On Monday, August 15, 2022, there will be a High Mass for the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On Monday, August 29, there will be a Solemn High Mass for the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.
Both Masses will start at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Rosary Cathedral.
We wish to share our experience of the traditional liturgy, which has nourished many saints throughout the centuries and continues to edify a growing number of souls throughout the Catholic Church today. We will share why Catholics of all backgrounds value and treasure this Mass and why so many non-Catholics are inspired by its beauty and majesty. This Mass is an integral part of our collective heritage and must be preserved.
We are surprised and saddened by the issuance of the document Traditionis Custodes by Pope Francis and even more so by the recent response of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship. It is difficult to reconcile these actions with the commitments and promises made by Pope Francis’ predecessors, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
We wish to continue in harmony with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, while spiritually benefiting from the graciousness of Pope Benedict XVI who encouraged all priests of the Roman Rite who desired to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments through his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum.
The wide and generous acceptance of the usus antiquior, or traditional rites, has produced a healing within the Church that allows many Catholics to draw closer to Christ and to the heart of their Mother, the Church. It has been especially helpful in reconciling those who have felt abandoned by their shepherds in the past. Far from driving Catholics away, the Latin Mass has helped many to think with the mind of the Church, recognizing Vatican II as a true ecumenical council and the Liturgy of Pope Paul VI as a real re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
We are saddened too, at the thought of the possible loss of the beauty of the Traditional Liturgy which hearkens back more than fifteen hundred years and has inspired great works of art, literature, music, poetry, and architecture for centuries. We see the eventual prohibition or severe restriction of the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments as a loss, not only to the many Catholics who regularly lift up their hearts to God in this form of worship, but to all Catholics, and to humanity in general.
Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV: Una Voce International)
www.fiuv.org | secretary@fiuv.org
The Holy See has invited contributions to the Synod on Synodality which is planned for 2023. Previous exercises of consultation, such as the Family Synod in 2015, suggest that the contributions which are allowed to influence the final documents can be selected for their conformity to the agenda of synod organisers. Nevertheless, a failure by Catholics attached to the Church’s ancient liturgy to make their views known would make our non-inclusion inevitable. Furthermore, views not included at later stages will at least have been viewed in earlier stages, and at a local level, perhaps by more open-minded individuals. Without placing any exaggerated hopes on the ultimate outcome, we should do what we can to ensure that our views are part of the mix.
This document is designed to help you take part in this consultation as effectively as possible.
FIUV Guidelines for Synodal Process (Document)
By Solène Tadié Solène Tadié is the Europe Correspondent for the National Catholic Register.
The Catholic association La Voie Romaine is collecting letters from around the world that will be brought to the Vatican, at the conclusion of a spring march connecting the two European capitals.
PARIS — Some faithful devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass are mobilizing to convince the Pope to temper his restrictions arising from the recent motu proprio Traditionis Custodes on the use of pre-Vatican II Roman liturgy.
Considering the papal document as being the result of a misleading perception of traditional communities within the Church hierarchy, some French faithful have organized to launch the association La Voie Romaine, with the aim of collecting letters in which faithful from across the country and beyond would express their concern and testify to the reasons for their liturgical attachment to traditional rites.
The petitions will then be placed in a chest that will be routed to the Holy See via a march that will start on March 6 in Paris. It is scheduled to conclude in Rome on May 1, for the opening of the Marian month.
The procession will be led by a group of mothers of priests, concerned for the future of their sons who were called to celebrate Mass according to the older rite. “These mothers were willing to take action and go to Rome, so, we proposed that they bring the letters to the Vatican,” Benoît Sévillia, founder of La Voie Romaine, told the Register. “They will bring our testimonies with the very direct sensitivity that a mother’s heart can have,” he added.
The association’s determination to make its voice heard was strengthened by the recent publication of a document by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which further restricts the Traditional Latin Mass, making it an exception in the life of the Church.
In a Dec. 19 communique, the Catholic association’s members claimed that the “very strict terms of application” taken by the congregation regarding Traditionis Custodes left them “speechless.” “The many letters we are already receiving from Catholics who feel hurt by Pope Francis’ decision to drastically restrict the celebration of the Mass and, from now on, to prohibit the celebration of the sacraments according to the Tridentine rite, must be multiplying,” the communique stated.
