Vatican Issues Clarification to the Guidelines of the Archdiocese of Manila

The Vatican, through Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, has clarified to the Archdiocese of Manila regarding the Guidelines by Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales on the Implementation of Celebration of the Roman Mass of 1962 issued last Dec 8, 2008, Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion, as reported by the Tablet.

The letter, dated March 6, 2009 said that the guidelines has set restrictive conditions for the celebration of the extraordinary form, that the

"guidelines allowing only a monthly Mass in a chapel of [the] Metropolitan Cathedral" were in violation of the norms established by the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. Cardinal Castrillón said the papal decree was “part of the universal law of the Church” and could not be limited by the “particular law” of a diocesan bishop.

Another quote in the Tablet reports:

“There is simply no legitimate reason why this [Tridentine] Mass cannot and should not be celebrated in any church or chapel of your Archdiocese,” Cardinal Castrillón said in his letter to the Archbishop of Manila.

In the said letter, Cardinal Hoyos also praised Cardinal Rosales who:

...actively promote the implementation of the motu proprio by “helping priests who are desirous to learn how to celebrate” the old rite Mass, which he said only required that the priest be “reasonably competent in Latin”, and that there
were faithful who wished to assist at its celebration.