His Excellency Most Rev. Luigi Negri, Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio, on the occasion of Pentecost 2013. Excerpts:
This grace which the Church gives, you are living it at the spring of the Faith: the celebration of Holy Mass. You are able to drink these waters thanks to the great mercy of Benedict XVI. You can drink from this fresh stream, using one of the Church’s great treasures: the traditional liturgy. This is not an alternative to the reformed liturgy brought in after Vatican II, but is a fuller, freer, and more responsible form to be lived alongside the other one. Benedict XVI said as much in his wonderful Motu Proprio. […]
You may use this liturgy, and I am extremely happy that you do so in this Archdiocese where I arrived only a few months ago. You do not do so to attack anyone, or to push any opinion, but rather to live the mystery of the Church in accordance with the depth and truth of your right to live this way. […]
There can be no-one, no Diocese in Italy or anywhere in the world, who can stop you doing this. If any Bishop ever dares to say “no” to you, he must be brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal immediately. […]
Try this older Liturgy for yourselves! Try out the truths of your faith! Try out the truths of your charity! Give impetus to your mission! Be like those who try out the same truths with the reformed Liturgy in the truth of their Faith and charity: they are two treasures for the same people. [NB]People can be said to be grown-up Catholics if they understand these freedoms the Church gives them. […]
I am one of the few bishops (I am afraid to say we are very few) to have gained from all this a deeper sense of our identity in our dealings with God. It is truly a great thing; and not just for those who practise it, but for the whole Church.
I have gone to the traditional Latin Mass my whole life. I love it. I would not have it any other way.
It makes me sad that it was changed so much from when my grandparents where brought up in the faith.
(It also makes me sad that the bishop here will not allow the Latin Mass to be said at some/all of the pretty churches here in town…)
