Motu Mania on July 7th!

St. Blogs is having a field day with what looks like an official confirmation of the Motu Proprio:

*drumroll*

7/7/2007 (how pretty!)

Gerald provides a brief introduction:

"the motu proprio liberating the Tridentine Mass for the entire Catholic Church has been given to about 30 bishops from all over the world in the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone. At the end of the meeting, in which the motu proprio was introduced together with a letter of explanation by Pope Benedict XVI., Pope Benedict met with the bishops. The document is about three pages long, the accompanying letter about four...The circumstances of the procedure make clear that the Pope was very interested to personally inform the bishops, in collegial manner, of the content rather than have them learn about it from the media."

Fr. Z adds more (and he is the best source for updates on this story):

It is clear from the way this was done that the Holy Father wanted to make sure that bishops got this document in this way, rather than having to read about it in the paper. I assume that what will happen now is that these bishops, if they are heads of conferences, will return home and distribute the document to the bishop members of the conference.

[UPDATE: They are not only heads of conferences: H.E. Archbp. Raymond Burke of St. Louis and H.E. Sean Card. O’Malley of Boston was there, whether because of this meeting or a coincidental meeting is not clear.]

He also translates the key points in the confirming/expanding article published in Le Croix.

For more reporting on this news, see CWNews and CNA.

Well, there it is! I'm sensing a related AmP Poll on this topic....

Of related interest: Dr. Robert Moynihan on "Benedict and the Mass" for Inside the Vatican.