Cardinal Wilton Gregory, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., stated Friday solely three “non-parochial” church buildings can be allowed to supply the Conventional Latin Mass after Sept. 21.
One of many extra distinguished places for the ritual taken from the 1962 Roman Missal, St. Mary Mom of God church within the District’s Chinatown, shouldn’t be on the record.
As a substitute, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land within the District and two Maryland parishes — the Chapel at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Forest Glen and the Mission Church of St. Dominic in Aquasco — can be permitted to supply the ritual, solely on Sundays.
The adjoining Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, has not introduced its implementation of guidelines promulgated final yr by Pope Francis, and a spokesman stated they aren’t conscious of a timetable for such an announcement.
Reflecting on Francis’ 2021 doc, “Traditiones Custodes,” Cardinal Gregory stated in an announcement, “It’s clear that the Holy Father’s honest intention is to result in larger unity within the Church by the celebration of the Mass and sacraments in accordance with the 1970 Roman Missal of Pope Paul VI.”
Traditionalist Catholics have blasted Francis’ transfer as a clampdown on worship that pulls many devoted, together with younger adults, a cohort usually discovered leaving faith.
How nice an affect this may have on the vast majority of Roman Catholics within the D.C. space, not to mention the U.S., stays unclear. In a 2021 survey, the Pew Analysis Middle discovered that two-thirds of U.S. Catholics had heard “nothing in any respect” about Francis’ restrictions on the standard ceremony.
Of those that had heard in regards to the change, 9% stated they authorised of the pope’s transfer, and 12% disapproved, with 14% holding “no opinion.”
Francis’s doc reversed many years of larger acceptance of the 1962 Roman Missal by his predecessors, Saint John Paul II and emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. Each had sought to bridge a divide between factions within the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church by permitting larger flexibility in using the Latin Mass.
Benedict significantly specified that clergymen who needed to have a good time the standard Mass may achieve this with out requesting their bishop’s permission.
However, Francis insisted, divisions had “grown” since Benedict’s 2007 doc endorsing wider acceptance of the pre-Vatican II ceremony. Following that Second Vatican Council, Catholics have been allowed to have a good time Mass within the native, or “vernacular” language of a given neighborhood.
In an ecclesiastical letter accompanying the 2021 decree, Francis wrote the permission prolonged by his predecessors “was exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
The Washington Instances reached out to the Rev. Vincent De Rosa, pastor of St. Mary Mom of God parish, for remark however didn’t obtain an instantaneous response.
