Why is such a battle over the Mass occurring now, 40 years after the Second Vatican Council? Because Benedict XVI wishes to restore what has been lost.
Pope Benedict XVI, against the opposition of many, is preparing to issue a "motu proprio," or personal decision, allowing wider celebration of the old Mass. We applaud his decision and urge him to publish it quickly. The time has come for the restoration of the perennial liturgy of the Church. It has been too long since the sublimely beautiful and holy liturgy of our ancestors, and of our own youth, was abandoned for light and transient reasons.
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez has stated publicly that the document's publication is imminent, so it would not be surprising if the document were issued even before this issue of Inside the Vatican appears. It would be good if it were so.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a "motu proprio" is "the name given to certain papal rescripts on account of the clause motu proprio ('of his own accord' or 'by his own decision') used in the document." The encyclopedia continues: "The words signify that the provisions of the rescript were decided on by the Pope personally, that is, not on the advice of the cardinals or others, but for reasons which he himself deemed sufficient… A Motu Proprio was first issued by Innocent VIII in 1484. It was always unpopular in France, where it was regarded as an infringement of Gallican liberties, for it implied that the sovereign pontiff had an immediate jurisdiction in the affairs of the French Church. The best-known recent example of a motu proprio is the instructions issued by Pius X on 22 November, 1903, for the reform of Church music."
There are those who have argued that such a papal decision will "cause confusion," will be "too abrupt." But the decision which caused our current confusion was the decision after the Second Vatican Council to change the Mass, abruptly. That decision was taken virtually overnight, without consultation with the faithful around the world. And so let the return of the old Mass be brusque, let it come quickly and decisively, as the banishment of the old Mass was quick and decisive.
Pope Benedict has argued that the profound root of the ecclesial crisis of our time is liturgical, that the crisis of the sense of the sacred, the crisis in the sense of God's presence, which has characterized our time, is a liturgical crisis. If he acts now to restore the old liturgy, he will be coherent with everything he has been saying and writing for 50 years. A decision to delay the document, or set it entirely aside, would be out of keeping with his own expressed convictions over a lifetime of reflection.
The International Federation in support of the old Mass, Una Voce, on January 29 published an eloquent manifesto in support of the Pope. "There has been much speculation in the media in recent months about the expectation from Rome of a document that will grant greater freedom for the celebration of the traditional ([so-called] 'Tridentine') Roman rite of Mass," the document begins.
"There have been some highly critical comments from certain quarters, especially from the French and German bishops, who do not agree with the prospect of loosening the very tight restrictions imposed by most bishops around the world. It is a fact, for whatever reason, that these bishops oppose greater freedom for the celebration of the traditional Mass and have no interest in the opinions of the laity or even of many of their own priests who long to celebrate this ancient rite; a rite that has never been abolished and is still valid…
"In 1971 many leading British and international figures… presented a petition to His Holiness Pope Paul VI asking for the survival of the traditional Roman Catholic Mass on the grounds that it would be a serious loss to western culture. The then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Heenan himself appealed to Pope Paul for the continued celebration of the traditional Mass. The full text of this appeal in 1971 was:
'If some senseless decree were to order the total or partial destruction of basilicas or cathedrals, then obviously it would be the educated — whatever their personal beliefs — who would rise up in horror to oppose such a possibility. Now the fact is that basilicas and cathedrals were built so as to celebrate a rite which, until a few months ago, constituted a living tradition. We are referring to the Roman Catholic Mass. Yet, according to the latest information in Rome, there is a plan to obliterate that Mass by the end of the current year. One of the axioms of contemporary publicity, religious as well as secular, is that modern man in general, and intellectuals in particular, have become intolerant of all forms of tradition and are anxious to suppress them and put something else in their place. But, like many other affirmations of our publicity machines, this axiom is false. Today, as in times gone by, educated people are in the vanguard where recognition of the value of tradition is concerned, and are the first to raise the alarm when it is threatened. We are not at this moment considering the religious or spiritual experience of millions of individuals. The rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts — not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs.
'Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians. In the materialistic and technocratic civilization that is increasingly threatening the life of mind and spirit in its original creative expression — the word — it seems particularly inhuman to deprive man of word-forms in one of their most grandiose manifestations. The signatories of this appeal, which is entirely ecumenical and non-political, have been drawn from every branch of modern culture in Europe and elsewhere. They wish to call to the attention of the Holy See, the appalling responsibility it would incur in the history of the human spirit were it to refuse to allow the Traditional Mass to survive, even though this survival took place side by side with other liturgical reforms.'"
The Manfesto then concludes: "We appeal to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 to allow the free celebration of the traditional Roman rite of Mass, the Mass of Ages, the Mass of Antiquity, on the altars of the Church."
Inside the Vatican joins its voice to this appeal
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