A happy anniversary - Deo Gratias!

Three years ago today Pope Benedict's apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum was promulgated, acknowledging the right of priests to use the 1962 Missal ad libitum privately and under most circumstances publicly.  Summorum Pontificum also established guidelines under which the faithful could request the T.L.M. directly from their pastors rather than seeking recourse to their bishop.  As I've opined before, this was not only a gift to Catholics inclined toward traditional modes of liturgy and spitituality, it was a great gift from Pope Benedict XVI to the entire Church.  Outside of the realm, admittedly small, of those who attend or celebrate the traditional Mass; Summorum Pontificum has had immense repercussions in the Church's relationship with the Orthodox Churches and with the large number of Anglicans disaffected by the increasing lunacy within their communions.

But since its stated intentions were to make the T.L.M. available to all who desired it and also to remove one of the stumbling blocks to a regularization of the S.S.P.X. it seems opportune to assess its success in those areas after three years (well, almost - S.P. came into effect on 14 September 2007).

I do not have the requisite statistical information on the growth of the traditional Mass in the past three years to make an informed pronouncement on the global situation, but I think it's definitely worth noting that in 2007 there were a total of ten every-Sunday T.L.M.'s in all of New England.  There were two whole states without a single (approved) Mass in the Usus Antiquor (not even one in a cemetery chapel at 4 a.m. on the fifth Tuesday of February!)  In the three years of Summorum Pontificum the number of every-Sunday Masses has more than doubled (to at least twenty-two), every diocese has at least one Sunday Mass, and there are lots of regularly scheduled weekday Masses, e.g. First Fridays.  One parish, Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton Upper Falls (MA) has a daily T.L.M. while Holy Name of Jesus in Providence (RI) has two traditional Masses every Sunday.  It's hard to recall that back in late June and Early July of 2007 the Archbishop of Braintree was telling everyone how he'd set the Pope straight on the question of the T.L.M. in America, i.e. that there was virtually no demand for it!  Do you suppose he'll have anything to say for today's occasion?

Oh, by the way, despite the best efforts of many within the Church and their allies in the "progressive" media there has been a notable improvement in relations with the S.S.P.X.  The combination of Summorum Pontificum and the lifting of the excommunications of their four bishops have facilitated a new stage which has begun with doctrinal talks which are now ongoing.

Thank you, Pope Benedict!