News article on implementation of Motu Proprio in St. Louis

Here is very interesting development.  This piece is from the St. Louis Review:

My emphases and comments.

    Archdiocesan priests attend meeting on Latin Mass rules

    by Jennifer Brinker, Review Staff Writer

    Priests of the archdiocese interested in celebrating the traditional Latin Mass attended a meeting last week to learn more about what is needed to offer it in their parishes.

    Archbishop Raymond L. Burke and Father Karl W. Lenhardt, rector of St. Francis de Sales Oratory in South St. Louis, met with some 30 priests [30!  I wonder what the mean age was.] to discuss the papal norms of Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter, "Summorum Pontificum," which went into effect Sept. 14.

    Last month the archbishop appointed Father Lenhardt as his delegate for implementing the apostolic letter in the archdiocese.

    Issued July 7, "Summorum Pontificum" eases restrictions on the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass and gives priests the ability to freely celebrate the Latin Mass using the 1962 missal. Previously, priests were required to request permission from their bishop to celebrate the older form.

    The letter also instructs priests to honor requests [The writer of the article did some homework.] from the faithful for access to the traditional Latin Mass. The letter designates the traditional Latin Mass as the extraordinary form and the current Mass as the ordinary form. The pontiff noted that one form should not be favored over the other.

    "I wanted to offer to the priests of the archdiocese an opportunity to become more acquainted with what the Holy Father has set forth for us," Archbishop Burke told priests at last week’s meeting, held at the Cardinal Rigali Center in Shrewsbury.

    He said that the implementation of "Summorum Pontificum" likely isn’t coming as a surprise to the archdiocese, which already has a history of offering the traditional Latin Mass.

    "I’m certainly grateful for the letter and new discipline, and I’ve tried to express that both to the priests and to the faithful," said the archbishop. "I anticipate that this will happen in a way that will be very enriching for us. I just don’t find that it’s going to be something terribly shocking in the archdiocese."

    The archbishop thanked Father Lenhardt for overseeing the implementation of "Summorum Pontificum" here. The priest is a member of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a society of apostolic life best known for its celebration of the 1962 Latin Mass.

    "He is a very approachable person and will be very kind to assist you in whichever way you wish," Archbishop Burke said of Father Lenhardt.

    Father Lenhardt told the group that the institute is offering to priests of the archdiocese classes and other resources to prepare those interested in celebrating the older Mass form in their parishes. Priests also are invited to assist at Masses at St. Francis de Sales, he said.

    Father William Avis, ordained in St. Louis in June for the institute, will be helping Father Lenhardt to provide resources to priests. Father Avis, a native of Wisconsin, was appointed a vicar, or assistant priest, at St. Francis de Sales shortly after his ordination.

    In a speech to priests at the meeting, Father Lenhardt noted that the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass cannot be opposed to one another, "because they are united in the person and in the inner dynamic of Christ’s prayer to the heavenly Father."

    "The liturgical prayer of the Church is not the expression of the self-esteem of the celebrating congregation, but it is the prayer of Christ to his Father that is so much more than we could express on our own," he said.

    In 2005, the archbishop invited the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to the archdiocese. That same year, he designated St. Francis de Sales as an oratory with a focus on the celebration of the 1962 Mass. He also placed the oratory under the pastoral care of the institute.

    Before that designation, St. Agatha Parish in South St. Louis had been offering the traditional Latin Mass in the archdiocese for many years.

    The archdiocese also had another group, the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin Mass in the West St. Louis County area. The archbishop reported at last week’s meeting with priests that the group left the archdiocese this summer.

    Because of a need to continue offering that form of the Mass to the faithful in that area, the archbishop said he has asked the Benedictine monks of St. Louis Abbey in Creve Coeur to offer one traditional Latin Mass each day of the week, including Sunday.

    Abbot Thomas Frerking, abbot of St. Louis Abbey, told the Review that his community will celebrate the Masses in the chapel of St. Anselm’s parish center.

    Masses are expected to begin by the first Sunday of Advent, Abbot Frerking said.

    The traditional Latin Mass is celebrated daily at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, 2653 Ohio Ave. Mass times are 8 a.m. weekdays and Saturdays; 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 8 and 10 a.m. Sundays.
    Review staff writer Barbara Watkins contributed information to this story.

It is nice to read positive pieces which don’t try simply to stir conflict between factions.