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THOSE WHO would argue that a major thrust of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate has been an inward-looking, conservative consolidation will probably point to yesterday’s “instruction” on the 2007 Motu Proprio “ Summorum Pontificum” and shout “case proved”.

To express it in layman’s language, the Holy See yesterday issued a detailed set of instructions calling on bishops and priests to show willing when faced with requests for celebration of Mass in Latin. These instructions follow on from the 2007 Motu Proprio datain which the Pope had eased restrictions on the use of the Latin or so-called Tridentine Mass, which had been sidelined, but not abrogated, by the liturgical reforms of the second Vatican Council, being replaced by the 1970 local language liturgy.