RORATE CÆLI: The Instruction

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INSTRUCTION
UNIVERSAE ECCLESIAE
OF THE PONTIFICAL COMMISSION ECCLESIA DEI
On the application of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum,
of HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI, given motu proprio
(Latin typical text)
(Deutsch, Español,Français, Italiano, Português)
(Note: Italiano; Holy See Press Office note: English, Español, Français, Italiano)
__________________

I.
Introduction

1. The Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum of the Sovereign Pontiff Benedict XVI givenMotu Proprio on 7 July 2007, which came into effect on 14 September 2007, has made the richness of the Roman Liturgy more accessible to the Universal Church.

2. With this Motu Proprio, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a universal law for the Church, intended to establish new regulations for the use of the Roman Liturgy in effect in 1962.

3. The Holy Father, having recalled the concern of the Sovereign Pontiffs in caring for the Sacred Liturgy and in their recognition of liturgical books, reaffirms the traditional principle, recognised from time immemorial and necessary to be maintained into the future, that "each particular Church must be in accord with the universal Church not only regarding the doctrine of the faith and sacramental signs, but also as to the usages universally handed down by apostolic and unbroken tradition. These are to be maintained not only so that errors may be avoided, but also so that the faith may be passed on in its integrity, since the Church's rule of prayer (lex orandi) corresponds to her rule of belief (lex credendi)."¹

The Holy See Press Office announces that the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", on the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, will be made public on Friday, May 13th, and will be published on that afternoon (May 14th edition of L'Osservatore Romano). The Instruction will be published in its Latin typical version, and in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese translations.

(Note for the image: the Traditional Mass was the only Mass Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto ever knew.)

Burke on Summorum Pontificum and the post-Conciliar liturgical reform

From the interview granted by Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, to the May 2011 edition of French Catholic monthly La Nef:

La Nef – After over three years, what assessment can you make of the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum ?

Cardinal Burke – In its application, I have ascertained an always increasing interest and appreciation for the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, for the faithful in general and for young Catholics in particular. Excellent initiatives have taken place in order to promote acquaintance with the motu proprio and its objective, foreseen by the Holy Father when he promulgated it. I think of numerous individual talks as well as conferences on sacred liturgy, which have granted particular attention to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and to its relationship with the ordinary form. Additionally, several books and articles have been published, having as their aim a deep study of the motu proprio.

It is evident that the application of Summorum Pontificum has not taken place in a uniform fashion in the Church universal. In some places, its application has even faced resistence by the part of those who claim not to understand its goals and who defend that the motu proprio cannot be applied before the publication of the Instruction related to its application. I hope that the Instruction will be published shortly, so that the motu proprio may be applied in a more universal and more uniform way, according to the profound pastoral solicitude of our Holy Father for the sacred liturgy. To those who claim not to understand the intentions of Summorum Pontificum, I suggest a re-reading of the Letter to the Bishops, written by our Holy Father when it was promulgated, as well as the numerous writings of the Holy Father on sacred liturgy, published before and after his election to the Chair of Peter. I think, for instance, of his masterpiece: The Spirit of the Liturgy.

As far as I am concerned, the application of the motu proprio has allowed me to greatly develop and deepen my knowledge and love for the sacred liturgy, the highest expression of the faith and of the life of the Church. By re-reading the apostolic letter itself, as well as the accompanying Letter to Bishops of the Pope, I see how the Holy Father was inspired when grating to the universal Church this new liturgical discipline. I have myself been a personal witness to the good fruits of this new discipline.

As for the future, I am convinced that the faithful application of Summorum Pontificum will contribute to the true renewal of the sacred liturgy. That was the wish of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, but this was more or less betrayed by the way in which their teaching was put into practice after its closing. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, at the time, proposed numerous times a "reform of the reform", allowing for a full correction of the vague and erroneous interpretations of the Conciliar teaching on the sacred liturgy and the reception of the authentic magisterial teaching, for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.

