Archbishop Conti defies the Pope's Motu Propio

Local action as appropriate (see end).

This attempt to frustrate the Pope's intentions is simply breathtaking. The purpose of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which clarifies and changes certain provisions of the Church's law, is to give priests the right to celebrate Mass according to the 'previous liturgical tradition' whenever they wish: privately, or where the pastor judges there to be demand from the faithful, publicly. Again, all the sacraments and rituals in the traditional form may be used at the discretion of the 'pastor'. And faithful who want Mass and the sacraments in the traditional form have the right to ask for it: if their parish priest cannot provide it, the bishop and the Ecclesia Dei commission are to seek a solution.

Archbishop Conti of Glasgow, in a letter to his clergy, is trying to turn this on its head: he demands the right to veto public and even private celebrations on the grounds of a lack of demand or the priest's lack of knowledge. He simply does not have the right to do this: the Pope, as supreme legislator of the Church, has given this discretion to individual priests.

As St Augustine wrote: when the governor says one things, and the emperor another, we should obey the emperor. (Quoted by Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia IIae Q.19 q.5 obj.2.)

Hat-tip to Holy Smoke; full chapter and verse on Conti's letter and its legal errors from Fr Zulsdorf. Fr Zuhlsdorf remarks that this is the most hostile reaction to the Motu Proprio he has seen from anywhere in the world. Local complaints should go, first to Archbishop Conti, then--without fail--to Cardinal Hoyos and the Ecclesia Dei commission.

secretary@rcag.org.uk
Archbishop Mario Conti
Curial Offices,
196 Clyde Street,
Glasgow G1 4J

Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos
Palazzo della Congr. per la Dottrina della Fede,
00193 Roma,
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11
Italy