I received the following by e-mail. There is some news about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum at the Cathedral of Portland, Maine.
Let us have a glance with my emphases and comments.
February 24, 2008
Dear Friends of the Noon Mass at the Cathedral:
As you may be aware, I have been endeavoring to provide for the implementation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum on a more stable basis and on a more extended basis in other locations in our diocese in addition to Portland and Newcastle.
I am pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2008, Father Robert Parent will serve as chaplain to the persons attached to the extraordinary form of the Roman liturgy residing in Southern and Central Maine. Father Parent is a native of Lewiston and a priest of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton, Massachusetts. He enjoys all the ministerial faculties of the Latin Church. Currently, he is the administrator of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Sabattus and St. Francis Mission in Greene. He will continue to reside at the family home in Auburn. [So, this fellow is bi-ritual. He is not a Latin Church priest, but he has faculties.]
After July 1, he will be responsible for Sunday Mass in the extraordinary form here at the Cathedral and at the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Lewiston, and in whichever additional locations may be possible either on the weekends or on weekdays. He will be available for the celebration of the sacraments and sacramentals, including funerals, as needed and where the provisions exist for these celebrations. The faithful having recourse to Father Parent will remain parishioners of the parish where they live. [so… no personal parish at this time.] The jurisdiction of the chaplain extends to Mass and confessions for such persons. Jurisdiction for other sacraments and sacramentals would be obtained from the proper pastor of the place where the individual lives.
The chaplaincy will be funded through the donations of the faithful at the Masses celebrated by Father Parent. [I like this. They can ante up.] The chaplaincy will exist as long as there is sufficient funding to meet its expenses. This budget is being prepared and will be communicated to those who will be benefiting from his ministry.
It is my hope that this will allow for greater access to the extraordinary form of the Roman liturgy. I am grateful to Father Parent for accepting this new position. I count on your support and encouragement to him as he begins his ministry among you.
May God bless you with His peace. Please know that you are in my prayers.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Most Reverend Richard J. Malone
Bishop of Portland
I like the solution. Let the people who really want this, support it and then, if they can, expand it so that it merits a more stable structure.
I would only point out that this solution does not preclude a parish priest from implementing Summorum Pontificum in his own parish, if such a thing is merited. The provisions of Summorum Pontificum are not by this solution to be restricted, after all.
Finally, the situation of Fr. Parent, the chaplain there in Portland, is instructive for people to understand what Pope Benedict did with Summorum Pontificum.
Before Summorum Pontificum priests really had to have permission to celebrate the older form of Mass publicly. Even if they had faculties to say Mass, they needed permission for the TLM which had been made possible by an indult from John Paul II. Now, however, the indult framework no longer exists, because now all priests have the faculty to say the older Mass by the fact they have the faculty to say Mass at all.
This is because Benedict XVI establsihed that, juridically speaking, there is only one Roman Rite and that that one Roman Rite has two uses. If a priest has faculties for the Roman Rite, he has faculties for the older Mass.
This is why we don’t, juridically, speak of the older, "Tridentine" Mass as a different Rite. If it is a different rite, juridically, then the priest needs special faculties to celebrate it.
For example, if I, as a priest of the Latin Rite, the Roman Rite, want to celebrate Mass as the Maronites do, or the Ukranians, then I must obtain from their ecclesiastica authorities the faculty to say Mass in their rites. If a Maronite priest wants to say Mass in the Roman Rite, he must obtain a faculty from a Latin Church authority.
Thus, you can see that Pope Benedict’s solution was brilliant. Leaving aside the scholarly debates about whether the Novus Ordo and the "Tridentine" Mass are really the same RITE, which is a scholarly historical, liturgical, theological debate, His Holiness said that juridically there is one Roman Rite with two uses. This eliminates the need for separate faculties.
