Vatican corrects ‘extraordinary form’ error in new constitution

Vatican City, Mar 28, 2022 / 04:20 am

The Vatican has corrected a paragraph in its new constitution which it said erroneously referred to the Traditional Latin Mass as the “extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.”

Journalist Diane Montagna reported on March 24 that the constitution’s wording had been changed in the Italian text on the Vatican’s website.

When Praedicate evangelium was published on March 19, article 93 said that the newly titled Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments “deals with the regulation and discipline of the Sacred Liturgy as regards the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.”

A Vatican official told journalists at a press conference last week that the relevant section of the constitution was written before the publication of Traditionis custodes, the pope’s 2021 document restricting Traditional Latin Masses, and was “a typo that should be corrected.”

The paragraph now says: “The Dicastery deals with the regulation and discipline of the sacred liturgy with regard to the use — granted according to established norms — of the liturgical books prior to the reform of the Second Vatican Council.”

Praedicate evangelium, which was nine years in the making, comes into force on June 5, the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Bishop Marco Mellino, the secretary of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals, said in a March 21 presentation of the constitution, that article 93 would be corrected “when I find the time to submit the new formulation to the Holy Father.”

In Traditionis custodes and the “responsa” that followed, Pope Francis indicated that the Old Mass should no longer be considered the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite, a term introduced by his predecessor Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum, his 2007 document liberalizing the celebration of Traditional Latin Masses.