VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – A memorandum from the Vatican Secretariat of State abolished “individual” masses celebrated on several side altars in St. Peter’s Basilica and restricted traditional Latin Mass (TLM) to a single altar in the crypt of basilica.
The unsigned order, in force on March 22, puts an end to the secular practice of masses by priests who celebrate alone, ostensibly “to ensure that the holy masses in St. Peter’s Basilica are conducted in a climate of recollection and liturgical decorum”.
The dictate banishes the TLM to the small Clementine chapel of the Vatican cave and orders its celebration exclusively by “authorized priests” at four specific times, from 7 am to 9 am.
Celebrating “solitary” priests celebrating the TLM or the Novus Ordo (new rite) will be required to participate in the “concelebrations” of the Novus Ordo, according to the order.
Multiple sources confirmed to Church Militant the authenticity of the Vatican document after intense speculation on social media on Friday night and the refusal of the Holy See Press Office to answer questions from the media.
“The document is now hanging in the sacristy of St. Peter,” sources told Church Militant after two priests in the Curia who regularly celebrate alone at side altars said they were shocked and have not yet been informed of the memo.
A leading canonist based in Rome questioned the document’s validity: “If the author cannot be identified, the decree is invalid because an essential element of a legal act is missing.”
The text is signed by an unidentified and unidentified individual, who appears to be from the First Section of General Affairs of the Secretariat of State headed by Abp of Venezuelan origin. Edgar Peña Parra, currently under investigation on charges of sodomy, abuse and corruption.
“Secondly, the decree is invalid in my professional opinion because it is not sufficiently motivated”, noted the canonist. “That is unprecedented res (unpublished) for the Secretary of State to prohibit ‘unauthorized’ masses in the holy basilica of St. Peter. “
“What are the real reasons behind such abuse of power and seizure of power by unidentified individuals from the Secretary of State?” asked the expert on canon law.
“The beautiful tradition of priests celebrating private masses on the side altars of St. Peter’s Basilica – as they have been doing for over a thousand years – so edifying for early morning visitors, is threatened, apparently because someone wants to promote the concelebration of the mass in one very coercive way, ”Dr. Joseph Shaw, president of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, told Church Militant.
“Regular priests or visitors who wish to celebrate the Ordinary Form will be required to attend a limited number of scheduled masses, unless they have a group of pilgrims with them,” said Shaw, a member of the prestigious Royal Society of Arts. “Four spots for Extraordinary Form (TLM) are also available, almost, it seems, as an afterthought.”
Pope Francis is literally driving traditional Latin Catholic Catholics underground.
Shaw elaborated:
The motivation for this change seems to be the application of what has been described in several documents as a “preferable” option, when two or more priests wish to celebrate Mass, so that they concelebrate. This is found in official documents dating back to 1967, although the practice of concelebrating priests among themselves is a complete innovation of the same decade. The only historical precedents for the practice are priests assisting bishops.
The arguments for concelebration as the “preferred option” are undermined by the fact – which Pope Benedict XVI reiterated in 2007 (in Sacramentum Caritatis) – the “objectively infinite value of each celebration.” Given the value of each Mass, reducing the number of Masses by having several priests concelebrating just one, rather than celebrating several individually, is clearly a setback.
In addition to the scheduled masses offered daily at the main altars of the basilica, the 45 altars and 11 chapels of St. Peter are attended every morning by the clergy – often by priests working in the Vatican Curia – to celebrate their daily mass.
Sources told Church Militant that they personally witnessed the growing annoyance of modernist clergymen targeting young people, especially students from Roman and pontifical universities who attended small but significant numbers in the morning TLM.
The tradition of priests who celebrate private masses is threatened because someone wants to promote the concelebration of the mass in a very coercive way.
The memo aims to “cancel” the TLM of St. Peter’s Basilica, making it “virtually invisible” to tourists and Catholics entering the sanctuary, said a priest from the Curia. “Pope Francis is literally driving traditional Latin American Catholics underground and into the catacombs.”
Others suggested that the newly appointed modernist archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, a 55-year-old Cdl. Mauro Gambetti, is responsible for the “traditionalist purge”.
However, the controversial memorandum is not addressed to Gambetti, but to the Extraordinary Commissioner of the Factory of St. Peter’s Basilica, Abp. Mario Giordana, whose department does not deal with the liturgies of the basilica, but with its conservation and maintenance.
The memo also requires “readers and singers” to be present at “authorized” masses, leading to suggestions that Pope Francis intends to increase the visibility of lay women in St. Peter’s Basilica as a model for other churches to emulate, after their changes in January. to the Code of Canon Law institutionalizing women readers and acolytes.
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