Bishop Brown oversees all aspects of the liturgical life of or local Church. This includes the implementation of Ecclesia Dei, a 1988 apostolic letter by Pope John Paul II in which he recognized the "rightful aspirations" of all Catholics who wished to worship according to traditional forms and called upon bishops to apply both widely and generously the indult, Quattor abhinc annos, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship on October 3, 1984. A similar moto proprio is expected soon from Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Brown has listened to the concerns of those faithful of our local Church who are attached to the older liturgical form of the Mass, i.e., the Missal of 1962, often referred to as the "Tridentine Mass." Although one such Mass is currently celebrated each Sunday morning at 8:00 AM at the historic Serra Chapel of Mission San Juan Capistrano, the level of interest is such that Bishop Brown has directed that an additional Mass utilizing the Missale Romanum – editio typica 1962 (Latin Mass) will be celebrated "ad experimentum" at the John Paul II Polish Center, located at 3999 Rose Drive in Yorba Linda, on Sundays at 7:00 AM. The first Mass at that location will be celebrated on the 25th of February 2007, the First Sunday of Lent.

Bishop Brown made his decision after consultation with his College of Consultors and with the agreement of Fr. George Blais, the director of the Center, and the willingness of the Rt. Reverend Eugene Hayes O. Praem., Abbot of St.

Michael’s Abbey, to supply priests able to celebrate these Masses fittingly. It is hoped that this additional location, one that can accommodate a larger number of the faithful, will be of pastoral benefit to those who are attached to this older form of the Mass.  It is the role of the Diocesan Bishop to be at the service of communio within the Church that he is called to shepherd. May this broader and more generous application of the norms articulated in Ecclesia Dei be a sign of this solicitude for all God’s Holy People in the Diocese of Orange.

SAMPLE BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENT

At the direction of Bishop Brown, an additional Mass utilizing the Missale Romanum – editio typica 1962 (often referred to at the "Tridentine" Latin Mass) will be celebrated "ad experimentum" at the John Paul II Polish Center, located at 3999 Rose Drive in Yorba Linda, on Sundays at 7:00 AM beginning on the 25th of February 2007, the First Sunday of Lent.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

A Matrimonial Quest
For our wedding we wanted a Latin Mass. It wasn't easy.

BY MARK AND MINYOUNG WYMAN
Friday, October 20, 2006 12:01 a.m. ED

Rumors are furiously circulating that Pope Benedict XVI will soon grant Catholics broad access to the Tridentine Latin Mass. Based on ancient sources and codified in 1570 after the Council of Trent, the Tridentine Mass was in use for centuries before the Second Vatican Council called for its reform. After the close of the Council in 1965, a reform commission produced the new Order of Mass we have today. For many Catholics, the cadences and rituals of the traditional Latin Mass were a profound part of their religious devotion. There may have been wisdom in the church's attempt to "update" the Mass. But many Catholics felt a loss, too, when their traditional form of worship was all but banished.

Since the Council, those devoted to the Tridentine Mass have pleaded with the church to restore their right to that venerable form of worship. In 1988, a sympathetic Pope John Paul II asked that bishops provide "wide and generous" access to the traditional liturgy. But stingy clerics, who regard devotees of the old Mass as retrograde, often ignored this request, a form of defiance that the current pope is obviously well aware of and determined to correct. If the latest rumors are true, Pope Benedict will allow the Tridentine Mass to coexist with the new Mass, bypassing bishops and giving individual parishes freedom to use either rite.

Maybe, as a result, others will be spared the ordeal we went through to have a Tridentine Wedding Mass. We are members of an often ignored wing of the Catholic Church, parishioners who favor the old-fashioned ways and their external signs: confessionals, statues, missals and scapulars. Many of the powers-that-be seem embarrassed by our continued presence, as if a whiff of the old pious practices might reverse what they call the liturgical "progress" of the past four decades.