The organizers told the Register that the deadline for sending letters, originally set for Dec. 31, will be extended to the day before the march starts to allow the current momentum to build. They also stressed that anyone wishing to defend the Tridentine Mass (including those who don’t attend it) can send a letter to the Pope through La Voie Romaine’s website — which will be available in English and Italian shortly — by mail or through local parish priests, and that the march is open to all. To date, letters and registrations to the upcoming march have already arrived from several countries, including the U.S., Portugal and Mexico. “The purpose is for the Pope to realize that the heart of the Church also beats through these Christians, especially in countries like France,” Sévillia said, adding that if the Holy Father were to go through with his restrictions on traditional rites, “he would risk plunging thousands of Christians into great despair and disarray, because a certain number of them would be refused access to the Church from one day to the next.”
“We hope that Rome will become aware of this, as perhaps they do not measure the magnitude of the earthquake that this generates, especially among young people, who are very attached to this whole traditional world,” he said
In his view, the current impasse is also due to a lack of knowledge of traditional communities within the Curia, fostered in part by the negative feedback given by some bishops in the 2020 survey on the application of Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum. Thus, he said, the initiative represents an occasion to make sure that the faithful can report on their personal experience directly.
Questioned about possible public support from Catholic leaders, Sévillia said that while no bishop has yet expressed official support for the association, he has received many private expressions of sympathy from clergy. He added that a documentary film is being produced that includes testimonies from traditionalist priests, but also unexpected support from bishops, priests and leaders of Catholic associations.
“Surprisingly, the majority of the letters we’re receiving for our march are not from traditional Christians, but from other Christians who want to testify of their attachment to this rite,” he continued.
“We are reproached for being militant or for being a parallel Church, but from the letters we receive, it is very clear that it is the faith that animates all these people. They say ‘We owe everything to this Mass,’ ‘I reconnected with the Lord,’ ‘I cried when I rediscovered my faith at 45 years old during a Tridentine Mass,’ and so on.”
“All these Christians are completely committed to their mission,” he concluded. “They are not at all in their corner, they are the veins of the Church, they contribute to make the Church live, and it is this reality that we want to bring to Rome.”
All are invited to send them testimonies which they will deliver to the Holy See. (Please note that clicking on the links to their website sometimes show an internal error)
We recommend converting your letter to a pdf file and sending it to the following email address (contact@lavoieromaine.com):
To find the English version of their website click here:
https://lavoieromaine.com/
In French, here:
https://lavoieromaine.com/
They prefer to receive letters by post.
La Voie Romaine 3, allée de l’Alliance
78000 Versailles
To Pope Francis
Your Holiness,
1. Introduce yourself
Religious / Single / Married without children / Father, mother of __ children, living in which region, I am a parishioner of the Church of ___ located in the diocese of ____, and attend regularly/occasionally at Mass celebrated according to the Tridentine rite.
2. Describe your participation in Church activities, if any
I have responsibilities within my parish as a member of the parish council, teaching catechism, altar server, etc. / I am involved in the school ____ / I am part of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, of the Knights of Columbus, Legion of Mary, etc.
3. Proclaim your faith and describe the reasons for your love of the Tridentine Rite
The celebration of Mass according to the Tridentine rite is at the heart of my priestly vocation / The Tridentine rite nourishes my faith / I am touched by the sense of the sacred displayed by the liturgy celebrated according to the Tridentine rite / I have converted to Catholicism by assisting at mass celebrated according to the Tridentine rite / I consider that it is a treasure for the Church / etc.…
4. Describe your request to the Pope
I have the honor to profess myself with the most profound respect. Your Holiness’ most obedient and humble servant,
Signature
Jan 11, 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM PST
All faithful Catholics know that our time is one of anti-Catholicism, subtle, as well as outright hostile. Likely you have seen woke culture showing up in your workplace in the form of inclusivity workshops, mandatory diversity training, micro-aggression awareness, etc.
If not that, maybe the post-industrial revolution culture makes it virtually impossible to raise a family on one income, while giving the best of yourself to your true vocation – being a Christian and serving God and your family.
