Use of Latin Mass to be broadened.

Vatican City--Vatican sources have confirmed that Pope Benedict is set to release plans making it easier for Catholics to attend Masses in the traditional Latin rite dating back to the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The Pope is under stood to have signed a universal indult giving priests permission to celebrate the Tridentine Mass of Pius V (1570) unless expressly forbidden to do so by their diocesan bishop.

The current conditions for such a celebration fall under the rules of the indult Ecclesia Dei (1988) of Pope John Paul II. This allowed the old Latin Mass only with the bishop's specific permission. Many bishops have been reluctant to permit this in order to support the new 1970 Mass in the vernacular.

The papal document is said to affirm the principle that there is only one liturgical rite for the Latin Church. But this rite has two forms: the 'ordinary' liturgy (the 1970 Novus Ordo, celebrated in the vernacular language, or in Latin) and the 'extraordinary' (the Tridentine rite in Latin). These two forms will have equal rights and bishops are strongly encouraged to allow free use of both.

As is well known, Pope Benedict believes that the 1970 change was far too abrupt and that the accompanying suppression of the old rite was an unheard of violation of the Church's liturgical tradition and contrary to the best interests of the Church as a whole. Nor does the Holy Father desire to leave the situation unchanged. In a lecture in 2001 the then Cardinal Ratzinger said it would be "fatal" for the Tridentine liturgy to be "placed in a deepfreeze, left like a national park, a park protected for the sake of a certain kind of people, for whom one leaves available these relics of the past."

The indult has the added status of a motu proprio, a papal rescript which has the force of Canon Law (CWTN, The Times, Oct. 14, 2006).

The forthcoming document is not without opponents. A group of 35 French bishops and priests have issued a statement urging Pope Benedict not to issue the motu proprio. It would, they said, "plunge us back into the liturgical life of another era." Bishop Robert LeGall of Toulouse fears it would "create grave difficulties ... for those who have remained faithful to Vatican II" (CWN, Oct 24, 2006).