Critical Mass: Does "Seven" Feel Lucky?

This just came across the desk of mwbh within the last hour. It could be no more significant than numerous other reports in the past year. Then again, ITV is not known to jump on every bandwagon in the blogosphere...

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June 27, 2007 -- VATICAN CITY -- Inside the Vatican has learned that Pope Benedict XVI intends to publish his motu proprio on the old Mass on July 7, 2007.

The report comes from the Vatican correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, Paul Badde. He reports today that the motu proprio liberating the Tridentine Mass for the entire Catholic Church has been given to about 30 bishops from all over the world in the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.

The bishops had come to Rome precisely for this meeting.

At the end of the meeting, in which the motu proprio was introduced together with a letter of explanation by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict met with the bishops.

The document is about three pages long, the accompanying letter about four.

From Germany, Cardinal Lehmann had been invited.

The circumstances of the procedure make clear that the Pope was very interested to personally inform the bishops, in collegial manner, of the content rather than from the media. The publication of both documents will take place on July 7th.

It emphasizes the unity of the Roman Rite which will consist of an ordinary and an extraordinary form which are supposed to inspire each other. The ordinary/regular form will continue to be the new rite of 1969. The extraordinary form will be the Missal of Blessed John XXIII of 1962.

The German news service Kath.net has picked up this story, and you can find it at this link: http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=17154

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Father Zuhlsdorf observes: "It is clear from the way this was done that the Holy Father wanted to make sure that bishops got this document in this way, rather than having to read about it in the paper. I assume that what will happen now is that these bishops, if they are heads of conferences, will return home and distribute the document to the bishop members of the conference."

Meanwhile, to tide us over, Rorate Caeli has a partial translation. And Shawn Tribe provides further analysis, as well as the official English translation of the Vatican Information Service release.

We have been given reports of an imminent release numerous times in the past year. This is the most reliable report to date, given the distribution of the decree itself, however limited. Stay tuned...
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