, Michael Davies and assorted others who had
hitherto been considered extremists, that in fact the old Mass had never
been abrogated. Moreover he made this the foundation of the document
which gave a legal framework to the whole position.
He also set out a principle which is of immense value for liturgical
discourse and again overturned what had become a consensus in many
colleges, seminaries and institutes.
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us
too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even
considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which
have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their
proper place.
One hugely important factor in the months following
Summorum Pontificum
was the relentless critique by Fr Z of letters from chanceries all over
the place attempting to impose conditions on the celebration of the old
Mass that were simply ruled out by the document. That helped
significantly in establishing the rights of the faithful to the Mass of
Ages.
Well, that's enough from me, and I have to be bright-eyed and
bushy-tailed for our Parish Summer Fair tomorrow. If you are ever minded
to come down to Margate for one of these lovely summer weekends, we
have the traditional Latin Mass every Sunday, sung, at 11.30am at
St Austin and St Gregory. For which we thank Pope Benedict.
For further commentary on the anniversary, here is a small selection of articles from some of my favourite sources:
And finally, if you want a taste of what the mood was that evening: I
was at a party thrown by a fellow priest in South London at which they
big-screened this video I had hurriedly put together."
And finally, if you want a taste of what the mood was that evening: I was at a party thrown by a fellow priest in South London at which they big-screened this video I had hurriedly put together.
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