Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Systemic disobedience to Summorum Pontificum

By Brian Kopp

It has been said that the primary hurdle of the present Pope is regaining to the Papacy the power and authority proper to his office, authority which had been dissipated by a false sense of collegiality over the past 50 years.

There may be no better illustration of the urgency of this aspect of Pope Benedict XVI's Papacy than the systemic disobedience to Summorum Pontificum coming to light during the conference on "Summorum Pontificum" currently taking place in Rome.

From RorateCaeli:

Perl: more comforting words

Besides the criticism levied against some Traditional Catholic faithful by the President of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, the conference on "Summorum Pontificum" currently taking place in Rome also included yesterday a presentation by the secretary of said dicastery, Monsignor Camille Perl. Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli reports (cf. also La Repubblica):

Rome- “In Italy, most bishops” have placed obstacles to the application of the motu proprio of Benedict XVI which liberalized the use of the ancient, pre-Conciliar, Missal in 2007.

…[Camille] Perl participated in Rome at a conference named “The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of His Holiness Benedict XVI: spiritual richness for the entire Church one year later.” “In Italy – the cleric said – most bishops, with few admirable exceptions, have placed obstacles to the application of the motu proprio on the Latin Mass. The same must be said about many Superiors who forbid their priests to celebrate the Mass according to the ancient rite.” Monsignor Perl provided a not very rosy picture of the situation also in other countries, recalling that “in Germany, for instance, the Episcopal Conference published highly bureaucratic directives, which make for a difficult application of the motu proprio”, while in France “there are lights and shadows”. Yet to consider Italy, the nation of which the Pope is the primate, as a nation in which bishops have impeded the papal decision, represents a serious judgment, coming from the lips of the number two of the Commission.

The words are interesting, but has something been done about these obstacles? Is some action being planned?
posted by New Catholic

Given this obvious, and now publicly admitted, systemic disobedience to Summorum Pontificum, Cardinal Hoyos' recent criticisms of the victims of this systemic disobedience seem even more dismaying.

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