Freedom for Classical Roman rite in 2006?

Great article by Brian Mershon with lots to digest:

The Holy See is preparing to issue a document affirming that the Classical Roman liturgy or Traditional Latin rite, has never been banned, abolished or abrogated, according to numerous news reports and sources close to the Holy See. The exact form of the document and its release date could not be confirmed by publishing deadline, but several sources have indicated that it could be promulgated perhaps as early as November or December 2006. The document will acknowledge what many Catholics held for nearly 40 years — that every Latin-rite priest has the unimpeded right to offer the Classical Latin rite Mass.

The sooner the better, but let us continue to pray that this is true and continue to pray for the Holy Father.

The Wanderer has conducted extensive interviews with several notable Catholics, both priests and laymen, who are involved in both the restoration of the Classical Roman liturgy, and an authentic reform of the current modern liturgy...Mr. Roger McCaffrey, Publisher of Roman Catholic Books and former Publisher of Latin Mass Magazine and Helen Hull Hitchcock of the Adoremus Bulletin, graciously responded to questions about the expected document freeing the Traditional Roman rite.

Question: One of the two preconditions the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X have requested since 2001 was an official Curial recognition affirming what nine curial cardinals told Pope John Paul II in 1986 (subsequently blocked due to concerns from various European bishops), that the Classical Roman liturgy has never been abrogated. Now that this first step has been granted, what do you predict will happen next?

Helen Hull Hitchcock (HHH): If the pre-conciliar rite is restored, the question of whether it was abrogated becomes moot.

Roger McCaffrey (RM): Benedict's document breaks the back of the liturgical revolution, although that will take a generation to become obvious. It promotes use of the only rite that existed — for 99.9 percent of the faithful in the Western Church — and this rite is counter to everything the revolutionaries inserted, sometimes with the help of useful idiots, into the Mass or its rubrics after Vatican II. [my emphasis]

There is no place in the traditional rite for laymen in the sanctuary, communion in the hand, Mass versus populum, guitars accompanied by Pete Seeger-like voices, all the things that are distracting or that undermine a precise understanding of the Faith and undermine piety and reverence for the Eucharist. That this counter-blow is struck by the Pope himself is what makes it so devastating to the other side — which is not reproducing itself anyway. [my emphasis]

In 10 years, the circulation of Latin Mass Magazine will be higher than that of America. If that doesn't illustrate the point, nothing does.

I have no idea how Benedict's new document will be applied, except that you can expect unfairness from many bishops who seem to specialize in that. Luckily, plenty of them are clever enough to catch the papal hint about the Missal of 1962.

And there's much more here...

Can it be that decades of prayer and suffering of the faithful at the whims of liturgists and priests might be nearing an end?