The Instruction - prob. date Apr. 30, released in the first ten days of May.

The Instruction - IV

Messa in Latino and Flemish Catholic news website Kerknet mention that the Holy See may have started sending the Instruction on the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum to dioceses around the world.

The known contents, at the moment, include what we had already reported here, to which the only really new information that could be addded is that a mechanism of clear appeal to the Holy See (Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei') is established including a right to further appeal, when needed, from the Commission to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

It should be a matter of days or, at most, weeks before the Instruction is made public.

The Instruction
Pope may have ordered review of the last draft in order to remove more restrictions

And this comes from the latest edition of the "ultra-Progressive" French weekly Golias (tip to our friends at Messa in Latino), among other information we and MiL had already reported regarding the instruction on the implementation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum:

We have learned, from a direct Roman source, that this decree of application has indeed undergone a double correction. At the beginning, it has ben prepared by Mgr. Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission « Ecclesia Dei », in charge of the matter. Subsequently, Cardinal Levada and his faithful adviser, Mgr. Charles J. Scicluna, a Maltese, had strongly amended the text in a restrictive sense. With the agreement of Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship! Our recent information had thus been precise. [Rorate adds: so had ours.]

Once it had been modified by Levada, the document arrived at the Pope's office. And the latter would not have been pleased with the about-turn that had taken place. It [the draft] was thus replaced, more or less, by the document as it had originally been written by Guido Pozzo. [That is,] In a sense that is more favorable to Traditionalists.

So many things make sense in Golias's account - and dovetail perfectly with what we know - that we give it great credence, though it is still a collection of internal rumors almost impossible to verify with certainty. Our thanks to all who have prayed for this and signed the Petition.

Paix Liturgique presents a case to Cardinal Bertone

This text was presented to Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State at the Roman Curia, on 10 March 2011. It is intended to draw his attention to the fact that the Ecclesia Dei Pontifical Commission lacks the power to bring about the implementation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Your Eminence,

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007 seems to lack any binding force.

Relevant
The Instruction - III
Some good news

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.

Don Nicola Bux on the Instruction and the Reform of the Reform

Relevant excerpt of an interview granted by Monsignor Nicola Bux, consultant to the Office of Liturgical celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, to Italian daily Avanti, and published today:

At what point is the "reform of the reform" desired by Benedict XVI?

With this expression, which Ratzinger used when he still was the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he meant that the reform that took place after the Council had to be resumed, and in some ways corrected there where, always using his words, the restoration of the painting had been too much, that is, by trying to clean, it had taken the risk of removing too many layers of color. He started this restoration through his own style. The Pope celebrates the liturgy in a subdued, not loud, way. He also wants the prayers, songs, and anything else not to be in exhibitionist tones. And two special actions in his liturgies that are obvious should be noticed: he places the Cross between himself and the assembly, indicating that the liturgical rite is not addressed to the priestly minister, but to Christ; and kneeling in the reception of Communion, indicating that this is not a supper, in the worldly sense of the word, but a communion with the body of Jesus Christ, that is worshiped first, in the words of St. Augustine, and only then eaten.

How many obstacles is the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum on the pre-Conciliar Mass facing?

I believe that, currently, the obstacles are becoming feebler than at the time in which the Motu proprio was issued, in 2007. Through the internet, one can see how there is a discreet movement of young people who look for and, as much as it is possible, go to the Traditional Mass, also called the Latin Mass or Mass of All Time. And this, I believe, is a very important sign to gather.

It is clear that the pastors of the Church, first the bishops and then the parish priests, although often saying that we must be able to grasp the signs of the times, an expression very much in use after Vatican II, often fail to understand that the signs of the times are not defined by them, but they happen and are regulated mainly by young people. I think this is the most interesting symptom, because, if [only] the elderly, the adults, went to the Traditional Mass, one might harbor a suspicion that it is nostalgia. The fact that it is mostly young people who seek and participate in the Latin Mass is completely unexpected and therefore deserves to be read, understood, and particularly accompanied by the bishops.

