30 Giorni (30 Days) has a very interesting interview (Italian) with Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", regarding the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum - though his answers are substantially similar to the ones in the interview granted to Il Giornale and translated here. The current (June 2007) issue of 30 Days will be made available in English in a few weeks.
His wonderful first answer sets the tone of the interview:
Your Eminence, what is the sense of the motu proprio which liberalizes the use of the Missal said of Saint Pius V?
DARÍO CASTRILLÓN HOYOS: When, after the Second Vatican Council, there were changes in the liturgy, consistent groups of lay faithful and even of clerics felt confused because they were strongly attached to the liturgy in force for centuries.I think about the priests who for fifty years has celebrated that Mass said of Saint Pius V and that all of a sudden found themselves forced to celebrate another one, I think about the faithful, for generations accustomed to that rite, I also think about the children such as the altar boys who all of a sudden found themselves overwhelmed about serving Mass with the Novus Ordo.
It was then a confusion in several levels. For some, it was even of a theological nature, believing that the ancient rite expressed the sense of sacrifice better than the one introduced. Others, even for cultural reasons, remembered with nostalgia the Gregorian [chant] and the great polyphonies which were a richness of the Latin Church.
Making it all worse was the fact that those who experienced this confusion blamed the Council for these changes, when in truth the Council itself had neither asked for nor predicted the details of these changes. The Mass celebrated by the Conciliar Fathers was the Mass of Saint Pius V. The Council had not asked for the creation of a new rite, but for a wider use of the vernacular language and for a greater participation of the faithful.
Other excerpts:
[...]
...and the second [mistake of those who oppose the motu proprio]?
CASTRILLÓN HOYOS: That it is about reducing the episcopal power. But that is not so. The Pope has not changed the Code of Canon Law. The bishop is the moderator of the liturgy in his own diocese. But the Apostolic See has the competence to order the sacred liturgy of the universal Church. And a bishop must act in harmony with the Apostolic See and must guarantee to each faithful his own rights, including the one to be able to participate in the Mass of Saint Pius V, as an extraordinary form of the rite.
[...]
The motu proprio does not set a minimal number of faithful needed for the request to celebrate the Mass of Saint Pius V. Yet, in the past, the news was leaked that a minimum number of thirty faithful was considered...
CASTRILLÓN HOYOS: That is the clear evidence as to how, regarding this motu proprio, pseudo-news[reports] were spread out by those who had not read the drafts or by those who, in an interested manner, wished to influence its elaboration. I have followed the entire iter which has led to the final text and, as I recall, no minimum limit of faithful ever appeared in any draft, not of thirty, not of twenty, not of a hundred.
[...]
In the aftermath of this meeting [on June 27, with Bishops chosen to know the text of the motu proprio], what were the variations [introduced] to the text of the motu proprio which had been prepared?
CASTRILLÓN HOYOS: Some small lexical variations were requested and thus introduced, nothing else.
