I received this. I am passing it along without much comment since I am dead tired, it is nearly 2 am, the idiots across the street are having a really loud party, and I… have HAD IT WITH THIS DAY! o{]:¬(
Biretta tip to JG who sent it along (emphases mine): o{]:¬)
Dear friends,
Some members of the "Committee for Liturgical Peace of Rheims [a French diocese]were in Rome this week. They showed their fidelity to the Church once again and prayed in the Basilica of St. Peter so that peace will finally prevail in the diocese of Reims. This trip to the seat of Christendom was not all for pleasure since we had to meet on March 1st with Msgr. Camillo Perl, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. In effect, Msgr. Perl, the direct co-worker with Cardinal Castrillon-Hoyos and close to Pope Benedict XVI, had proposed the meeting with us.
We submitted your petitions to the commission Ecclesia Dei as promised. [The diocese of Rheims still lacks an episcopally approved Tridentine Mass]. They were well received! Dear friends, this meeting of longer than one hour was of a great depth and an immense comfort. We outline here some points to you which were touched on:
1. Rome is very well informed of the situation in the diocese of Rheims and strongly regrets the refusal repeated of Msgr. Jordan to grant the Mass in the "old form of the Roman rite". Monseigneur Perl declared us, in the form of a joke: when a bishop wants to refuse the request of his faithful, he will always find arguments."
2. Msgr. Perl repeated to us several times that he understood our dissatisfaction, but that he is happy to note our constant fidelity to the Church.
3. At no moment did Msgr. Perl show the least reservation against our action, our forms, its duration and publicity that some of us make to the lay faithful of several parishes of Reims.
4. Lastly, Msgr. Perl promised to us soon liturgical peace in the diocese of Rheims! Let’s re-examine this last point to announce a great item of news to you!
THE MOTU PROPRIO LIBERALIZING THE MASS KNOWN AS THAT OF ST. PIUS V, SO MUCH AWAITED, WILL BE PUBLISHED BEFORE EASTER SUNDAY.
Our Holy Father is holding fast to this [decision]. Another bit of excellent news, [concerning which] we had been mistaken!IN EFFECT, THE MOTU PROPRIO WILL HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW. Pope Benedict XVI considers it regrettable that [the Motu Proprio] of July 1988 did nothing but invite the bishops to accomodate the faithful attached to the Tridentine Rite. The Motu Proprio will not be satisfied by this simple invitation. It will be obligatory!What will we find in this text?
1. Any priest wishing to say the Tridentine Mass will be able to do so privately.
2. Any group of faithful attached to the Rite of Saint Pie V will be able to go to see the pastor of his parish or a priest of his town to request this Rite of him. The priest will be able to accept [the request to celebrate] without referring to his bishop about it.
3. If the priest and other diocesan priests, do not want to celebrate in "the old rite", they will be able to accomodate any priest from a [traditional] community [of religious, e.g., FSSP] wishing to do so.
4. If a group of faithful requests the Rite of rite known as of saint Pie V, but cannot find any priest, nor a place, nor a [member of a religious] community, being able to respond to their wishes; this group will be able to write to the Commission Ecclesia Dei which will work to find a solution, a priest, or a community [member]. [The article ends by commenting that if their local bishop is ignoring them, at least the Holy Father is doing something about it].
Thanks to http://eccequitollit.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-on-motu-proprio.html for this translation. The original (in french) is at http://qien.free.fr/2007/200703/20070303_paixliturgique.htm
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Father, was this a diocene priest who wrote this that met with Msgr. Perle
or a layman?
Very interesting. Assuming the person who wrote the missive is a credible person, not likely to be easily impressed, then this is noteworthy.
This is, in fact, the sort of thing I would expect if there really is a Motu Proprio; something is bound to leak out, if it’s real, including in this fashion.
Of course, it all hinges on how well informed and reliable Msgr Perl is.
My guess is this is why the Motu Proprio is not out yet: Rome is giving certain perfidious bishops the time to change their policy themselves before it will be taken out of their hands completely.
I just hope the ordinary of Rheims doesn’t pull out the old one-size-fits-all excuse–“for pastoral reasons”. A quick check of his diocese shows that in 1999, the year he took over Rheims, there were 189 diocesan priests. After 5 years of his pastoral genius, there were 147.
