Summer of '07 = Spring of '62

"And if this is what it takes to fill our churches, so be it!"

That was Bishop Salvatore Matano of Burlington's line last night as St Joseph's Co-Cathedral was packed (with old and young... and many in mantillas) for the Vermont prelate's celebration of the "Extraordinary Rite" of the Eucharist. Local coverage -- with video -- here....

...but did he don the buskins?

Never to be outdone, while the Wedding of the Sea revellers were still drying off at the Shore, Assumption Night marked the annual return of the Mater Ecclesiae community to Camden's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for its annual Mass there. Founded in 2000 on what had been a schismatic compound, the South Jersey parish was the first in the US to offer exclusive use of the 1962 rites.

It's now less than a month until the provisions of Pope Benedict's motu proprio on the pre-Conciliar liturgical use go into effect. However, the definitive text of Summorum Pontificum still has yet to be released...

That won't happen until the next edition of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis -- the Vatican's official chronicle of papal acts -- drops in mid-September. Between the document's July release and the Acta's publication, sources say that the document's wording could well see a slight tweak here and there.

In the meantime, requests for authoritative clarification (known as dubia) on elements of the new norms are going to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei by the ream from the dioceses and episcopal conferences. Entrusted with the final word in overseeing the Missal of Bl John XXIII and its celebration, the commission's responses will settle not a few points of contention that've come to light in the motu's wake.

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