All of this is contrary to the full living out of our faith. Perhaps you are concerned with certain government mandates of the past two years and have decided you will not comply. Your workplace or your government may force you to comply or lose your job. You will need to be ready to stand for your principles and have a plan in place.
Either you will need to bow to the god of the culture to keep your job and lose your soul– or prepare for the inevitable loss of your job, if you haven’t already lost your job. This workshop will give you alternatives. There are 3 tracks to this workshop:
This workshop is only $5 (US dollars). Any net proceeds generated from ticket sales will go to the Holy Faith Foundation to support families out of work due to issues against Catholic conscience.
“Today there will be a storm, for the sky is red and lowering. You know then how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times?” – Mt. 16:3
Sign up here: Airmeet link
Updated link: view the summit online
Holy Rosary Cathedral
646 Richards Street
Vancouver
Advent recollection
On Friday, December 10, after the 6:30 p.m. Latin Mass, Fr. John Horgan will lead an Advent recollection titled “O Jesus living in Mary,” a retreat with Mary, Ark of the New Covenant. Fr. Horgan is a priest in the Archdiocese of Vancouver and a well-known speaker and author. He is the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, in the Dunbar area of Vancouver.
Rorate Mass
Join us for the Traditional Latin Mass of Rorate Coeli in Advent. This Mass is celebrated with candlelight before the sun rises. Mass will begin at 5 a.m. on Saturday, December 11. Access for Mass is by the confessional door.
Holy Family Parish
4851 Beatrice Street
Vancouver, BC
Holy Rosary Cathedral
646 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC
St. James Parish
2777 Townline Road
Abbotsford, BC
The St. Monica Society was launched by Una Voce Canada in August 2019. Each week, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is offered for the conversion or return to the Catholic faith of all those enrolled in the Society.
Una Voce Canada members in good standing may enroll individuals or groups of individuals by sending either:
Please provide the following:
There is no limit to the number of individuals or groups you may enroll. No stipend is required. Donations will be gratefully accepted and used to provide stipends to the priests offering Masses for the Society.
In addition to the weekly Masses, we invite all enrollers to offer the following prayer each day for members of the Society:
Almighty Father, You desire not the death of sinners, but that they may be converted and live. Through the intercession of St. Monica, show us Your mercy and hear our prayers for the conversion or return to the Holy Catholic Church of all those enrolled in the society that bears her name. Touch the hearts of Your children who find themselves far from the true path of salvation. Give them an ardent love for You, lead them to the practice of every Christian virtue, and grant them the life of Your grace through the Sacraments, and through the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
To join Una Voce Canada, click here.
Questions? Email info@unavocecanada.org.
The following article appeared in the BC Catholic, the diocesan newspaper of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, on July 20, 2021.
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Little is expected to change in the Archdiocese of Vancouver following Pope Francis’ July 16 letter on the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form, colloquially called the traditional Latin Mass.
Vancouver Catholics who read news that the Pope was altering how traditional Latin Masses are celebrated responded with concern on social media. But Archbishop J. Michael Miller told The B.C. Catholic Tuesday that while he is taking some time to “fully digest” the papal letter, he doesn’t see much change to the way things happen presently in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
The celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form “has never been a cause of division here,” he said.
“I have given the priests who requested it permission to continue the celebrations they have planned. In practice, I don’t see much change in the present situation.”
The Pope’s document, a motu proprio entitled Traditionis custodes, made sweeping changes to his predecessor Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, which acknowledged the right of all priests to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962, which is in Latin.
In the new motu proprio, Pope Francis states that it is each bishop’s “exclusive competence” to authorize the use of the 1962 Roman Missal in his diocese. The document sets out the responsibilities of bishops whose dioceses already have one or more groups that offer Mass in the extraordinary form, mandating that bishops determine that these groups do not deny the validity of Vatican II and the Magisterium.
Bishops are instructed to “designate one or more locations where the faithful adherents of these groups may gather for the eucharistic celebration (not however in the parochial churches and without the erection of new personal parishes).”
It also imposes new requirements for newly ordained priests wishing to celebrate the Extraordinary Form and instructs bishops to verify that already-established parishes that celebrate the Extraordinary Form “are effective for their spiritual growth and to determine whether or not to retain them.”
