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Old Rite Priests Warns: Its Again Five to Twelve Rumours of an impending abolition or amendment of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum are to be taken seriously, Father Glen Tattersall, a diocesan …More
Old Rite Priests Warns: Its Again Five to Twelve

Rumours of an impending abolition or amendment of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum are to be taken seriously, Father Glen Tattersall, a diocesan priest of Melbourne, Australia, wrote in a statement on Saturday. Tattersall heads an Old Rite parish in Melbourne, the Newman Parish. He was the founder of the Australian Ecclesia Dei Society and organised an Old Rite Pontifical Mass in Melbourne Cathedral in 1992 which was celebrated by then Auxiliary Bishop George Pell. This was the first Old Rite Pontifical Mass in the Cathedral after more than 20 years of Novus Ordo. More than 1000 faithful attended.

Don’t Ignore the Signs

Tattersall is not surprised by the impending attack on Summorum Pontificum. He stresses that there have been several indications in this direction, namely: the abolition of the Ecclesia Dei commission, the strange 2020 worldwide survey on the Old Mass, the ban on private Masses in St Peter's, the banishment of the Old Rite to its crypt, and finally Arthur Roche's promotion to prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Roche is an enemy of the Old Mass.

A “New Interpretation”

Based on these facts, Tattersall suspects that Francis will commission one of his congregations to publish a new interpretation of Summorum Pontificum. In doing so, he said, one will rely on the alleged concern of the world’s bishops expressed in the survey on the early Mass. The intention of the looming document, according to Tattersall, is to reverse progress on the Old Rite and lock it into a ghetto.

More Joan of Arc than Therese of Lisieux

Tattersall believes, or hopes, that these intentions will fail. Regarding the Old Mass, he recommends the advice of Gamaliel to the Synedrium in the Acts of the Apostles: "If the work is of men, it will perish, but if it is of God, you cannot destroy it, and would stand as strivers against God." The Old Rite, Tattersall says, came into being under the influence of the Holy Spirit and is truly "of God". We will defend this Mass to the end in the certainty that it cannot be destroyed, he writes.

Narcissists and conformists, not shepherds and apostles

Tattersall points out that the Old Rite faithful are different today than they were in the 1970s because they have experienced the unprecedented destruction of the Church in the intervening period. Young Catholics know exactly what a mess the Church has been plunged into by the mismanagement of popes and bishops. Tattersall speaks of abuse of authority and of bullied Catholics but points out that the Old Mass was never abolished and cannot be abolished.