Pope Benedict XVI authorized yesterday wider use of the long-marginalized Latin Mass, a move that delighted Catholic traditionalists but worried others who fear the erosion of important church reforms.
Revival of the service, which had largely been supplanted by the modernizing spirit of the Second Vatican Council, also angered Jewish groups because it contains a passage calling for their conversion.
In a decree known as a motu propio, essentially a personal decision, the pope urged priests to celebrate a 1962 version of the 16th-century Tridentine Mass when their congregations request it. Until now, priests could use the Latin Mass only with permission from their bishops, which was not always forthcoming.
The much-anticipated decision, nearly two years in the making, aims to win back disaffected conservatives and unite the church, Vatican officials said. Also, it reflects Benedict's personal preference for traditional liturgy and prayers in Latin, a language he extols as beautiful and holy.
"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us, too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful," Benedict said.
But the pope's announcement risks alienating some of the faithful. It could sow rather than mend divisions, undermine other reforms and harm interfaith relations, several church leaders and Catholic experts said.
The Tridentine Mass was largely replaced by newer liturgy approved during the Second Vatican Council, held between 1962 and 1965. In the newer rite, local languages replaced Latin, priests faced their congregations instead of turning their backs on them, and some wording deemed offensive to Jews was changed.
Attempting to reassure the doubters, the pope said yesterday that because both the Tridentine Mass and the current, more modern liturgy would be available, there should be no concern that the church was turning back the clock.
He pointed out that the older liturgy was never outlawed; rather, he said, it fell out of favor in part because some bishops thought its use would challenge broader Vatican II reforms. But the reforms were sometimes misinterpreted as "authorizing or even requiring creativity," he said, deforming the liturgy and driving people from the church.
Tracy Wilkinson and Rebecca Trounson write for the Los Angeles Times.