The Pope Is Coming

On Tuesday the Pope Benedict XVI flies into Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and begins a six-day visit to the U. S.
For wise commentary about potential media coverage of this papal visit read this March 29 column in the NY Times by Peter Steinfels. Steinfels comments on the the cliched breathlessness with which the media covers events like this, and the difficulty the press has in reporting on any serious religious leader. He identifies 5 important aspects of the Pope Benedict's trip that ought to be seriously considered:

• The pope's appearance at the U.N.
• His encounter with American Catholicism.
• The perspective he will offer on Catholic education and identity at a meeting with Catholic educators.
• His interactions with leaders of other religions and Christian denominations.
• His skill in navigating the partison politics of the current U.S. presidential campaign.

Steinfels also notes the irony that some of the least examined spoken words of the pope in the coming week will be those most important to him: the words of the mass.

Papal Pronouncements

Twice in the past week major newspapers have carried stories about papal pronouncements: "Pope Eases Restrictions on Wider Use of Latin Mass" (NYTimes, Sunday, June 8); and "Pope, Restating 2000 Document, Cites 'Defects' of Other Faiths" (NYTimes, Wednesday, June 11). The newspaper articles have brief quotations from Pope Benedict XVI's authorization regarding the Latin mass and this recent restatement of Roman Catholic ecclesiology. But what if you want to dig deeper and see the actual documents?

Two well-organized web sites can help:

1. The official Vatican site is The Holy See (www.vatican.va) with sites in German, Italian, Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese). Here you will find links to recent documents in the news, including Benedict's apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" regarding the Latin mass, the letter to bishops on the occasion of the publication of "Summorum Pontificum," and the document "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church ." The site is fully searchable, with good cross-referenced links. But there's a problem: There's no officially authorized English translation of the Latin text "Summorum Pontificum." For a translation, see below.
   
   
2. Papal Encyclicals Online is not an official Vatican web site, but provides convenient access to papal encyclicals and other Catholic Church documents from 1226 to the present. Papal encyclicals and other documents may be browsed by Pope or searched by keyword. Includes the full text of papal encyclicals, apostolic letters, apostolic constitutions, apostolic exhortations, and other Papal communications. This site contains an unofficial English translation of "Summorum Pontificum." On this site you can also find such things as the famous papal bull issued by Pope Leo X against Martin Luther in 1520, "Exsurge Domine" (pictured above right)

Behind all of this, of course, are the liturgical texts in question: The 1962 edition of the "Missal of Pius V," also called the Tridentine Mass; and the post-Vatican II "Missal of Paul VI," promulgated in 1970. These texts can be conveniently found in the Catholic Liturgical Library web site. For some concise background history, see the Wikipedia article on the Roman Missal.