The Motu Proprio of course mentions and allows parishes like this. Parishes like this are exclusive extraordinary form in all the liturgy. That is there no regular form(the liturgy that is 99 percent of Catholics have of the Latin Rite).
The reason I mention this is because of an email that Father Z interacts with today at his blog regarding a Church becoming in Omaha extraordinary form only. I think looking at the comments Father Z makes he sort of hints at some of my same concerns.
First a little background. The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is a order in full Union with the Church that promotes and celebrates the extraordinary use only. They have been a blessing and may their numbers grow.
The good thing about this is of course the extraordinary form has greater use. It is a wonderful that the full glory of the "older" (if 35 years ago can be called old) is on display for all see and participate in.
My concerns are several. First that the extraordinary form of the Latin Rite will become ghettoized. That is it will be stuck in one Church. Thus defeating the purpose of the MP. That is that the the forms do not affect each other. As someone that will to continue to participate in the regualar form of the Latin rite, I am excited by the MP because of that fact tha tmy liturgy will benefit . I think that is what Pope Benedict is hoping too.
Lastly as we can see there will be people in Parishes like this that will leave cherished Churches because there will not be any regular form masses at all. This Church has had both and perhaps has functioned well under that regime. We see in one of the most historic Churches of that Diocese according to the email:
"The archbishop is providing a transition period for the approx. eighty parishioners who attended the Novus Ordo Mass, by allowing one Saturday evening Mass in english until December 31st of this year. They will also be able to request a Novus Ordo funeral Mass in the future, in which case a priest will be brought in to offer the Mass."
I would love to know what some of these folks think about this. No doubt many of these people welcomed the people to celebrated what is now called the extraordinary form. From an outsider viewpoint, now it appears they are being shown the door if they don't convert over. It is good in some ways but I think these is a mixed bag that I am not totally happy about.
Interesting Post. A similar thing was done in St. Louis, MO when St. Francis De Sales Parish was turned over to the Institute of Christ the King for TLM only. This was done a couple years ago, long before the Motu Proprio, but the former parish (now considered an oratory) has achieved great success as TLM only. However, with the implementation of the MP, I think you make some great points about how such actions could threaten the effectiveness of it. Definitely a great post.
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