European bishops: Pope's letter promotes unity, reaffirms Vatican II

Published: 2007-07-09

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Presenting Pope Benedict XVI's letter on the Tridentine Mass, bishops in Europe stressed the pope's hope to promote greater unity within the church and his insistence that those attached to the old Mass also must recognize the legitimacy of the new Mass. "In the pope's decision there are no winners or losers," said Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, president of the French bishops' conference. "He wants to support reconciliation among Catholics and to reconcile the church with its liturgical past." Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel, president of the Swiss bishops' conference, said the wider permission to use the Tridentine liturgy was being extended to "Catholics who recognize the Second Vatican Council and are in unity with the pope and the bishops." Bishops in France, Switzerland, England and Wales, Italy and Scotland also said they did not expect there to be much of an increase in the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, because it already is celebrated weekly in their dioceses and because most parish priests would not know how to celebrate it.

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