With Crumpet Blast

Anything will do in journalism; it doesn't have to be true. Here's a piece (one of the most inaccurate I've ever seen) on the forthcoming (?) Motu Proprio, from The Trumpet, the organ (as it were) of the Philadelphia Church of God. Go, girl! With journalistic skills like these, you could soon be running the BBC!

Pope Revives Latin Mass
Thursday, May 31, 2007


Under the guiding hand of Pope Benedict xvi, the traditional Tridentine Mass is making a comeback in spite of internal and external opposition, reports USA Today.

The Second Vatican Council, conducted from 1962 to 1965, restricted the use of the Latin, ultra-conservative Tridentine Missal, or prayer book, for use during mass. The reason for the change, which was made during a time of emerging liberalism, was clear: Many felt that changing times called for a more flexible, inclusive mass. Where the Tridentine Mass was conservative, inflexible and peppered with derogatory implications toward Jews and non-Catholics, the new mass would facilitate greater participation among laymembers, be more compact and be written in a variety of languages. “Many in the church regard Vatican ii as a moment of badly needed reform and a new beginning,” wrote Nicole Winfield.

Though the decision to restrict the Tridentine Mass was welcomed by most, it was scorned by hard-core Catholics. A younger Joseph Ratzinger was among the disgruntled conservatives. At the time, Ratzinger, now Benedict xvi, criticized the changes ushered in by Vatican ii: “I was stunned by the ban on the ancient missal,” he wrote in his memoirs (Sunday Times, March 11).

Now that Ratzinger is the most powerful man in the Roman Catholic Church, he is in a position to reverse the Vatican ii decision. His intentions are not just to resurrect the Tridentine, but also to set it above the current mass. The Tridentine Mass will be an “extraordinary universal rite,” and the current mass will become an “ordinary universal rite” (ibid.).