From rumors to facts: the document is coming!
Summorum-pontificum.de [computer translated from the German] | 04. April 2023
On the feared date of the 3rd April no new Roman document with further restrictions on the traditional liturgy appeared. According to the communication of our guarantor in Rome, this does not mean that no corresponding regulations will be issued. Perhaps Francis' hospital stay has messed up the original schedule, there may have been changes at the last minute – but the document, which has been rumored to have been known since January, is now apparently ready and its publication can be expected in a few days at best for weeks.
The new document, which will probably not take the form of an Apostolic Constitution, is to be published by the High Authority for the Orders and Spiritual Communities ( former Congregation for the Order) and primarily deals with the seminaries of the communities of traditional teaching and liturgy. It is noted that these seminaries and training centers do not meet the requirements of the present, neither in terms of the theology taught to them nor in terms of their didactic customs and disciplinary order "as recognized by the Second Vatican Council" and must therefore be comprehensively renewed [overhauled!].
The standard of the reforms is the practice of the diocesan and over diocesan seminaries and universities set up in the respective countries. As in the general seminaries, the focus of the liturgical training is to be the "renewed liturgy of St. Pope Paul IV" as the "only Lex Orandi" of the Roman rite. The importance of "historical forms of the Roman liturgy" cannot be found in the information available here. The document attaches particular importance to the fact that larger parts of the course are completed at state universities that represent the current state of science.
Until the courses, curricula, and disciplinary regulations of the seminaries of the communities meet the new requirements, any further training is prohibited. The resumption of the seminaries operation requires a special Roman approval. Lecturers or seminarians who do not agree with the ordered reorganization of the training are suggested in barely veiled words to apply for membership or study places with the Pius X Brotherhood.
We want to save ourselves the attempt to comment in detail until the new document is officially available. Bigger surprises compared to what we already reported in our reporting on developments in
Frejus-Toulon or the
Research by Diane Montagna reported or suspected, there does not seem to be. But the document to be expected this month does not have to be the last in the series of attempts by the Bergoglio pontificate, the church of the 21st. Century to cut off their apostolic and Roman foundations.