The Vatican has instructed priests to allow the celebration of Mass in Latin if traditional congregations demand it.
The so-called Tridentine Mass remains rare, despite a 2007 papal decree ordering its wider use for Catholics uncomfortable with modern rites.
The 'old rite' was abandoned in most churches more than 40 years ago, in favour of services in local languages.
The move is part of an effort to bridge differences between traditionalists and progressives in the Church.
Traditionalists object to the fact that only a third of dioceses worldwide have implemented the 2007 decree, which is partly due to a lack of priests trained in Latin, correspondents say.
The new Vatican docuмent instructs bishops to make more space and time available for groups wishing to celebrate the old Latin Mass, adding that both the old and the modern rites are equally valid.
It also calls for Latin instruction for priests wishing to celebrate it. But it admits that with ever fewer priests having a working knowledge of Latin, this is going to be difficult in some parts of the world.
"There are going to be a lot of happy traditionalists," Reverend John Zuhlsdorf, a commentator and columnist told the AP news agency.
Others have criticised the directive, suggesting it could create a rupture in the Church.
What Pope Benedict is now trying to do is to heal the rift between those Catholics who regard the attempted restoration of the old Latin rite as a step backwards, and the traditionalists who are nostalgic for the old Church liturgy, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.
A serious breach which occurred in the 1970s when a traditionalist French Bishop was excommunicated for rejecting the reforms of the second Vatican council and insisting on the continuation of the Latin Mass.
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AP NEWS STORY
By The Associated Press DANIELA PETROFF (Associated Press)
VATICAN CITY - (AP) -- The Vatican issued new instructions Friday asking bishops and priest to make the old Latin Mass accessible, but warned that Catholic faithful who follow the rite must not question the authority of the pope or the legitimacy of the new Mass.
Pope Benedict XVI had asked for a study after he ordered wider use of the Latin Mass in 2007 for those Catholics uncomfortable with the modern rite celebrated in the language of the congregation.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the norms were published to "reconcile differences" between those who are in favor of restoring the Latin rite and those who see it as a going backward in time to a more conservative church. He said that complaints from both sides were about equal.
Along with calling on bishops to implement the pope's instructions by making more spaces and times available to groups looking for the old rite, the docuмent also stresses the need for Latin instruction for priests wanting to celebrate it.
Benedict's efforts to make the old rite more accessible was also a bid to reach out to followers of an excommunicated traditionalist, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who split with Rome over the Second Vatican Council reforms in the 1960s, notably the introduction of the New Mass.
The new instructions say that "the faithful who ask for the celebration ... must not in any way belong to groups which show themselves to be against the validity or legitimacy of the Holy Mass or the Sacraments" in the new form or against the pope's authority.
Some liberal-minded Catholics had complained that Benedict's move amounted to a negation of Vatican II, and some prelates had warned that its implementation would create a rupture in the church.
"The spirit of the docuмent is one of reconciliation and welcome," Lombardi said.
The new instructions do not go into such issues as the possibility of using altar girls for the old rite, or the prayer for the conversion of the Jєωs found in the old Good Friday rite. Vatican officials have told Jєωιѕн groups that the church in no way intended to go against its spirit of reconciling with Jєωs.
The instruction was primarily issued because many bishops weren't implementing the pope's directives to make the old rite more widely available.
It asks that those seeking the rite be given a "generous welcome" by bishops and priests.
"There are going to be a lot of happy traditionalists," said the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a commentator and columnist who closely tracks the celebration of the Latin Mass.
He said some people tried to "torpedo" the 2007 docuмent during the tortured drafting process of the instruction, but that didn't happen in the end. "If anything, this instruction demonstrates that this is here to stay."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This m
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(Reuters) - A new Vatican docuмent instructs bishops around the world to reintroduce the old Latin mass abandoned in the late 1960s if traditionalist Catholics in their areas request it.
Pope Benedict first issued a decree to that effect three years ago but the so-called Tridentine mass is still quite rare in Catholic churches, where a modern mass in the local language is the norm and will continue to be the standard liturgy.
Here are some details on how Latin has been used in the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict's efforts to support it.
* FROM GREEK TO LATIN: Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic, a language close to Hebrew, and the evangelists wrote the Gospels in Greek, lingua franca of the Mediterranean area at the time. Christians in Rome adopted Latin and it became the Church's language in the fourth century. Saint Jerome's Bible translation into Latin is called the Vulgate because it used common (or "vulgar") Latin.
With Scripture in Latin, the Church adopted the Roman tongue for its mass everywhere. This continued even as the use of everyday spoken Latin slowly declined over the centuries and successor languages such as Italian, Spanish and French emerged.
* THE TRIDENTINE MASS: The Council of Trent (1545-1563) codified the Latin mass from earlier liturgies and approved the Roman Missal used from 1570 until the mid-1960s. The priest celebrated mass with his back to the congregation, which prayed silently or followed the Latin prayers in books called missals. This is the "Tridentine mass" which is often referred to as the "old Latin mass."
* REFORMS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL: The Council (1962- 1965) allowed the use of vernacular languages at mass. Latin was not meant to be fully scrapped, but it was quickly abandoned by local churches. The pontifical universities in Rome, where many future Church leaders are educated, stopped teaching in Latin in 1967. This decision eventually all but dried up the small pool of priests who could actually speak the dead language.
* THE "MASS OF POPE PAUL VI" UPDATE: In 1969, Pope Paul VI issued an updated version of the mass that made significant changes such as turning the priest toward the people, simplifying the rituals and using more Scriptural readings. The pope says this modern mass in Latin at the Vatican and it is celebrated in vernacular languages around the world. Traditionalist Catholics reject this mass as less spiritual and aesthetic than the Tridentine mass.
* SYMBOLISM OF LATIN: Restoring Latin became a rallying point for traditionalists. It was one of several differences that the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) group of priests had with the Vatican that led to the excommunication of their four bishops in 1988. Pope John Paul tried to head off that split with a declaration in 1984 authorizing bishops to allow the Latin mass to be celebrated occasionally. Traditionalists complained that few bishops agreed to allow this.
* POPE BENEDICT AND LATIN
Unlike almost all other Catholic leaders, Pope Benedict is fluent in Latin and has long supported greater use of it. In 2007, he issued a decree allowing wider use of the Latin mass. Traditionalists cheered but many bishops were still reluctant or opposed and many priests no longer knew how to celebrate it.
Benedict's determination to bring back some traditional elements in the Church led to a major row in 2009 when he lifted the excommunication ban on the four SSPX bishops, including one -- Richard Williamson -- who is a known h0Ɩ0cαųst denier. This caused an uproar among many Catholics and Jєωs as well as some politicians in his native Germany. The pope later said he would not have lifted Williamson's ban if he had known his views.
The Vatican and the SSPX have been holding doctrinal discussions to reintegrate the ultra-traditionalists into the Church, but they have reportedly made little progress because the SSPX rejects several other Vatican Council reforms.
*CURRENT SITUATION
The number of Latin masses celebrated around the world has been rising since 2007, but only slowly and from a tiny base. A recent report by Una Voce, an international pro-Latin group, said most growth was in the United States, Britain and France with bishops in developing countries -- where a growing majority of Catholics lives -- showing little or no interest. It sent the Vatican a confidential list of bishops it said were not complying with the decree to allow the Latin mass more often.
On May 13, 2011, the Vatican issued a directive reminding bishops they must allow celebration of the Latin mass and giving the Vatican the power to decide any disputes if traditionalists claim their bishop is blocking the use of the old liturgy. Source: Reuters/
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