Local Priests Say Motu Proprio Strengthens Liturgies

Summorum Pontificum..."expressed a desire to strengthen the continuity of the Catholic liturgy, from the past to the present, according to two priests who celebrate the traditional Latin Mass in the archdiocese."

"This measure is meant to bring about a healing," said Father Daniel Augustine Oppenheimer, prior of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, based at the Priory of the Annunciation in Chesterfield. "It is not in any measure somehow a triumph of the traditionalists over those who are not interested in the old order."

Father Karl Lenhardt, rector of St. Francis de Sales Oratory in South St. Louis, who also celebrates Mass using the 1962 missal as a member of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, said the pope’s letter "gives the Church the occasion to think of what we are doing with the liturgy. It’s not something we celebrate ourselves, but what Christ gives to his whole Church."

Archbishop Burke, a supporter of the Latin Mass, has stated that the Motu Proprio "will not trigger any noticeable changes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis."

Archbishop Burke wrote a letter to priests last week and is expected to write a column for an upcoming issue of the Archdiocesan newspaper.

"The discipline set forth by ‘Summorum Pontificum’ is aimed at the more worthy celebration of both forms of the same Rite of the Mass," wrote the archbishop. "I share, with the Holy Father, the conviction that the worthy celebration according to both uses will be enriching for all."

All of us, hopefully, share this conviction and should there be those who do not, reading Church documents on the liturgy would be of invaluable help in developing a proper understanding of the Church's desires in this matter.

The archbishop noted that liturgical formation will be available to all priests of the archdiocese who want to celebrate the Mass according to the 1962 missal.

This is excellent news!

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, which already requires the study of the Latin language, will provide seminarians with the liturgical formation required to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass.

This, too, is excellent news...What a blessing we have here in St Louis with such a faithful bishop and with a seminary that has such great professors and students!