It has been almost six years since Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Despite deficiencies in the text (two forms of one rite, for example), the point of this motu proprio – that the Traditional Latin Mass had never been abrogated – sent shockwaves through the entire Catholic world.
Traditional Catholics had argued for decades that the traditional Mass had never been abrogated; in return they were met with scorn, ridicule, and accusations of disobedience from the corners of the “conservative” Catholic world, ever eager to be in the right. Thus, despite the noted deficiencies in the text, Summorum Pontificum was, and remains to this day, an incredibly controversial text. This is not because of the juridical questions directly, but because of the clear statement that the ancient liturgical rite of Rome, which had formed countless saints, and which the reformers sought to kill, had never been abrogated.
Fast forward over five years to March 13, 2013. Benedict XVI, having announced his abdication in early February, had renounced the burden of that office, leading to the election of Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, who would take the name Francis. In the uncertainty that followed, the question of the liturgy returned increasingly to the fore of Catholic discourse.
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