I know, I know...I'm not into rumors usually, but they seem to be getting serious now.

Even if it was promulgated today, with a press conference and all, what would it really help?

A few places would have their TLM, yes, which is always a good thing. BUT it wouldn't end the Crisis in the Church single-handedly.

Priests AND faithful would still prefer their sentimentality, female participation in the Mass, etc. and so would reject the TLM even if it were available.


 French news agency says "Motu proprio has been signed"

The French religious news agency I.Media, based in Rome, confirms today that the information published yesterday by the Italian papal news website Petrus is for the most part accurate and that the motu proprio liberalizing the Traditional Latin Mass has been signed; details regarding the date of the docuмent and a possible press conference are also explained by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi.


    Vatican - Agence I.MEDIA - 15 June 2007

    The Motu Proprio liberalizing the Tridentine Rite has been signed by Benedict XVI

    [Main excerpts:]

    The Motu Proprio which will liberalize the Tridentine Mass has been signed by Benedict XVI and will be published very soon. An explanatory letter addressed to all the Bishops of the world will be joined to the text, Vatican sources close to the dossier have confirmed.

    ... Benedict XVI signed the docuмent "a while ago", [the sources] have confided.

    ...

    If "a precise date has been chosen" for its publication, it is still kept secret in the Vatican, it has been explained to I.MEDIA. While it is close, it would seem more prudent "to speak of weeks, instead of days".


    ... Father Federico Lombardi has for his part confirmed the information to I.MEDIA, without specifying the date of publication. He has not wished to confirm the fact that the docuмent could be presented in a press conference at the Vatican. "I cannot tell things until they are confirmed and may be communicated, which I usually do by way of the Bulletin of the Press Office".

    ...

    According to some Vatican rumors, the docuмent could be published when Pope Benedict begins his Castel Gandolfo vacation, in late July [Rorate note: the Pope's late summer vacation this year at Castel Gandolfo will begin on July 28]. [The publication of] important and delicate docuмents [by the Holy See] during summer and vacations has already happened [in the past]. Such was the case of the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the world, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released in late July 2004.