Revival of Latin Mass upsets liberals

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was all but swept away by the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The decision, a victory for traditional, conservative Roman Catholics, came over the objections of liberal-minded Catholics and angered Jews because the Tridentine Mass contains a prayer for their conversion.

In a decree known as a "motu propio," essentially a personal decision, the pope urged priests to celebrate a 1962 version of the 16th-century Tridentine Mass when their congregations requested it.

Until now, priests could use the Latin Mass only with permission from their bishops. The document upset Jews because the Tridentine rite contains a prayer on Good Friday of Easter Week calling for their conversion. The Anti-Defamation League called the move a "body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations," the Jewish news agency JTA reported.

In reviving the rite, Benedict was reaching out to the followers of an excommunicated ultratraditionalist, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who split with the Vatican over Vatican II, particularly the introduction of the New Mass celebrated in the vernacular.

Benedict has been eager to reconcile with Lefebvre's group, the Society of St. Pius X, which has demanded freer use of the old Mass as a precondition for normalizing relations. The other precondition is the removal of the excommunication decrees. The Vatican did not address the excommunication issue Saturday and there was no indication if or when it would.

The Tridentine Mass was largely replaced by newer liturgy approved during the Second Vatican Council, which took place between 1962 and 1965. In the newer rite, local languages replaced Latin, priests faced their congregations instead of turning their backs on them, and some wording deemed offensive to Jews was changed.

Benedict, a conservative theologian, has made no secret of his affinity for the Tridentine rite and has long said the faithful should have greater access to it.

In addition to Jewish concerns, bishops in France, and liberal-minded clergy and faithful elsewhere expressed concerns that allowing freer use of the Tridentine liturgy would imply a negation of Vatican II and create divisions in parishes since two different liturgies would be celebrated.

In a letter to bishops accompanying the Latin text, Benedict said those fears were "unfounded."

He said the New Mass remained the "normal" form of Mass while the Tridentine version was an "extraordinary" one that would probably be sought by only a few Catholics.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.