Decree, Quo magis altera (22 February 2020)

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Prot. N. 137/2009P – ED

DECREE

In order for one form of the Roman Rite to better enrich the other, in the Letter of 7 July 2007 to all the Bishops of the Latin Church[1], Pope Benedict XVI determined that some new prefaces be included in the old Missal.

Since the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” had confirmed such determination in the Instruction Universæ Ecclesiæ[2], that same Commission, by virtue of the mandate given by Benedict XVI in the said Letter, and drawing upon new and ancient sources, undertook a study as to the most appropriate ways of adding Prefaces to the old Missal. This study, begun by the Pontifical Commission, was recently completed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after the Sovereign Pontiff Francis transferred all the duties of said Commission to said Congregation, by an Apostolic Letter given motu proprio on 17 January 2019 [3].

Wherefore the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, having consulted several Religious Institutes, Societies of Apostolic Life and experts devoted to the Usus Antiquior, as well as the Most Eminent Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, approves the seven Prefaces found in the attached exemplar, and grants that these may be used, in accordance with the relevant rubrics, by any priest who celebrates the Eucharistic Sacrifice according to the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum and the Roman Missal of 1962.

All that is established by this Decree is to be observed as from 19 March of this year, on the Feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Patron of the Universal Church, all things to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, in the Audience granted on 5 December 2019 to the undersigned Archbishop Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved this Decree and ordered its publication.

Given in Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 22 February 2020, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle.

Luis F. Card. Ladaria, S.I.
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

✠ Giacomo Morandi
Titular Archbishop of Cerveteri
Secretary

[1] Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops on the occasion of the publication of the Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio data” Summorum Pontificum on the use of the Roman Liturgy prior to the reform of 1970, AAS 99 (2007), 798.

[2] Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, Instruction on the Application of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum of his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI given Motu Proprio, AAS 103 (2011), 413-420, n. 25.

[3] Francis, Apostolic Letter given Motu Proprio on the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, 17 January 2019.