I think the Pope acknowledges this and that is why he intends to make a further contribution through an instruction on the application of the motu proprio, to help everyone understand that, in addition to the new form of the Roman Rite, there is the ancient or extraordinary form.

[Tip and text: Papa Ratzinger Blog]

Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society (twenty-second posting of souls)

Continued Prayers for Summorum Pontificum
Turn to the Church Suffering and Triumphant

By now you most likely have read our numerous reports on the current state of Summorum Pontificum and the pending "Instruction" possibly coming soon. If you have not yet signed the petition to defend our Holy Father and the Traditional Latin Mass, please do so by clicking here. Please also urge your friends and family to do the same, and soon.

Let us also turn to the newly Church Triumphant that this Society has prayed to Heaven to intercede for us to strengthen the Holy Father and protect him from the wolves that are circling -- some very close to him. And let us also turn to the Church Suffering, especially those still enrolled in the Society, to pray that the Instruction strengthens Summorum Pontificum and doesn't lessen it. And, if it is to lessen it, that it never sees the light of day.

We have many souls grateful to us for our prayers and Masses. They want to help -- we just need to ask.

A reminder on how to enroll souls: please email me at cpaulitz@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "name, state, country." If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well. PLEASE follow this format strictly, as any deviation creates a lot of extra work.

Please also consider forwarding this Society to your family and friends, announcing from the pulpit during Holy Mass or listing in your church bulletin. We need to spread the word and relieve more suffering souls.

Please pray for the enrolled souls and the 14 holy priests saying Traditional Masses for the Society:

More than 10,000 signatures: have you signed the International Appeal?

(Newer posts below.)

INTERNATIONAL APPEAL IN DEFENSE OF
SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM

SIGN IT

SHARE IT

MAKE IT KNOWN

(Deutsch - Español - Français - Italiano - Nederlandse - Português)

Backdrop:

Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society (twenty-first posting of souls)

Urgent, Continued Prayers for Summorum Pontificum
Turn to the Church Suffering and Triumphant

By now you most likely have read our numerous reports on the current state of Summorum Pontificum and the Trojan Horse possibly coming within the "Instruction." Also, if you have not yet signed the petition to defend our Holy Father and the Traditional Latin Mass, please do so by clicking here. Please also urge your friends and family to do the same, and soon.

While action is absolutely necessary, and all should be writing to the Vicar of Christ, the PCED and others, we must also pray.

Over the last 21 weeks we have enrolled thousands of souls into this Society and, by the grace of God, we must have hope that many are now in Heaven.

Let us turn to the newly Church Triumphant to intercede for us to strengthen the Holy Father and protect him from the wolves that are circling -- some very close to him. And let us also turn to the Church Suffering, especially those still enrolled in the Society, to pray that the Instruction strengthens Summorum Pontificum and doesn't lessen it. And, if it is to lessen it, that it never sees the light of day.

We have many souls grateful to us for our prayers and Masses. They want to help -- we just need to ask.

Please pray for the enrolled souls and the 14 holy priests saying Traditional Masses for the Society:

Latest information on the Instruction, from Messa in Latino:

Great concern was raised in the Traditional world (and in Roman dicasteries...) by the leak of news of which we have been the co-authors, along with Rorate Caeli, regarding the contents of the Instruction on the motu proprio; for which we have spoken openly of the watering down of the motu proprio and have promoted, along with the New Liturgical Movement, an international appeal. How much the latter may influence matters is unknown; but we do know with certainty that what was set in motion, thanks to our sources (honestly concerned with the fate of the Church and of Tradition), has indeed made the Holy Father discreetly receive requests of the very highest levels regarding this famous Instruction. The Instruction is ready and Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (and President of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei'), discussed its final details in his audience with the Pope last Friday; but some amendments are perhaps still possible.

Debate on points of the Instruction

The New Liturgical Movement has a very interesting post and debate regarding a point of the current text of the Instruction of application of Summorum Pontificum. Please, do read it and comment there (and/or here).

