Cardinal: Liberalized Use Of Tridentine Mass Already Is Bearing Fruit

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI’s outreach to traditionalist Catholics by liberalizing the use of the Tridentine Mass already is bearing fruit, said Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos.

The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” which coordinates care for traditionalist Catholics, said that thanks to the pope’s action “not a few have asked to return to full communion, and some already have returned.”

In an interview published in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Cardinal Castrillon said 30 cloistered nuns in Spain have “already been recognized and regularized” and “there are cases of American, German and French groups” who have begun the process.

He added, “There are individual priests and many laypeople who contact us, write to us and call us for a reconciliation and, on the other side, there are many other faithful who demonstrate their gratitude to the pope” for his July letter authorizing wider use of the liturgy from the 1962 Roman Missal.

In his letter, the pope said the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form, while celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.

Vatican Official Discusses Saudi King’s Idea to Initiate Dialogue

VATICAN CITY – The importance of marriage and the family and the values needed to sustain family life can be an appropriate starting point for interreligious dialogue, said an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Franciscan Father Gianfranco Grieco described as “interesting” Saudi Arabian King Abdullah Aziz’s idea to initiate a dialogue with Muslims, Christians and Jews to defend the family, moral values and the importance of religion.

While Saudi Arabia is a strictly Islamic country where the public practice of any other faith is illegal, King Abdullah announced that he had been consulting Muslim religious leaders about the possibility of inviting “all religions to sit together with their brothers, faithfully and sincerely, as we all believe in the same God” to discuss “the crisis all humanity is suffering in the current time.”

The institution of the family has been “weakened and dismantled,” a lack of faith and religious practice has spread and “there is a lack of ethics, loyalty and sincerity,” he said.

Maryland Legislature Passes Measure to Study Death Penalty

BALTIMORE – Richard J. Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, praised the Maryland General Assembly for passing legislation to establish a commission that will study the death penalty in Maryland.

The House of Delegates passed its version of the bill March 21 on an 89-48 vote, and the Senate passed its version a day later on a 32-15 vote.

The two versions are expected to be reconciled soon, and Gov. Martin J. O’Malley is likely to sign the measure into law, Dowling said.

The commission will be made up of people on both sides of the issue, and it is expected to include representatives from the state’s religious community.

“We’re hopeful this commission will help remove the residual doubts about whether our justice system can be best served by repeal of the death penalty,” said Dowling.

The commission is expected to hold regional hearings, and Dowling said he is “confident people and interests throughout the state will have their say.”

Vietnamese Priest: Government Loosens Control of Seminary

NHA TRANG, Vietnam – Permission for a third major seminary to recruit an unrestricted number of students is a sign that the Vietnamese government is loosening restrictions on religion, said the seminary’s rector.

Since Stella Maris Major Seminary reopened in Nha Trang Diocese in 1991, every other year it has accepted 10 students from each of the neighboring dioceses of Buon Me Thuot, Nha Trang and Quy Nhon, said Father Pierre Pham Ngoc Phi, rector.

The seminary used to give a list of 40 to 45 candidates from those dioceses to government authorities, who would approve only 30, he said.

Recently, he said, the government has not limited the number of recruits, so last September the seminary admitted 44 students, instead of 30, from the three dioceses.

He said that the seminary received permission to recruit annually from each diocese.

The two major seminaries based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City received the same permission from the government, in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Six major seminaries train priests from 26 dioceses throughout the country.

Cardinal Foley to Receive Special Award From Christophers

NEW YORK – U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, has been named the recipient of the Christopher Leadership Award by the Christophers.

Cardinal Foley, along with television shows, movies and books that are deemed uplifting, will be honored April 10 at a Christopher Awards dinner in Manhattan. On the following evening, he will address The Tablet’s Centennial Anniversary Dinner in Downtown Brooklyn.

Ordained a priest in 1962, Cardinal Foley has been involved in Catholic communications in its many forms.

He served as Editor of The Catholic Standard & Times, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and for 23 years was president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, a post he held until 2007.

Named an archbishop in 1984, he was made a cardinal last November. In his current position, he guides the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in the organization’s support of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and its response to the needs of Catholics in the Holy Land.