Vatican rumblings: Pope Francis aiming to end Latin Mass permission

LifeSite News ^ | July 26, 2017 | John Henry-Westen

[ebb tide]

Sources inside the Vatican suggest that Pope Francis aims to end Pope Benedict XVI’s universal permission for priests to say the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. While the course of action would be in tune with Pope Francis’ repeatedly expressed disdain for the TLM especially among young people, there has been no open discussion of it to date.

Sources in Rome told LifeSite last week that liberal prelates inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith were overheard discussing a plan ascribed to the Pope to do away with Pope Benedict’s famous document that gave priests freedom to offer the ancient rite of the Mass.

Catholic traditionalists have just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the document, Summorum Pontificum. Pope Benedict XVI issued it in 2007, giving all Latin Rite priests permission to offer the TLM without seeking permission of their bishops, undoing a restriction placed on priests after the Second Vatican Council.

The motu proprio outraged liberal bishops as it stripped them of the power to forbid the TLM, as many did. Previously priests needed their bishop’s permission to offer the TLM.

Additionally, Summorum Pontificum stated that wherever a group of the faithful request the TLM, the parish priests should willingly agree to their request.

The overheard plans are nearly identical to comments from an important Italian liturgist in an interview published by France’s La Croix earlier this month. Andrea Grillo a lay professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St Anselmo in Rome, billed by La Croix as “close to the Pope,” is intimately familiar Summorum Pontificum. Grillo in fact published a book against Summorum Pontificum before the papal document was even released.

Grillo told La Croix that Francis is considering abolishing Summorum Pontificum. According to Grillo, once the Vatican erects the Society of Saint Pius X as a Personal Prelature, the Roman Rite will be preserved only within this structure. "But [Francis] will not do this as long as Benedict XVI is alive.”

The plan, as related to LifeSite, involved making an agreement with the Society of St. Pius X and, with that agreement in place, sequestering those Catholics wanting the TLM to the SSPX. For most, that would strip them of access to the TLM since there would not be nearly enough SSPX priests to service Catholics wanting the TLM worldwide.

Moreover, LifeSite’s source suggested that the plan may explain a May 20, 2017 letter by the recently ousted Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Even though Cardinal Müller wanted the SSPX fully reconciled to help fight modernists in the Church, the May 20 letter seemed to scuttle an agreement between Pope Francis and the SSPX which would see them get a personal prelature. The letter includes provisions long known to be completely unacceptable to the SSPX, thus nullifying an understanding SSPX leader Bishop Bernard Fellay believed was imminent.

The LifeSite source suggested that the May 20 letter by Muller perhaps was written because he knows what Francis was up to and wanted to avoid the plan to bury Summorum Pontificum with Pope Benedict. “It’s directed not so much against Fellay but against the agreement,” said the source. “Pope Francis was very angry that document came out from Cardinal Muller and some say that’s why he made the decision to dismiss him.”

[Arthur McGowan]

Troll. As always.

Some things change. Some things don’t.

But that’s a terribly complex thought for you, I know.

[Arthur McGowan]

You flatter yourself.

You never argue. You just post irrelevant straw-man insults.

[elcid1970]

If the priest who celebrates Mass in a breakaway church was ordained in the Roman Rite, then the Apostolic Succession has not been broken and his power to consecrate the Holy Eucharist remains intact.

[ealgeone]

Proving yet again, it is the Romam Catholic who is usually the first to get personal and/or resort to profanity when the argument goes against them.

[GraceG]

You should go to Ann Barnhardt’s site and spend some time looking around barnhardt.biz

[aMorePerfectUnion]

No one cares what Protestants think about the Mass.

I certainly do not. Glad we agree.

I only care what God revealed about it... and what the Apostles thought.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

That’s a “religion.”

And you're a priest??

[aMorePerfectUnion]

If all you have to contribute is anti-Catholic boilerplate...

I don't consider considering what the Apostle's taught or did not teach to be boilerplate. If you do, it's on you.

[piusv]

But it is only one type of mass according to SP. The OF is still the preference. What Benedict should have dine was do away with the OF.

But he's also a Modernist at heart.

[piusv]

http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/masslat.pdf

I’ll leave you with something to think about:

Which churches are truly the “breakaway churches”? The ones that have maintained the pre-Vatican II Catholic Faith? Or the ones that profess and teach the Vatican II faith?

Here’s another website to check out:

http://www.cmri.org/

And here is a specific page where a former Novus Ordo priest, Fr Michael Oswalt, realizes that he needed to make a change:

http://www.cmri.org/02-oswalt-letter-to-rockford-diocese.shtml

[NYer]

Catholic ping!

[annalex]

Not good.

Thanks for posting.

[Arthur McGowan]

If sola scriptura is true, then it MUST be taught in scripture.

Sola scriptura is not taught in scripture.

Therefore, sola scriptura is not true.

[Arthur McGowan]

You are a bitter, hateful, intellectually dishonest anti-Catholic bigot. Only a bigot posts comments that “the Roman Catholic” does this and “the Roman Catholic” does that.

Your posts consist of stock insults, red herrings, and straw men.

And you have a cut-and-paste response, feigning victimhood, when you are called on it.

Among your most laughable claims is that you engage in “argument.”

[ealgeone]

Proving yet again, it is the Roman Catholic who is usually the first to get personal and/or resort to profanity when the argument goes against them.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Arthur,

That is a (sadly common) false argument you just put forth.

I’m surprised that this wasn’t covered in your seminary courses.

I will Help.

.............snip..............

REPLY: We are offered an argument of the following form:

(1) Sola Scriptura = “All true propositions are stated in Holy Scripture.”
(2) Sola Scriptura is not stated in Holy Scripture.
(3) Therefore, Sola Scriptura is not a true proposition.

But in fact, the argument should be of the form:

(1) Sola Scriptura = “All truths necessary to salvation are stated in Holy Scripture.”
(2) Sola Scriptura is not stated in Holy Scripture.
(3) Therefore, Sola Scriptura is not a truth necessary to salvation.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/lutherantheology.kiefersolascriptura.html

Best

[ealgeone]

Do a word search on "it is written".

Do a word search on "write".

You'll get the idea.

If the Bible is not the final authority to appeal to then you have to allow the Mormon the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. You'd have to allow the Muslim the Koran.

[steve86]

She’s in Spokane with Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene nearby. I wonder what will happen to FSSP in CDA?

[steve86]

To a Latin Mass Catholic those objections are laughable.

[Biggirl]

If the non-Catholics do not want to get into arguements with the Catholics on Catholic subject threads, there an answer. Kindly stay out of those threads have issues of interest to Catholics and problem is solved.