The Instruction - II
Ghettoization must start in Ordination

Very few points of the current draft of the Instruction for the Application of Summorum Pontificum seem to be available to us. The first we mentioned, on blocking the application of the liberality of the motu proprio to all non-Roman Western rites and uses may seem minor - yet it is quite significant in what it reveals: an interpretation of the rights recognized by Summorum as privileges or "indults" that can be curtailed.

Our revelation today, made jointly with Messa in Latino, could seem even more limited in its extension - but it certainly is much, much, more serious and insidious in the extent it shows that the anti-Summorum field has infiltrated the composition of the Instruction. In short, the Instruction, in its current draft, will explicitly prevent Bishops from using the Traditional Rite of Holy Orders.

There will be two exceptions. One, dedicated to the those institutes (the 'Ecclesia Dei' institutes) and particular Churches dedicated exclusively to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The other exception is that the Bishop that desires to ordain a certain seminarian in the ancient Rite will have to ask prior permission to Rome (to the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei'), which will then evaluate if said permission should be granted or not.

While the motu proprio is unclear on the use of the Traditional liturgical rites of the Roman Pontifical for Holy Orders (Baptism, Matrimony, Penance, Extreme Unction, and Confirmation are expressly mentioned in art. 9, and the Holy Eucharist throughout the text), this is no loophole. While it might make sense to clarify some points regarding other Sacraments, as directed by the "Pastor" (art. 9 § 1), it would obviously be unnecessary to "allow" these same Pastors to do what they can always do: ordain priests of the Roman Rite using the books of the Roman Rite, including the rite of Holy Orders that was used in the Latin Church for well over a millennium.

What is to be achieved by this odious restrictive interpretation? Why should Bishops be forbidden to choose with which Rite to ordain their own deacons and priests? Since the advent of Summorum, in a few privileged places, Bishops have furthered the establishment of a biritual mentality in their seminaries, and have indeed celebrated Holy Orders in the Extraordinary Form; it seems clear that, if a Bishop so desires, for an unlimited number of pastoral and spiritual reasons, he should be able to do so freely.

The intention is, among others, to ghettoize the Traditional Rite of this most pivotal of all Sacraments, Holy Orders; and, further, to identify "problematic" Bishops and future priests, with all consequences that could entail (including for their careers). It is an alarming sign that the thrust of the Instruction is once again to make, even in law, all Catholics attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or those who merely appreciate it (and, in this case, even Bishops and poor hopeful seminarians) second-class Catholics.

___

As a note, the current draft of the Instruction bears indeed the date of Feb. 22. This date is, naturally and as it is common with many Roman documents, symbolic and fictitious- in the sense that alterations may take place between the date indicated in the text and its publication.

________

Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society (twentieth posting of souls)

Urgent Prayers for Summorum Pontificum
Turn to the Church Suffering and Triumphant

By now you most likely have read our reports on the current state of Summorum Pontificum and the Trojan Horse possibly coming within the "Instruction" (see here and here).

While action is absolutely necessary, and all should be writing to the Vicar of Christ, the PCED and others, we must also pray.

The Instruction - I
Non-Roman rites and uses: a small sample of things to come,
the risk of a return to the "indult" mentality

The day before yesterday, in a post long gone, and yesterday, we were (unjustly) accused of being alarmist because we tried to warn our readers that the clarification instruction on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (henceforth, "the instruction") has been, at least in its latest draft, rewritten in a way that is unexpectedly and unjustifiably restrictive. Unexpectedly, because since the very first reports on the intruction, in August-October 2007, it had always been seen, and presented by several Vatican sources, as an instrument to make the application of Summorum Pontificum wider and to destroy the ridiculous roadblocks placed by several bishops regarding the wide rights recognized by that text. Unjustifiably, because, if anything, what Summorum needs is a firmer assurance of its application, and not increasing difficulties.

