Hot on the heels of this news about permanent deacons and the Latin rite comes another news nugget, this from a British paper, about training seminarians in the old rite:

Seminaries throughout the Catholic world will have to teach candidates how to celebrate the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, it emerged last weekend.

A letter from the Ecclesia Dei commission, the body which deals with matters concerning the 1962 missal, said that the Vatican is preparing to order rectors to “provide for the instruction of their candidates in both forms of the Roman Rite” in a forthcoming clarification of Summorum Pontificum, the Apostolic Letter which liberated the traditional Mass last July.

The Ecclesia Dei letter said: “Candidates for the priesthood in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church have the right to be instructed in both forms of the Roman Rite.

“Those responsible for the formation of candidates for the priesthood in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church should provide the instruction of their candidates in both forms of the Roman Rite.”

The letter surfaced last weekend on an internet site run by Fr John Zuhlsdorf, an American blogger who once worked for Ecclesia Dei.

Several seminaries which serve England and Wales are planning to follow the Pope’s instructions. This could mean that in a few years every new priest will be qualified to say the traditional Mass.

The Beda College in Rome has no problems with the demands made by the letter, its rector Mgr Roderick Strange said. “When the clarification comes, then we’ll start making provisions for it. We’ll be able to establish the needs for it and so on at that time,” said Mgr Strange.

Fr Mark Crisp, rector of St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, said he was open to the possibility.

“What we have at the moment is a Latin Mass in the ordinary rite [Novus Ordo] once a month and we teach Latin, though we don’t have anyone competent to teach the extraordinary rite at the moment,” he said.

But Canon Jeremy Garrat at St John’s College, Wonersh, expressed caution. “We’d better wait for the instructions from Rome before taking any steps,” he said.

All well and good, of course. But it remains to be seen just how much of an appetite the people actually have for the Latin rite, and how much all that training will actually be put to use. From my experience in the Diocese of Brooklyn, I’m skeptical.