Would you like to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass at your church?
.
You may have no provision for a Latin
Mass, but despite this it is possible for you to bring the Traditional Rite to
your own church.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote the Motu Proprio
entitled Summorum Pontificum (here)
which put in place rules whereby communities could once again celebrate this
most beautiful of liturgical celebrations. Below is a step by step guide
devised by the Latin Mass Society which you should read. As you can see the
advice is only for the number of signatures to be in double figures. There
would also be a need for someone who could serve at Low Mass which is the most
regular form of Mass.
As a representative for the area it is my
role to support you in organising the Mass and supporting the priest. I am
happy to hear from anyone in Lincolnshire who would like
to consider the celebration of Mass at their church. Please contact me
initially on
lmslincolnshire@gmail.com
_______________________________
A Step-by-step Guide
1. Establish a ‘stable group’. Members of the group
do NOT have to reside in the same parish. They do NOT have to have an
attachment to the Traditional Mass going back to 1969. They must rather be a
group sufficiently committed and sufficiently local that if a Mass were
established for them, they would support it. There is no minimum size fixed for
such groups, but to be taken seriously you need to show that numbers are at
least in double figures. Your local Latin Mass Society Representative should be
informed at this stage and should be able to put you in touch with other people
who will support your project.
2. Write to the parish priest. You need to choose a
parish either where most of the members of your group live, or one where an
additional Mass would be easiest to establish (i.e. one where there are not too
many Sunday Masses taking place already), or one where the priest is most
friendly to your cause. If this Parish Priest is unable to help you it will be
up to the Bishop to suggest to nearby parishes that they may accommodate your
group if that is the best way forward.
3. Include with your letter a simple petition in its
support (‘We the undersigned support this request for a Sunday Mass in the X
area celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite’), and get all the
members of your group to sign it, and include their postal addresses. KEEP
COPIES OF WHAT YOU SEND.
4. If the parish priest does not respond within a
fortnight, send your letter to him again; it may have got lost or forgotten about.
Politely suggest that if you do not hear back from him within a month you will
take the matter to the bishop, in accordance with the provisions of the Motu
Proprio.
5. If you receive a negative response, you may be
able (politely) to help your parish priest to overcome any misunderstandings
about the Motu Proprio with the aid of the FAQs below. If his response remains
negative, or if he does not respond at all, you must write to the bishop
explaining that you have applied for the Traditional Mass under the Motu
Proprio and are passing the matter to him as the Motu Proprio requires. Include
with your letter to the bishop a copy of your letter(s) to the Parish Priest,
and your petition.
6. With the Bishop, as with the Parish Priest in step
4 and 5: if there is no response after a fortnight, write again with a month
deadline. If there are objections based on a misreading of the Motu Proprio,
you may be able to respond with the help of the FAQs below. If, finally, there
is a negative response or no response at all, you need to write to the
Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
7. For this step, you should get in touch with
the Latin Mass Society office. We will advise you
on the wording of your letter, and we can arrange hand delivery in Rome, which will give
your letter more force. You will need to include with your letter all your
previous correspondence: letters to and from the parish priest and the bishop.
It is of the utmost importance that all of the
letters from your side are polite, succinct, clearly written, and well
informed about the Motu Proprio.
Will you get a response?
They will read it and they will be in touch with your Bishop who the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei will negotiate with.
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