I made it into CNS!

Gee, maybe I should start wearing a nametag.

Last week I attended Cardinal Danneels lecture at Catholic University of America and posted a lengthy summary of it (with a little commentary).

Today, Catholic News Service published its report of the talk, and singled out my question from the other ones that were asked during the Q&A:

In a brief question-answer session after his talk, the cardinal was asked to comment on Pope Benedict XVI's recent decision to permit wider use of the of the Tridentine Mass in Latin. In his decree, the pope said the Tridentine Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal should be made available in every parish where groups of the faithful desire it. He also said the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form of the Mass, while celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.

Cardinal Danneels said he thought the pope did so in the hope that giving wider access to the pre-Vatican II version would draw some Catholics attached to that rite, especially the followers of the schismatic late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, back into the church.

He said he has no objections to permission for wider use of the rite -- although "in Belgium it was superfluous; people are not asking for it" -- as long as those seeking it accept other teachings of Vatican II, such as those on religious freedom.

I guess I would probably come off as flippant if I were to note that it doesn't seem to me that people in Belgium are asking for any sort of liturgy, let alone the Tridentine. Mass attendance in Belgium is well under 5% after all, and most of those are elderly folks, as Oliver from Belgium informs us.