Vatican warns against ‘exceptional’ becoming ‘ordinary’ while easing some Mass restrictions at St. Peter’s By Michael Haynes for Life Site News
Concelebration or ‘communal celebration’ should be the norm, the Basilica’s Archpriest stressed, while hinting at more access for traditional or private Masses.
The Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica issued a Note today regarding the recent restrictions on the celebration of Mass there, heavily promoting concelebration as the desired norm for the Church while also hinting at a slight easing of the severe ban on the traditional and private Masses.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M., who was appointed to the post by Pope Francis on February 20, wrote in relation to the March 12 Note from the Vatican Secretariat of State detailing new restrictions of “individual” or private Masses, as well as further restrictions for the Traditional Latin Mass.
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Cardinal Gambetti wrote that his own Note should be “useful in understanding the guidelines” issued in the March letter “and in choosing how and when to celebrate the Eucharist in the first part of the morning.”
March 12 directives, and cessation of private Masses
Under the March 12 restrictions, which came into effect March 22, priests were required to participate in “concelebrated” Masses between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. at just two altars. Individual Masses would be considered exceptions to the rule and were “suppressed.”
Groups who were traveling with a bishop or priest were “assured” of a Mass offered by their accompanying cleric, but only in the Crypt instead of the main Basilica.
Furthermore, priests wishing to celebrate the Extraordinary Form would be given four time slots, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., and only at the Clementine Chapel of the Crypt. That letter bore the stamp of the Secretariat but was not signed.
Reporting on the directive at the time, Vatican journalist Diane Montagna wrote, “Effectively, what today’s letter appears to suggest is that (1) at least for the foreseeable future, in the main body of St. Peter’s Basilica, priests and faithful will only experience the Holy Mass concelebrated in the Novus Ordo; and (2) the Extraordinary Form will go underground.”
Gambetti’s promotion of concelebration
Now, Gambetti has sought to offer clarification about the brief letter circulated in March and caused an outcry among lay Catholics and members of the College of Cardinals. He wrote that the directives were “inspired” by two principles: “to order the celebrations from the point of view of their temporal scansion and quality; to accommodate and integrate particular and legitimate wishes of the faithful, as far as possible.”
