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Traditionis custodes: Rome diocese bans Traditional Latin Mass for Easter Triduum

Hannah Brockhaus   By Hannah Brockhaus for CNA

Mass during the 10th annual Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, Oct. 29-31, 2021. / Edward Pentin.

Rome, Italy, Nov 10, 2021 / 04:20 am (CNA).

The vicar general for the Diocese of Rome has banned the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass during the Easter Triduum in his implementation of Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes.

In a letter dated Oct. 7, but made public on several blogs Nov. 9, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said that Mass could continue to be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal at five churches in Rome on all days except from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday, the period known as the Triduum.

De Donatis also stated that no other sacraments or sacramentals may be celebrated according to the pre-Vatican II missal except the Mass.

The diocesan press office confirmed on Nov. 10 that the letter, addressed to the priests and faithful of the Diocese of Rome, was authentic.

As pope, Francis is also the bishop of Rome, but because the pope has many other responsibilities, the day-to-day care of the Diocese of Rome is entrusted to the vicar general, whose full title is Vicar General of His Holiness.

A vicar general is given, by canon law, executive power over the diocese in all administrative acts except those reserved to the bishop. In the Diocese of Rome, the cardinal vicar functions like a de facto diocesan bishop.

Rome diocese’s guidelines were issued in response to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes, published in July, which placed tight restrictions on Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal, known variously as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Tridentine Mass, and the Traditional Latin Mass.

In a letter to the world’s bishops explaining his decision, the pope said he felt compelled to act because the use of the 1962 Missal was “often characterized by a rejection not only of the liturgical reform, but of the Vatican Council II itself, claiming, with unfounded and unsustainable assertions, that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.’”

Responding to the pope’s motu proprio, the cardinal vicar of Rome said “it seemed fitting to continue to exercise a lively pastoral charity towards the faithful” who wish to participate in the Traditional Latin Mass.

He said that all priests in the diocese who sought to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Missal must be authorized in writing by the diocesan bishop, as stipulated in Traditionis custodes.

The cardinal designated the pastor of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, a church run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), as responsible “pro tempore” (for the time being) for the “dignified celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy, as well as the ordinary pastoral and spiritual care of the faithful.”

The readings during Traditional Latin Masses must be proclaimed in Italian according to the 2008 translation by the Italian bishops’ conference, De Donatis’ letter said.

He added that with Pope Francis’ motu proprio, “it is no longer possible to use the Roman Ritual and the other liturgical books of the ‘ancient rite’ for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals (e.g., not even the Ritual for the Reconciliation of Penitents according to the ancient form).”

Issued with immediate effect on July 16, Traditionis custodes (“Guardians of the tradition”) made changes to Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, which acknowledged the right of all priests to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962.

With Traditionis custodes, Pope Francis said that it is now each bishop’s “exclusive competence” to authorize the use of the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese.

Since the motu proprio’s promulgation, some bishops have said that priests may continue to offer the Traditional Latin Mass in their dioceses, while others have banned it.


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13 Comments

  1. Well, in the day, the TLM Easter Vigil Mass was my favorite Mass of the year and the most sublime spiritual experience I have encountered in the Liturgy. I want to be charitable but it certainly seems possible that this pope and this vicar (and the bishop in my Diocese) are deliberately making evil choices.

    • Searching for:

      evil is a privation, not a thing

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      About 6,550,000 results (0.48 seconds)
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      Featured snippet from the web

      The absence of good (Latin: privatio boni), also known as the privation theory of evil, is a theological and philosophical doctrine that evil, unlike good, is insubstantial, so that thinking of it as an entity is misleading. Instead, evil is rather the absence, or lack (“privation”), of good.

      Absence of good – Wikipedia

      ******

      There appears to be a lot of “lack” in some parts of Rome these days.

    • Parishioners who didn’t defenestrated their bishops are not worthy of that spiritual experience. It is that simple, since they can have Francis & De Donatis or the liturgy, but not both.

    • Don’t forget dialog and transparency that are supposed to characterize the authentic spirit of Vatican II. But, then again, when Modernists speak of the Spirit of Vatican II they actually mean animation by the Spirit of the Age rather than the Holy Spirit. This pope has apparently decided to be more inclusive by adding hypocrites to the inner circle of heretics and homosexuals giving him counsel.

  2. Rome’s censure of the traditional rite for the Easter Vigil Mass renders an air of suppression not specifically of ancient rites and practices, rather of a way of life. Charity if it were evident would be less aggressive, more empathetic. The impression is that a new vision of the Church is being put in place whether we like it or not.
    Formerly such suppression affected errors, activities that weren’t reconcilable with Christianity. In this instance what has for millennia been considered holy and faithful to Christ is the target. As if faith requires uniformity in every dimension of practice, to an extent requiring acculturation to a new order of lifestyle and mentality. It’s a dangerous strategy to implement change, because it speaks to enforced regimentation, control of life and with that violation of conscience.
    Certainly the faithful to Christ will be strengthened by the Holy Spirit even flourish during adversity. What will mark our sincere faith is forgiveness and prayers for these misguided perpetrators.

  3. Here is an article by Father John Hunwicke of the English Ordinariate, making a concise statement about the Pontiff Francis and his recent attempt by fiat to outlaw the prayers of the traditional Roman Rite of the Mass:

    https://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2021/11/which-is-real-bergoglio.html

    Pontiff Francis is the perfect totalitarian hypocrite. He has contempt for all laws he disagrees with (such as the 1st and 6th Commandments), and contempt for anyone who disagrees with his laws.

    This pontificate is the counterfeit-katholik cult of the zombies McCarrick and Danneels, the abusers and coverup Cardinals of the St. Gallen fraud.

    • Try as I may, I can find nothing appealing about this Pope.

      Thanks for the link.

      The comment about “when in March 2020 the Church of Accompaniment became the Church of Abandonment” is devastatingly accurate.

  4. “Time is running out; this occasion must not be wasted, lest we have to face God’s judgment for our failure to be faithful stewards of the world he has entrusted to our care,” the pope wrote in a letter to Catholics in Scotland signed Nov. 9. -posted today at CWR, from CNA.

    The pope reveals his heart: God will judge how we treat the world! Does the Pope give two diddlies for the Mass? Does Francis worry how God may judge his suppression of the reverent representation, the commemorative sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son? ‘Enough!’ Springboarding off Fr. Morello’s words below: Take heart, faithful Catholics. We flourish under the manure Rome continually shovels.

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