Thus the greater New York metropolitan area is currently permitted only a handful of weekly celebrations of the Tridentine Mass. Unfortunately, finding a parish for our own nuptial Mass was a painful process. A priest at one such parish in Manhattan told us that the rector and his parish council were not interested in having more old Masses celebrated there. A parochial vicar in Long Island nearly chortled at the suggestion that any additional Tridentine Masses would be allowed in the diocese that he serves. The secretary of Edward Cardinal Egan, the Archbishop of New York, responded to our impassioned plea by offering us the ugliest church in the borough.

Finally, however, we were welcomed into a church in Manhattan by a pastor who, happily, cares little for the antitraditional biases of his ecclesiastical colleagues. And so on July 22 we were wed at the Church of Our Saviour, with all the rich trappings of a traditional Catholic Nuptial Mass--from the ethereal strains of Latin chant down to the lace trimmed hems of the priests' vestments.

We discovered that finding the accessories for the wedding was remarkably easy. Numerous small retail and not-for-profit agencies have sprung up to serve the growing numbers devoted to the old Latin Mass. For our female guests, we purchased saucer-sized chapel veils from an online retailer. A group of laymen based in Illinois supplied us with dozens of inexpensive paperback Latin-English missals. A parish in Pequannock, N.J., outfitted the priests with elaborate hand-made vestments.

Especially dear to us were four young men from the area who volunteered as altar servers for the intricate Solemn High Mass ritual, a task requiring attention, practice and pious reverence. Each had memorized special responses to the prayers and enacted choreographed duties that assist the priest's sacrifice at the altar. The ritual of the Mass depended on these four men as much as it did on the three priests. They provided their own transportation and sacral clothing; the only reward they sought was the privilege of serving at such a rare event.

These experiences betoken a movement filled with charity and community, and, of course, they meant a great deal to us. But we would like to think that such traditional customs--if they are allowed to flourish again--would also enrich the devotional life of many other Catholics. The broader church may want to nourish this movement back to a timeless faith. Even if the bishops and baby boomers wish to persist in their ways, the time is ripe for them to give us young fogeys a seat at the table.

Mr. Wyman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. Mrs. Wyman is a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.

Vatican, Oct. 11/2006 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) is preparing to release a motu proprio extending permission for priests to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass, Vatican sources have confirmed.

The new papal document-- for which a publication date has not yet been set-- would give all priests permission to celebrate the Mass of St. Pius V. This permission, a "universal indult," would replace the existing indult that dates back to 1988, when Ecclesia Dei authorized use of the Tridentine rite until more restricted conditions, requiring the permission of the local bishop.

Pope Benedict has long favored moves to accommodate traditionalist Catholics, and to integrate the Tridentine rite into the regular liturgical life of the Church. The motu proprio that he has prepared-- which, according to informed sources, is now in final form-- addresses other liturgical questions as well as the issue of the traditional Mass.

Vatican sources say that the papal document affirms the principle that there is only one liturgical rite for the Latin Church. But this rite has two forms: the "ordinary" liturgy (the Novus Ordo, celebrated in the vernacular language) and the "extraordinary" (the Tridentine rite, in Latin). These two forms have equal rights, the text indicates, and bishops are strongly encouraged to allow free use of both forms.

Pope Benedict is reportedly waiting for the best moment to release the new document, which is currently circulating among Vatican dicasteries. Speculation in Rome is that the indult will be announced at the same time that the Pope releases his apostolic exhortation concluding the Synod on the Eucharist. That document is expected soon, perhaps in November.

There is significant opposition to the indult among Vatican officials, and the papal text has been the subject of serious debate and criticism. But Pope Benedict has made it clear-- notably in his meeting with the College of Cardinals in March-- that he will move forward with efforts to accommodate traditionalists.

In 1988, with his own motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, Pope John Paul II (bio - news) allowed the celebration of the old Mass in parish settings, provided that the local bishop gave his approval. The Ecclesia Dei commission was created to supervise implementation of that policy. Despite the urging of Pope John Paul for a "broad and generous" use of the indult, many bishops have been reluctant to allow the traditional Mass, or have severely restricted its use.

The papal document is likely to take the form of an apostolic letter, with the added status of a motu proprio-- a document that carries the force of canon law. The document has been reviewed by the Congregation for Divine Worship and by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos (bio - news), the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, as well as the Pope; it is now in at least its third draft.