It further instructs bishops to “take care not to authorize the establishment of new groups” that celebrate the Extraordinary Form.
The Pope said he wrote the document in response to a 2020 survey of bishops and said he was saddened by what he sees as a rejection of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
Bishops across the U.S. have granted permission for the Traditional Latin Mass to continue in their dioceses while they study the document and determine how to proceed.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass, addressed the situation in a July 16 statement.
“At this point, it is too early to tell what all the implications will be for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, but we assure you that we remain committed to serving the faithful attending our apostolates in accordance with our Constitutions and charism as we have done since our founding,” the order said in a statement provided to Catholic News Agency.
“We must strive to see this Cross as a means of our sanctification, and to remember that God will never abandon His Church.”
FSSP priests serve the faithful at Holy Family Parish in Vancouver, which was established in 2008 as a personal parish for the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The traditional Latin Mass is also celebrated at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, Sts. Joachim and Ann in Aldergrove, and St. James in Abbotsford.
With files from Catholic News Agency.
Following the publication of the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes, the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales consulted with a number of canon lawyers and developed a “canonical guidance” for “bishops, priests, and lay Catholics [who are] finding it difficult to see exactly what the force of the Apostolic Letter might be.” The guidance was posted on the Latin Mass Society’s website and is reproduced below.
***
Canonical guidance on Traditionis Custodes
The Latin Mass Society is pleased to present the fruits of our consultations with a number of Canon lawyers.
It is clear to us that many bishops, priests, and lay Catholics, are finding it difficult to see exactly what the force of the Apostolic Letter might be.
It is our hope that the arguments contained in this Guidance will commend themselves to careful readers from across the spectrum of opinion, and contribute to a calm and reasoned discussion.
Key points from the Guidance:
Traditionis Custodes does not abrogate the 1962 Missal (otherwise it could not allow it to be said in certain circumstances).
It follows that it is not the right of priests to celebrate it that is at issue–this remains intact–but the public exercise of this right, which is a matter of regulation by the local bishop.
The right of priests to celebrate privately, to say the older Office, to celebrate the other sacraments, to use the older Rituale: all these are unrestricted by Traditionis Custodes.
The restrictions mentioned in Article 3, notably on the use of parish churches, only apply in the case of ‘authorised’ ‘groups’, such as came into existence in the course of the formal application of Summorum Pontificum, or are served by a ‘personal parish’.
Although priests need permission from the bishop to celebrate the 1962 Missal, with this permission, and outside the context of a formalised ‘group’, he may do so without the restrictions of Art 3: for example, in a parish church.
It would also follow that there need be no difficulty allowing the 1962 Missal to be used for special occasions such as pilgrimages.
The full text of our document is reproduced below.
In this document we wish to give some brief indications of what the Apostolic Letter does and does not do in terms of the canonical obligations of bishops and priests, in light of the advice we have received from more than one canonist.
The Authority of the Bishop
The Apostolic Letter emphasises the authority of the bishop in each diocese over the liturgy.
Art. 2. It belongs to the diocesan bishop, as moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole liturgical life of the particular Church entrusted to him, to regulate the liturgical celebrations of his diocese. Therefore, it is his exclusive competence to authorize the use of the 1962 Roman Missal in his diocese, according to the guidelines of the Apostolic See.
This article footnotes (inter alia) Vatican II’s Decree on the Office of Bishop, Christus Dominus 11, which states:
Therefore bishops are the principal dispensers of the mysteries of God, as well as being the governors, promoters, and guardians of the entire liturgical life in the church committed to them.
A similar point is made by Vatican II’s Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium 22.
The Apostolic Letter takes, therefore, this principle already well-established in the discipline of the Church, and concludes (‘therefore’) that the bishop has authority over the 1962 Missal in his diocese. This is reminiscent of the comment in Pope Benedict XVI (2007) Letter to Bishops Accompanying Summorum Pontificum:
I very much wish to stress that these new norms do not in any way lessen your own authority and responsibility, either for the liturgy or for the pastoral care of your faithful. Each Bishop, in fact, is the moderator of the liturgy in his own Diocese (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22).
