What Does The Prayer Really Say?
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Well-entrenched progressivists in Italy (and elsewhere) are forever telling us that people have no interest in the older form of Mass and that Summorum Pontificum won’t make much of a difference. 

I think they are deluded.

Now I read a nice little story on from Il resto del Carlino about a Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum on the feast of All Saints:

Look past the sloppy terms for the gem in this piece.

The first Mass in Latin at Santa Maria della Pietà: 8 priests and over 250 faithful at the Tridentine Rite.

Also in the parish of Santa Maria della Pietà (via San Vitale 112) where Fr. Tiziano Trenti is, there began on All Saints Day the celebration of Mass in Latin with the Tridentine Rite, arranged by Card. Caffarra and is foreseen for every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.  The first liturgy, which had the participation of eight priests and 250 faithful, was celebrated by Fr. Alfredo Morselli, parish priest of Stiatico, with the enriching presence of the choir "Il Cenacolo ("The Upper Room").

We are talking about a TLM in downtown Bologna!  

Apparently there was resistance on the part of many priests. But the Cardinal put this in the middle of the city, and not in some little spot out in the country.

Keep in mind that Bologna is not exactly a strong Catholic city.  There is a powerful Communist party there and the city, with the University, is highly secular.

This is a huge success story!

A tip of the biretta to FA  o{]:¬)    who informed me of this article from the California Catholic Daily.   FA added: "Only in America!"

My emphases and comments.

Published: November 2, 2007
“The Tridentine Mass for Joe Sixpack”

Parish offers refresher course on Latin Mass, sacraments

"Tridentine Mass and Sacraments 4 Dummies” is the title of a series of courses on “the extraordinary form of Blessed John XXIII” to be held at Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Wilmington (near San Pedro). Norbertine Fr. Michael Perea, the parish’s associate pastor, will teach the courses.

“The Tridentine Low Mass for Joe Sixpack” is the name for the first class, to be held Nov. 7. The titles for the classes to be held over subsequent weeks are “Getting Married the Way Grandpa Did It” (Nov. 14), “The Requiem Mass” (Nov. 21), and “How to Baptize Babies the Old Way” (Nov. 28).

Fr. Michael told California Catholic Daily that one parishioner was upset by the title of the course series. [It seems to me that that sort of title has become standard by now, no?] But, said Fr. Michael, it was not meant to be offensive. “It’s a popular approach,” he said. “We want to make the course user-friendly. We want to encourage the average Joe to attend, because it seems that the Tridentine crowd tends to be a specialized crowd.”  ["Specialized crowd"!!  LOL!  Well put.]

Fr. Michael said he is basing his courses on the Latin-English Sunday Missal, which offers a sample Low Mass, with all the readings, a sample Nuptial Mass, a Requiem Mass, as well as the Rite of baptism for one child. “I thought I would divide the course into four parts, following the book,” said Fr. Michael. “My approach is to be simple and practical. My target audience is someone who is interested in the Tridentine Mass, but doesn’t know a whole lot about it. So, it’s not going to be academic.”

The class has elicited “a lot of interest so far,” Fr. Michael said. “People keep asking the book store for the book.”

The classes serve as an introduction to the weekly parish celebration of the Tridentine Mass at Ss. Peter and Paul, which will begin ad experimentum, said Fr. Michael, on the First Sunday of Advent, at 6.30 a.m. The first Masses will be Low Masses, though Father Michael says he will encourage the people “to participate in the parts they traditionally participated in,” and there will be devotional singing. Fr. Michael said that, in the future, he hopes to have High Tridentine Masses.

So far, 131 Ss. Peter and Paul parishioners have added their names to a sign-up sheet, indicating they want to attend the Tridentine Mass. “But there’s more interest than that,” said Fr. Michael. “I’m suspecting that, once we start, we’ll have a regular congregation of about 200 people.”

What a great approach!  Well done! 

We can only hope for reports on the classes.
 

There is a good piecein Zenit about what Card. Pell did in Australia to support Summorum Pontificum.

Australia Celebrates Letter on 1962 Missal

SYDNEY, Australia, NOV. 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal George Pell will be the first archbishop in the Sydney Archdiocese in 40 years to celebrate the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, reports the Oriens Foundation.

The archbishop of Sydney will preside Saturday at a Mass said in the extraordinary form at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The event is a celebration on the occasion of Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum," published in July.

The letter, issued "motu proprio," on one’s own initiative, explained new norms allowing for the use of the 1962 missal as an extraordinary form of the liturgical celebration. The norms took effect Sept. 14.

The Australia-based Oriens Foundation, which promotes understanding of the Tridentine rite, said in a press statement that the Mass "represents a significant event in the life of the local Church."

Gary Scarrabelotti, the Oriens Foundation chairman, said that he hopes that "Summorum Pontificum" will provide the Church "with a splendid opportunity to draw to the attention of the Catholic people, and to the wider community, the great cultural and spiritual merits of the traditional form of Catholic worship."