VATICAN CITY – The Diocese of Rome has erected a “personal parish” in Rome’s city center dedicated to the celebration of the Tridentine Mass.
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported May 15 that Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar for Rome, recently designated the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims as a parish where the pre-Second Vatican Council liturgy will be celebrated exclusively. The newspaper said the cardinal had entrusted the church to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.
Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 document, “Summorum Pontificum,” allowed for wider use of the Mass in Latin using the 1962 Roman Missal. The document also said a bishop could designate a specific parish where the older form of the Mass would be used exclusively and not simply as an occasional alternative to the post-Vatican II liturgy.
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Council “Ecclesia Dei,” which oversees the pastoral care of traditionalist Catholics, said the establishment of the Rome parish is a sign that “Summorum Pontificum” is being implemented in dioceses.
“The realization of a personal parish (in Rome) also has the value of being an example for other dioceses in Italy and elsewhere,” Cardinal Castrillon said.