Cardinal O’Malley continues to post on his blog – once a week, according to plan. This week’s entry includes a reference to the TridentineClassicalOldLatin MassRite question.

He states, in answer to a question from a reader, that he’d allow for the Tridentine Mass as much as the need indicated it should be allowed. He points out, first, that any priest can say as much of the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin as he wishes, that he brought the Indult Mass to Fall River as bishop there. Now, I understand that there’s been some questions about the Boston Archdiocese and these matters, since one of the parishes scheduled for closing was the one that hosted this Mass. But I’m not quite sure on that, and when comments open, you can clarify. What interested me was this:

It’s not a question of anyone being obliged to celebrate the “old” Mass. As far as the language is concerned, the “new” Mass can be celebrated in Latin without permission. As a matter of fact, when I was first ordained, if we celebrated Mass alone, we were supposed to celebrate it in Latin. I still follow that custom. The idea being that the vernacular was allowed for pastoral reasons for the people.

In all of our Missals, the Sacramentary – the book priests use for Mass, in the back of the Missal, there is a section that contains all of the prayers and readings in Latin. It is there for what one may call “private” Masses, although strictly speaking, no Mass is really “private” because even when saying Mass alone, the whole Church is spiritually involved.

What an interesting two paragraphs. Interesting to hear a bishop speak of this in ways that veer, even just a bit, from the regular drone of the party line, simply tossing of tidbits as a matter of fact. Nice.