Yet another example of vocational bankruptcy by tepid episcopal “leadership”.
The “It’s for real” bandwagon is firing on all eight cylinders now. Climb aboard. It’s gonna happen this time. I can’t help but be an optimist. :)
My prayers are with you Papa.
This is indeed good news, I just pray that it is before Easter the sooner the better! BTW Hello Stu
I’m still betting on March 19, but come on, Papa, surprise us! Come in low over the water playing “Ride of the Valkyries” with guns and rockets blazing (pace F. F. Coppola).
Hello Father Pecoraro. I was thinking about you with the recent talk that the Exhortation might contain some language regarding ad orientem. Might aid you in some of your endeavors. Traditional Mass tomorrow is at Blessed Sacrament so I will tell Father Bravata I saw you in the blogosphere. Tomorrow night though, members of the Latin Mass community are getting together to do some informal planning. I think your seeds about organization maybe germinating. We shall see.
God Bless,
Stu
Stu,
I have made a small beginning by introducing the ad orientem mass during the week days at St. Mary’s, hopefully the exhortation will come before word gets out to Memphis, it might save me some headaches.
Please tell Fr. Kevin hello. I pray that your seeds may grow and bear fruit 100 fold!
Blessings
Dear RBrown,
Your post re. the “inspired leadership” of Bishop Jordan was amusing. The sad part about it is that His record as Bishop can be duplicated 2,000X by other like minded low-life ecclesiastics with equally abysmal records. I got out my Annunario Pontificio for 2006, and found that for that year (which are actually 2004 totals), Riems Bishop Thierry Jordan had 76 parishes, 3 chapels, 143 diosecean priests, 0 new diosecean ordinations, 12 religious Order priests, 0 new religious priests, 20 perm. deacons, a wopping 7 seminarians, 44 male religious and 257 nuns, and 565,021 faithful under his thumb. If you really want to see the disaster of Vatican II first hand, and realize it’s magnitude, check out (if you can find it), the Annuario for any year before 1964-65 and look up Reims and compare then vs now. I think you’ll be HORRIFIED!!
At present I am completing a book which I hope to have published. It’s a compare/contrast exercise on various aspects of Catholic life, complete with text, and tables and graphs highlighting the
collapse after Vatican II. I hope I can find a good publisher.
The totals I have come up with, which should really stun everyone, is all the more reasons why we need this Motu Proprio and a restoration of all aspects of Catholic life. I’ll give just one example from my book about the priesthood since Vatican III found overwhelmingly sad
Jesuit priests USA 1963: over 8,800
” 2006: 2,811
Jesuit Seminarians (USA) 1963 : 6,004 (various stages of formation)
2006: 184 (total)
Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVI to publish the Directives on the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Mass, and the Motu Proprio quickly. Having seen these totals (not to mention the complete collapse of Faith life in the Church), can anyone think of better reasons why it’s so necessary!
I guess the drop in the Vocations is well an indication that turning away from the liturgical east and no longer looking for the 2nd Coming of Christ has been a bad idea. When Mess is celebrated instead of Mass, then well the effects are obvious. :p
Of course, we may all do well to remember that the new Missale Romanum was released on Holy Thursday in 1969. Perhaps our dear Holy Father is anticipating the “reform of the reform” by coinciding the dates? Either way, let us continue to pray for this most blessed liberation!
Holy THursday 1969 the date the New Mass (Novus Ordo Missae) was announced?
UGH!!!! : (
What a horrible anniversary to be reminded of : )
Kenjiro:
Perhaps Holy Thursday is the day it will be released.
How cool would that be to make a correction :D
While the news sounds good, we can only pray that the delay we have experienced is not pulling the teeth out of the MOTU PROPRIO behind the seens. All this delay concerns me a great deal. It could be that the more Rome waits, the grater the compromise with the liberal idealogues. Let us pray that this will not be so, as is often the case. True liberation of the Classical Rite is the only way to get the Church out of current malize and standoff with the modernists. We must pray . . .
Okay, I think I’ve got a very good guess as to when the Motu Proprio is coming out.
The Exhortation on the Eucharist, “The Sacrament of Love,” is coming out on March 13.
Now, we all know that the Motu Proprio allowing for the Tridentine Mass is coming on the heels of that document. According to your source, before Easter.
I think it will be March 21–one week after the date of the release. Come check out my site and find out why.