Vatican grants two-year extension for Latin Masses in Diocese of Arlington but with a caveat...

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NB: The Lifesitenews article below discusses the 'allowance' of the Latin Mass in the Arlington diocese but the gloria.tv article that follows explains the caveat...

Vatican grants two-year extension for Latin Masses in Diocese of Arlington
Traditional Latin Masses will reportedly continue in three parish churches as well as five non-parish locations in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.



Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington
Catholic Diocese of Arlington/YouTube screenshot

Jul 19, 2024
(LifeSiteNews - emphasis mine, slightly adapted) — The Vatican has granted a two-year extension to permission to offer the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in three diocesan churches in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, as announced in an email from the diocesan vicar general.

“At the request and recommendation of Bishop (Michael) Burbidge, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments granted a two-year extension to their permission for Mass to be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal in the Parish Churches of Saint John the Beloved, Saint Rita, and the Mission Church of Saint Anthony of Padua,” Father Jamie Workman wrote in an email addressed to priests of the diocese, a screenshot of which was posted to the Facebook group Contra Traditionis Custodes on Thursday.

“In the Dicastery’s response to Bishop Burbidge’s request, it commended our diocese for how well it has implemented Traditionis Custodes,” Fr. Workman added.

The Arlington Latin Mass Society and a staff member within the diocese also confirmed that TLMs will continue to be held in five other non-parish church locations, since they are not forbidden from offering TLMs per Traditionis Custodes, and therefore do not require an indult. The locations and times of all TLMs in the Diocese of Arlington are posted to the Arlington Latin Mass Society website.

These churches in the Arlington diocese are not permitted to advertise Latin Masses in their bulletins per the Responsa ad Dubia that accompanies the instructions of Traditionis Custodes.

Rorate Caeli observed on Thursday that the U.S. dioceses of Baltimore and Richmond, which are served by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), “will no longer have any diocesan parish traditional Latin Masses offered,” and two other U.S. dioceses — San Antonio and Arlington, Virginia —that are not served by the FSSP “or any other TLM personal parishes” have “been granted two-year indult renewals this week.”

In 2022, Bishop Burbidge issued one of the most sweeping crackdowns on the Traditional Latin Mass in the U.S. after Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, eliminating 13 TLMs in his diocese. At the time, the restrictions were decried by Latin Mass attendees in the region as a tragedy and an affront to the TLM community.

“This announcement this morning was like a knife going through my heart,” Doug Koupash shared with LifeSiteNews after the 2022 decision. “I (worshipped at) the Latin Mass until I went to college. That’s when the Novus Ordo was in full bloom. And I remember the first time I went to the local church at my university in Iowa and they had the English and the guitars and the banjos … I was absolutely horrified. I was horrified. I left that church and did not go back.”

“So on and off I went to the church. I got married and went back to the Church again. I tried with the Novus Ordo Mass and there was nothing there. After a while, there was nothing in my heart. I couldn’t do it anymore. And I can’t go back to that. So I have some decisions to make,” said Koupash, who went on to struggle to speak through tears.

The recently announced TLM indult for the Diocese of Arlington raises questions about reports from “credible sources” of a coming Vatican document “banning” the Traditional Latin Mass.

Rorate Caeli reported on Friday, July 19 that “Our sources assure us that the draft of the document of almost total suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass is ready, and has been for some time — but it that it ‘remains unsigned.’”

Those planning this “final” suppression of the TLM were originally said by Rorate to be “frustrated” with the “apparently slow results” of Pope Francis’ Latin Mass-restricting document Traditionis Custodes, particularly in the U.S. and France, and “want to ban it and shut it down everywhere and immediately.”

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The Latin Mass is allowed ... but only if a compromise is agreed to first:

25% Less: Vatican Imposes a Novus Ordo per Month

gloria.tv | July 22, 2024

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Texas, announced in a July 18 email to his priests that the Vatican's Dicastery for the Liturgy had "granted" a two-year extension of their permission to celebrate Mass in the Roman rite [Latin Mass] in three parish churches and five other chapels.

Monsignor Burbidge applied for this "permission" several months ago. In its response, the dicastery praised the bishop for how "well" he had implemented 'Traditionis Custodes'. In July 2022, Bishop Burbidge closed 13(!) out of 21 places of Holy Mass in his diocese.

Now the dicastery has added the requirement that in the three parish churches where Mass is still celebrated the Novus Ordo must be used once a month instead of Mass. Bishop Burbidge has accepted this injunction.

Monsignor Burbidge became world famous for the bitter and bizarre dispute with the Carmelite nuns at Arlington.

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Another example of pressure from the Vatican applied to traditional groups/communities into compromising by accepting the Novus Ordo Mass. It is the symbol of the New Religion and obeisance must be paid! 

“And we have the precise conviction that this new rite of Mass expresses a new faith, a faith which is not ours, a faith which is not the Catholic Faith. This New Mass is a symbol, is an expression, is an image of a new faith, of a Modernist faith… Now it is evident that the new rite, if I may say so, supposes another conception of the Catholic religion - another religion.” (Archbishop Lefebvre, Sermon, June 29, 1976)

+ + +

"Request from Rome": Nuns of Pontcalec Introduce Novus Ordo

gloria.tv | July 22, 2024

The Dominican Sisters of Pontcalec, still an institute of the Roman Rite, announced on 7 July during Sunday Mass that at their retreat (27 July to 2 August) the community Mass would be celebrated according to the Novus Ordo Missae.

This measure was taken at "the request from Rome".

The news was published in an open letter on LeForumCatholique.org (21 July) by outraged faithful who have settled near the monastery precisely to attend the Roman Mass with their families. They now feel betrayed.

They write that the nuns are about "to abandon the Vetus Ordo, to pass to the Novus Ordo".

Medias-Presse.info adds the claim that the measure is not temporary for the retreat, but that in the future "the community Mass will be celebrated according to the Novus Ordo Missae".