Motu proprio alert: Castrillon confirms ruling is coming

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. New York

The top Vatican official in charge of use of the Tridentine Mass has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI “intends to extend to the entire church the possibility of celebrating the Mass and the sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated by Pope John XXIII in 1962.” Those books contain the last approved version of the older "Latin Mass" celebrated prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), as well as rites for sacraments such as baptism and holy orders.

The remarks from Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, came in an address to the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean.


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Castrillón’s speech at the CELAM meeting marks the first time the cardinal has publicly confirmed that such a move is imminent. Castrillón said that under the terms of the pope’s decision, the older liturgies will become “an extraordinary form of the one Roman rite.”