We can report the following with Messa in Latino.
First, we can confirm that the manoeuvers to make the negative points of the Instruction on the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum known have had the effect of blocking any further deterioration of the text. Was it because of the International Appeal? Or because of those working behind the scenes, in the third floor of the Palazzo Apostolico? Or both? Or they had no effect whatsoever? We will most likely never know, but the final draft would include the following measures:
(1) On the non-Roman Latin Rites, there will be, as reported here earlier, an explicit explanation that Summorum does not apply to them (however, see 3, below).
(2) The Instruction would maintain the prohibition, mentioned in its earlier draft, of the ordination, according to the Pontificale Romanum, of seminarians who are not part of societies dedicated to the Extraordinary Form - though the local ordinary can refer the matter to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, as reported by us.
(3) The Traditional rites and uses of the religious orders could be celebrated freely by their respective priests, in the cases of Art. 2 and Art. 4 of Summorum Pontificum; the authorization of a superior would be necessary only in "public" (i.e. announced, Art.5) Masses.
(4) The celebration of the Triduum Sacrum according to the extraordinary form would be possible, which an erroneous reading of Art. 2 of Summorum Pontificum had made some reticent to admit.
(5) No specific definition of "stable group" would be given: a minimum number is not established; it is only detailed that it is not necessary that the group had existed before the advent of the motu proprio. Rorate can confirm this from different sources.
(6) The powers of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in cases of episcopal denial of the application of Summorum are to be enhanced - though the exact text of the Instruction on the matter is still unknown to us. In a less detailed account of the Instruction also published today, Andrea Tornielli mentions that the Instruction would make it clear that "bishops cannot and must not publish [parallel] rules which limit the faculties granted by the motu proprio, or change its conditions", but "are rather called to apply it". That is, the Instruction would make clear that all such diocesan 'instructions and regulations' regarding Summorum are null and void.
(7) As reported since the first rumors of the Instruction appeared in 2007 (we mentioned it in Nov. 2007...), it is expressly foreseen that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite be taught in seminaries of the Latin Church - as well as the Latin language. The exact wording of the Instruction on this matter is also still unclear.
All signs seem to point to the publication of the Instruction, which seems to have been already signed, before Easter.
