Motu Proprio Watch: Misinformation

As we all await the imminent release (tomorrow, maybe?) of the Motu Proprio that will de-restrict the use of the so-called Tridentine Mass, our thoughts should turn to how this will be understood by those who have no idea what we are talking about. The Trumpet is a protestant magazine from Philadelphia. The following is from their take on a recent USA today report of the coming MotuProprio. It is illustrative of the type of education we will have to do in the near future:

The Second Vatican Council, conducted from 1962 to 1965, restricted the use of the Latin, ultra-conservative Tridentine Missal, or prayer book, for use during mass[Well, no.].
…
Though the decision to restrict the Tridentine Mass was welcomed by most, it was scorned by hard-core Catholics. A younger Joseph Ratzinger was among the disgruntled conservatives. At the time, Ratzinger, now Benedict xvi, criticized the changes ushered in by Vatican ii: “I was stunned by the ban on the ancient missal,” he wrote in his memoirs.
…
Now that Ratzinger is the most powerful man in the Roman Catholic Church, he is in a position to reverse the Vatican ii decision. His intentions are not just to resurrect the Tridentine, but also to set it above the current mass. The Tridentine Mass will be an “extraordinary universal rite,” and the current mass will become an “ordinary universal rite”

Oy. Where to start? Don’t be surprised if others in the mainstream media make similar mistakes. The idea that extraordinary rite is above and ordinary rite is just silly. The ordinary rite will still be the most common rite, of course.

Take, for instance, the case of extraordinary and ordinary Eucharistic ministers. The Priest and deacons are still the ordinary ministers of communion and extraordinary ministers are only to be used under special circumstances. There is no possibility that the extraordinary minister would be above the ordinary or become the most common form of Eucharistic minister, right? Well, maybe this is a bad example.

Anyway, you get the point. There is a lot of education that will need to occur in the coming weeks and months. We should be prepared.