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(13/05/2003) The Return of the Latin Mass?
Exclusive: The Vatican is preparing to call, in the clearest way since the
Second Vatican Council, for an end to liturgical abuses -- and for far
wider use of the old Latin Mass
“The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.”
By Robert Moynihan
VATICAN CITY, May 13, 2003 – Forty years after the Second Vatican Council,
after four decades of liturgical "experimentation" which has troubled many
of the faithful, Rome is about to issue a major disciplinary document,
ending years of a generally "laissez faire" attitude toward liturgical
experimentation and “do-it-youself” Masses.
The document is now in draft form and is expected to be published between
October and Christmas this year.
In a bombshell passage, the document will also encourage far wider use of
the “old Mass”, the Tridentine rite Mass, in Latin, throughout the Roman
Catholic Church.
The new, stricter guidelines for celebrating the liturgy, and the mandate
to celebrate the old Latin Mass more widely, even on a weekly basis, in
every parish in the world, will be contained in a document to be published
by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, headed by Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze.
“We expect the document to be published before Christmas,” Arinze told "Inside
the Vatican" in an exclusive interview. “We want to respond to the
spiritual hunger and sorrow so many of the faithful have expressed to us
because of liturgical celebrations that seemed irreverent and unworthy of
true adoration of God. You might sum up our document with words that echo
the final words of the Mass: ‘The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in
peace.’”
We will be reporting in more detail on this historic document in future
issues of "Inside the Vatican."
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