"Where are the texts of this instruction draft?", some have asked. "This is all rather vague," others have affirmed. And at least one report has simply denied any such intentions in the intruction. We can only thank those friends who, though discreetly, confirmed by other means what our sources had told us.

The text of the draft may still be altered; the general restrictive intentions, however, cannot be denied. Together with Messa in Latino, we can add the following:

We have learned, up to the present moment, at least two relevant points of the Instruction. Both points should not be seen as minor, since they are indicative of the generally restrictive tone of the text. For several reasons, and because time is necessary to digest unseemly news, only the first point will be discussed in this post.

And that is: in its current draft, the Instruction definitely "clarifies" that the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum is applied exclusively to the Roman Rite, in the strictest interpretation of the word. Therefore, not to the non-Roman Latin Rites: the clearly minoritarian or even forgotten Mozarabic, Braga, or Sarum rites. But the rule would apply also to the not few religious who have tried to rediscover their Traditional rites or uses: Dominicans and Carmelites, in particular, but also Carthusians, Norbertines... What is surprising is that the extension of the spirit of the motu proprio to other Western rites and uses had always been assumed, and the official response that it would not apply to religious uses, demanding a proper clarification, had indeed been one of the very causes of the instruction.

This restrictive rule would in particular (and would seem thus planned, considering the complications of the Italian Church) exclude the application of the motu proprio to the Traditional Liturgy of the largest diocese in the Old World, and third with most Catholics in the world: Milan. Excluding the enclaves of Roman Rite, the motu proprio would be void in the Archdiocese and in the Ambrosian zones of the Diocese of Lugano, Switzerland.

For over five million Catholics in that area, and for religious priests dedicated to their rites or uses, the rules to be applied would not be those of Summorum (the Traditional Liturgy as a right of priests and groups of faithful), but only Ecclesia-Dei-like privileges and concessions, granted by the liturgical authorities of the Archdiocese (in the case of Milan) or the Superiors (in the case of the orders).

Why such a restriction? In legal terms, nothing seems to demand it: the text of Summorum is sufficiently ambiguous that it can be interpreted in both ways, even though it makes reference to the Roman Missal, Breviary, and Rite, and restrictive rules are, in general, applied in a limited way (odiosa limitanda, favorabilia amplianda). Moreover, such a rule would openly contradict the official response of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' (in the case of open application of Summorum to the Ambrosian Rite, cf. here).

This first major point of the instruction has, thus, a clear repressive and punitive intention. Its sense would be extremely dangerous: that the Traditional liturgies of the West, rather than being encouraged (as the letter of the motu proprio makes clear), must be contained, regulated, oppressed. Not a clear declaration of rights, but a bureaucratic web of limited privileges and concessions: this small example seems to set the general new tone regarding the Traditional Liturgy.

Let us defend Summorum Pontificum against the Trojan Horse

[Update: We will keep this up; all signs from different sources are aligning, and unexpected sources have confirmed our fears; the matter is too relevant to be kept in silence.]

[1014 GMT] Strange, violent, and dark forces wish to derail the application of Summorum Pontificum. Lawyers (and those who know lawyers...) and legislators are quite aware how this goes: a lower-ranking interpretive text so modifies the clear letter of the law that renders the latter ineffectual.

Reports from different sources suggest that ill-intentioned people within the highest ranks of the Holy See wish to use the clarification document on Summorum Pontificum as a Trojan Horse, emptying the motu proprio of all its content, especially regarding Parish Priests and other members of the diocesan clergy (see e.g. Messa in Latino). This is a dangerous, clear, and credible threat. We must pray, indeed, but all priests and lay faithful must act. All Catholic faithful must send urgent and respectful letters to the Holy Father, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Secretariat of State, the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei', and other authorities, asking the Holy Father and curial authorities to defend the clear letter of the motu proprio that gave us freedom and thanking once again the Holy Father for the gift that was Summorum Pontificum, including references to the personal improvement brought to one's Catholic life and family by the wider availability of the Traditional liturgy.