Wednesday, July 04, 2007

"Summorum Pontificum"

If the Italian news agency iMedia is to be believed -- and, more often than not, it is -- that's the title of the motu proprio on the 1962 Missal, slated for release on Saturday.

The language bears noting that, in the long-awaited text granting universal permission for private/semi-private celebration of the pre-Conciliar Mass, Benedict XVI will "encourage" its use. (Prior drafts went well beyond such a formulation.)

In its own wording on the run-up to the release, it's also worth considering that the Holy See has specifically refrained from referring to the liturgical form employed from 1570 until the aftermath of Vatican II not as the "Mass of Pius V" or anything pertaining to the Council of Trent -- the root of the adjective "Tridentine," of course -- but as the "Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962."

Along these lines of acknowledging only the most recent evolution of a ritual text, the post-conciliar form, which has been referred to (often derisively) as the "Pauline Rite" or the "Missal of Paul VI," would seem in reality to be the "John-Pauline Rite" or the "Missal of John Paul II." The late Pope approved the editio typica tertia (third binding edition) of the ordinary form on Holy Thursday 2000.

And, lastly (for now), as of a few hours ago the customary embargoed transmission of impending major documents to the bishops and other significant ad intra constituencies still had not taken place. Whether it will over the next 66 hours remains unclear. Until then, but two released copies of "the goods" exist on US shores.

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