Your Excellency,

I write to you as a brother in the episcopal college charged by the Holy Father to carry out the provisions of his Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei of 2 July 1988. My objective in addressing myself to you now is precisely to encourage you in the exercise of your pastoral mission to those who legitimately request the celebration of Holy Mass according to the 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal.

Perhaps a review of developments which led to the issuance of Ecclesia Dei would be helpful in this regard.

1. On 3 October 1984 the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship issued Quattuor abhinc annos in which the Holy Father granted to diocesan bishops "the possibility of using an indult whereby priests and faithful ........ may be able to celebrate Mass by using the Roman Missal according to the 1962 edition.

"The following conditions were stipulated: a) that those requesting the permission do not "call into question the legitimacy and doctrinal exactitude of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970"; b) that such celebrations take place only for groups requesting them, not in parish churches (except with the bishop's permission in extraordinary cases) and under the conditions laid down by the bishop; c) that "these celebrations must be according to the 1962 Missal and in Latin"; d) that there "be no interchanging of texts and rites of the two Missals" and e) that each bishop has to inform the Congregation "of the concessions granted by him and, at the end of a year from the granting of the indult, he must report on the result of its application."

2. A special "Commissio Cardinalitia ad hoc instituta" charged with reviewing the use made of the indult met in December 1986. At that time the Cardinals unanimously agreed that the conditions laid down in Quattuor abhinc annos were too restrictive and should be relaxed.
3. As you well know, in response to the illicit ordination of Bishops at Econe on 30 June 1988 and wishing to uphold the principles that had been established in the previous and unfortunately unfruitful dialogue with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Holy Father issued Ecclesia Dei motu proprio on July 2, 1988.

While insisting that the root of the schismatic act of Archbishop Lefebvre lies in an "incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition" which fails to "take sufficiently into account the living character of Tradition" (no. 4), he also maintained with equal firmness that "it is necessary that all the Pastors and the other faithful have a new awareness, not only of the lawfulness but also of the richness for the Church of a diversity of charisms, traditions of spirituality and apostolate" (no. 5,a)

Consequently addressing himself "to all those Catholic faithful who feel attached to some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition" and not just former adherents of Archbishop Lefebvre, he expressed his will "to guarantee respect for their rightful aspirations" (no. 5, c). In order to provide for these legitimate desires of the faithful he established this Pontifical Commission and indicated his mind with regard to its primary task by stating: respect must be everywhere shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition (no. 6, c).

Consequently, Your Excellency, we wish to encourage you to facilitate the proper and reverent celebration of the liturgical rites according to the Roman Missal of 1962 wherever there is a genuine desire for this on the part of priests and faithful. This should not be construed as a promotion of that Missal in prejudice to the one promulgated eight years later, but simply a pastoral provision to meet the "rightful aspirations" of those who wish to worship according to the Latin tradition as celebrated for centuries.

In the light of our Holy Father's Motu Proprio, then, we offer the following guidelines and suggestions:.....

Of course the celebrants of the "Tridentine" Mass should not fail in their preaching and contacts with the faithful attending such Masses to emphasise their own adherence to the legislation of the universal Church and their acknowledgement of the doctrinal and juridical value of the liturgy as revised after the Second Vatican Council. Under such conditions, it would seem unnecessary, even painful, to impose further restrictions upon those who wish to attend such celebrations.

The very fact that, avoiding the possibilities offered by schismatic groups, they wish to come to celebrations authorised by the Bishop of the diocese may be considered a sign of good will and desire for full ecclesial communion.....
 

Sincerely yours in Christ, Augustin Cardinal Mayer, O.S.B.President

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