Wider use of Latin Mass OK'd, officials say

NEW YORK -- Pope Benedict XVI has signed a document that would allow more churches to adopt the old Latin Mass that largely faded from use during the 1960s, when the groundbreaking Second Vatican Council opened the door to worship in the local vernacular, Vatican officials say.

The revival of what is known as the Tridentine Mass has long been promoted by Roman Catholic traditionalists, who say it is more moving, contemplative, and historically authentic than the modern Mass.

But Benedict has been hearing resistance from cardinals and bishops, many of them in Europe, who argue that the change would divide the church by promulgating two very different official rites.

In the Tridentine Mass, the priest faces away from the congregation and prays, sometimes in a whisper, in Latin, a language unfamiliar to most of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics. The Vatican II reformers intended the modern Mass to be more accessible by allowing the priest to face the congregation and to involve the worshipers in prayer and song, mostly in their native language but including some passages in Latin.

Under the current rules, priests must get permission from their bishops to celebrate the Tridentine Mass . And while many bishops have granted it, some have not.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley is in Rome to take part in a meeting with Vatican officials about the Latin Mass document. In the Archdiocese of Boston, the only Mass said in Latin is a weekly service that recently moved from Boston to Newton. O'Malley has said that once the Vatican document is released, Mass will probably be said in more places in Latin, but he expects the vast majority of local Catholics will continue to worship in English, Spanish, and other spoken languages.