Pope to ease old Latin Mass restrictions

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer



Pope Benedict XVI has decided to loosen restrictions on use of the old Latin Mass, a Vatican official said Wednesday, a major concession to ultraconservatives who split with the Vatican to protest reforms.

The decision is part of Benedict's efforts to woo back Catholics who joined a rebel archbishop in protest over the changes.

The pope's intent is to "help overcome the schism and help bring (the ultraconservatives) back to the church," said the official, who asked that his name not be used because the papal document has not yet been released.

It was not immediately clear when the pope will make his decision public, but the official said it was expected soon. The Times of London, in a report Wednesday, said the pope has signed the order and it could be published in the next few weeks.

The 16th-century Tridentine Mass — the name of the old Latin Mass — was swept away by the so-called New Mass that followed the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council. The reforms called for Mass to be said in local languages, for the priest to face the congregation instead of having his back to worshippers as he faced the altar and for the use of lay readers.

To celebrate the old Latin Mass now, a priest must obtain permission from the local bishop.

"Conducting Mass in Latin is a way of maintaining tradition," said Torve Bordevich, a 45-year tourist from Norway as he stood in front of a Jesuit church in downtown Rome.

But Alfreda Mariana, a 65-year-old American tourist who said she grew up with the Mass in Latin wondered whether it was worth isolating young Catholics by using a "dying language."

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X in 1969 in opposition to the Vatican II reforms. In addition to his objection to the change in the Mass, Lefebvre denounced the Vatican's openings to other religions as a "horrible apostasy" that put Catholicism on equal footing with other faiths.

The French prelate said the reforms have led to "neo-modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies."

The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent.

Benedict has indicated he wants relations with the St. Pius X group to be normalized. He met last year with the current head of the society, Bishop Bernard Fellay.

Several top Vatican officials have publicly supported a change on grounds that any Catholic — not just members of St. Pius X — should have access to the old Mass.

The general secretary of St. Pius X, Arnaud Selegny, declined comment before seeing the document.

The issue of the Mass will only be one of the points in the papal document that will reach out to the ultraconservatives, the Vatican official said.

Benedict already took a concrete step in that direction when in September he approved an institute for French priests who left the movement. The small group based in Bordeaux, made up of five priests and some seminarians, is allowed to celebrate the old-style Latin Mass in exchange for their recognition of the pope's authority.

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Associated Press reporters Daniela Petroff at the Vatican and Alex Charkham in Rome contributed to this report.