Latin Mass Society plea to Pope

THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY has sent a letter to Pope John Paul signed by 89 prominent Catholics asking for the Tridentine Rite of the Mass to be allowed as an alternative to the new rite.
The signatories include the novelist Graham Greene, Norman St John-Stevas, Lord Rawlinson, Sir Lennox Berkeley the Earl a Oxford and Asquith, and Lord Longford.
The letter has been sent to the bishops of England and Wales and was suppossed to be sent to Pope Paul. After he died, however, it was decided to send it to his successor.
There is no indication of Pope John Paul's thinking on the subject of the Tridentine Rite but he took no action against a priest in the diocese of Venice who continued to say Mass with the banned rite.
Fr Siro Cilliano, the chief librarian at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, has said the Tridentine Mass every day at the Church of San Simeone Piccolo and has not been stopped by Cardinal Luciani when he was Patriach of Venice.
On the other hand an appeal similar to the present letter and signed by 8,000 people was sent to Rome in 1976, but the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments turned it down. Pope John Paul was a member of that congregation.
In this country the Latin Mass Society sent a petition to the bishops earlier this year, and although the standing committee of the bishops discussed it and it has been received favourably by individual bishops, the Bishops' Conference has not yet decided whether or not to support the petition in Rome. Cardinal Hume had intended to raise the matter with Pope Paul later this year.
The Latin Mass Society was founded in 1965 with the idea of preserving the use of Latin in the liturgy. It has about 3,000 members.