Lead, follow or get out of the way

This evening several of us travelled to the Diocesan Center to participate in a Q and A about the Latin Mass. Despite the fact that it has been a year since His Holiness cleared up any lingering questions about the ability of Priests to celebrate in the Extraordinary Form there really hasn't been that much brewing in the Metuchen Diocese. To his credit, our Bishop has arranged for daily and Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The unfortunate element is that in a Diocese of over one half million with 108 Parishes, one chapel in the middle of a diocese that spans four counties doesn't lend itself to the easy or even practical possibility of attending daily or even Sunday Mass.

The session was presented by Msgr. Michael J. Alleigro who is the Rector of our Cathedral. We were provided with three documents. The first was a chronology of "liturgical reforms" spanning 1962 to 2007. This was followed by a release from the Vatican Press Office and bore the title Observations on the use of the Roman Liturgy prior to the 1970 reform. Finally there was a list of several common questions regarding Summorum Pontificum. Pretty rudimentary stuff.

To summarize a very long and brutal story;

1) the Pope says any competent Priest can say Mass according to the Extraordinary Form.
2) We won't stand in any one's way but don't expect any help.
3) Good luck with all of that.

Certainly the presentation was longer and sugar coated a bit more but we got the drift. There were about seventy people there. Only about four Priests, a smattering of Directors of Music and then the laity.

There were a few really pointed questions from the group. Deflected ably. No great progress but no sign of stimulus from the Chancery. The party line seemed to be "there has been no great swelling of requests for the Extraordinary Form". The question remains...what will happen when there is?