The Apostolic Letter is, at this point, not making any innovation, or investing bishops with special authority, but merely reiterating the existing legal situation, which had itself not been altered by Summorum Pontificum.
The Rights of Priests and Faithful
Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum Article 1 notes, as a historical fact, that the 1962 Missal has never been abrogated. It goes on to confirm the legal implications of this fact: that priests of the Latin Rite have the right to celebrate according to this Missal, and that the faithful have the right to attend it.
Nevertheless, the exercise of the right of priests to celebrate the 1962 Missal impacts the question of the liturgical life of the diocese, and for this reason comes under the authority of the bishop. Thus, for example, Summorum Pontificum limits the celebration of the older Easter Triduum (Art. 2).
The provisions of Traditionis Custodes must be understood in the same way. It does not abrogate the 1962 Missal, and thus leaves the right of priests to celebrate it intact. It does regulate the way this right can be exercised.
It should be noted that the Apostolic Letter says nothing about the right of the faithful to attend the 1962 Mass, the celebration of the other sacraments according to the older Roman Ritual, or the saying of the older Divine Office by priests in public or in private: accordingly, all of these things remain permitted. It is general principle of Canon Law that laws which restrict things are to be interpreted narrowly rather than widely:
Can. 18: Laws which establish a penalty, restrict the free exercise of rights, or contain an exception from the law are subject to strict interpretation.
‘Groups’ attached to the 1962 Missal
Article 3 concerns ‘groups that celebrate according to the Missal antecedent to the reform of 1970’. With sight only of vernacular translations of the Apostolic Letter, the context of this terminology is harder to clarify, but the way the term is used indicates that the Apostolic Letter has a formal association in mind. These are entities which might have settled views about the liturgical reform (Art 3.1), have a right to pastoral care (3.4), and up to the time of the Apostolic Letter could be ‘authorised’ by the local Ordinary (3.6). The provision in 3.5 concerning ‘parishes canonically erected for the benefit of these faithful’ reinforces this impression.
This corresponds to the use of the term ‘group’ (in the English translation) in Summorum Pontificum Articles 5 and 7. In those articles, ‘groups’ of the faithful attached to the older Missal had the right to request a regular celebration of this Missal (Art. 5) and, if denied by a parish priest, to appeal to the bishop and then to the Holy See (Art. 7). Relatedly, it authorises bishops to erect ‘personal parishes’ (Art. 10).
The Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011) tried to establish a fairly informal understanding of what was required for the existence of a ‘group’ (see Universae Ecclesiae 15), in order to make it easier for them to claim the rights attached to the concept of a group in Summorum Pontificum. The notion of a ‘group’ being subject to ‘authorisation’ in Traditionis Custodes nevertheless suggests a fairly formal understanding.
The regulation of the celebration of the 1962 Missal for such ‘groups’ is the sole preoccupation of Traditionis Custodes Article 3. Bishops where these groups currently exist are instructed to find places for them to worship according to the 1962 books (3.2), to determine the times at which Masses are to be celebrated (3.3), and to appoint celebrants for them (3.4). The existence of personal parishes are to be reviewed (3.5). No new groups are to be established (3.6).
What these provisions do is to emphasise the authority of the bishop in regulating arrangements which may have been made under Summorum Pontificum Art. 5. It does not instruct bishops to close these arrangements down: on the contrary, it tells him to make provision for the faithful concerned. On the other hand, the rights of such groups to form and to request celebrations is rescinded, and it follows that no new groups of this kind will come into existence (or be recognised as such).
The following articles, 4 and 5, concern the authorisation of priests to celebrate according to the 1962 Missal: in the case of newly ordained priests, with reference to the Holy See. As noted above, this is a matter of the bishops’ moderation of the liturgy in his diocese, and not the right in principle of priests to celebrate the 1962 Missal, so this should be taken to concern the public celebration of the older Missal. There is accordingly no need for a priest to apply for permission to celebrate the 1962 Missal in private.
Priests who have this permission will be able to celebrate the 1962 Mass in their parishes, or anywhere else, and the faithful will be able to attend it. If these faithful do not constitute a recognised ‘group’, the provisions of Art. 3 do not apply. Indeed, they could not do so: it would make no sense to ask of a collection of Catholics who happen to turn up at a particular Mass, but may never have met before, what theological position they collectively hold about the Second Vatican Council, as per Art 3.1, or if their existence as a collective is ‘authorised’, as per Art. 3.6.
