Motu Proprio Breaking News: Is It Tomorrow?

The UK Telegraphs Damian Thompson is reporting that a “Senior Figure” in the Vatican is saying that tomorrow is the day. HT to Fr. Z.

The Pertinent bits are as follows:

A senior figure in the Vatican, a monsignor close to the Pope, has been told that the long-awaited motu proprio lifting restrictions on the Tridentine Latin Mass will be issued tomorrow.

I’ve cried wolf on this subject before, so don’t bet on it – but the announcement seems imminent, and traditionalists MUST be ready to react the second the document appears.

For, make no mistake about it, liberal European bishops – including English ones – already have a strategy in place to smother the Pope’s ruling. My guess is that the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales will try to claim that the motu proprio won’t make much difference in practice, that there already lots of Old Masses celebrated, that there’s not much demand for any more, etc etc.
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The motu proprio may contain an opt-out clause which allows a local bishop to refuse to grant permission for the Old Rite, sending the decision to Rome (which will grant it in most cases).

If this clause exists, each bishop must be asked: will you be one of those invoking it, and therefore forcing traditional Catholics to go through some sort of appeals process?

Once the ruling is out, I’d like to see a detailed response from every bishop in this country, so we can work out which dioceses are prepared to enter into the spirit of Pope Benedict’s reform – and, equally, which ones will surreptitiously try to ignore it.

We will certainly keep an eye and ear out for any corroboration on this one. Stand by.

Update: Fr. Z is also reporting that “someone VERY well-informed” indicated that it is signed.

Rorate Caeli relays the following yesterday:

Recently, moreover, it seems that the Pope spoke about it in a private audience with Robert Spaemann, philosophy professor at the University of Munich, the great Catholic intellectual to whom Ratzinger himself dedicated the book “Church, Ecumenism, and Politics” (Kirche, Ökumene und Politik). An audience — the one the Pope granted to Spaemann — of which little has been known, even if it is said that the German professor left it with the belief that the “Motu proprio” will be made known soon, maybe even within the month.

This, coupled with the other information, leads one to believe that we are truly on the brink this time. Stay tuned.