To summarise, Traditionis Custodes is concerned to maintain the pastoral care of officially-constituted ‘groups’ attached to the ancient Mass, for example in personal parishes, but wishes to emphasise the authority of the bishop to regulate where, when, and by whom, their Masses are celebrated.
At the same time, it does not prevent priests in general celebrating the older Mass, even in public, but it wishes to emphasises the authority of the bishop to give permission for this.
In both cases, it should be observed that in practice under Summorum Pontificum bishops continued to exercise the kind of care and control which Traditionis Custodes underlines, though they might sometimes have done this implicitly and indirectly: for example, by choosing where to assign priests. Although they are given more direct power over the situation by Traditionis Custodes, it seems likely that many bishops will continue to exercise this power as a matter of general oversight, rather than micro-managing each parish and apostolate.
The decision of many bishops in the immediate aftermath of the publication of Traditionis Custodes, to give blanket permissions for existing arrangements to continue, is a perfectly reasonable exercise of their prerogatives under the Apostolic Letter.
Parish Churches
The most surprising thing about Article 3 is that the places of worship to be assigned to ‘groups’ should not include parish churches. In the context of Italy and certain other countries, where for historical reasons dioceses have an abundance of non-parish churches, this presents no great difficulty, and personal parishes for the 1962 Mass do indeed, in such countries, tend to make use of these places of worship: chapels of ease, confraternity chapels, chapels attached to religious communities, and so on.
In other countries this is not so. If a bishop cannot easily find an alternative venue for such a group then, in accordance with Canon 87.1, he need not apply this restriction:
Canon 87.1. A diocesan bishop, whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good, is able to dispense the faithful from universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the Church.
As already explained, this question only arises with formally constituted ‘groups’. It is interesting to note, nonetheless, that while no new ‘personal parishes’ are to be established, the moving of ‘groups’ from parish churches to other places of worship implies the continuing usefulness of the concept of a ‘shrine’ dedicated to the celebration of the 1962 Missal, and in general to ‘chaplaincies’ for those attached to this Mass.
Vernacular readings
It should be noted that the requirement of Article 3.3 that lections be given in the vernacular does not exclude their being proclaimed first in the Latin of the liturgical text, which is generally required under the liturgical law of the 1962 Missal.
The congruence of the translation used with the liturgical text, which sometimes varies from the Hebrew or Greek versions which form the basis of most recent translations, should be kept in mind.
In any case, this requirement only applies in the context of the provision of the Mass for ‘groups’ as explained above.
The Good of Souls
All ecclesiastical legislation aims at the good of souls: the concluding words of the Code of Canon Law, indeed, tells us so:
Can. 1752: …the salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church, is to be kept before one’s eyes.
The authority of the Holy See and of bishops and priests is given, not for their own good, but for the good of souls; on bishops in particular, see the Code Can. 383 §1. Canon 87.1 has already been quoted, above.
All of these statements remind us that it is in the context of the good of souls that Church’s legal provisions must be interpreted and applied. Within the Church’s tradition, to apply a regulation in such a way as manifestly to harm the good of souls, is not just a pastoral or practical problem, but a failure to evaluate its legal force correctly.
Traditionis Custodes concerns itself directly with the good of souls, and the Holy Father’s Letter to Bishops underlines this motivation. The reason why the former Missal is not simply banned outright is that Pope Francis is mindful of the pastoral harm this would do. The ‘two principles’ the Letter gives to guide bishops are these:
to provide for the good of those who are rooted in the previous form of celebration and who need time to return [e hanno bisogno di tempo] to the Roman Rite promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II, and, on the other hand, to discontinue the erection of new personal parishes tied more to the desire and wishes of individual priests than to the real need of the “holy People of God.”
This is therefore the crucial consideration in applying the Apostolic Letter according to the means of the legislator. Bishops are to make arrangements and to give, or withhold, permissions, according to whether they believe it will be of spiritual benefit to the faithful attached to the older Mass, and to the priests who wish to celebrate it.
