No new seminary for the Old Rite

Vermischtes: Kein Seminar für alten Ritus (suedostschweiz.ch)

Chur. - U-turn by Bishop Vitus Huonder on the training of priests for the old Rite. A separate institution in the Diocese of Chur for this Rite is no longer under consideration. At the beginning of the year Huonder, in an interview with the Südostschweiz am Sonntag , said, priests who wanted to read the Latin Mass should receive their formation at a specific institution.

There is no more talk of their own institution and the creation of conditions for the training of specific priests for these tasks in the courtyard of the Bishop's Palace in Chur. There were no plans to do something specific in Chur, a senior person in the Diocese stated on our request. Neither will there be a new department in the Seminary of St. Lucy, nor an independent seminary in the diocese at a seperate location. Furthermore, the idea of a competence centre for the old Rite is no longer considered, the senior Diocesan spokesman stated.

The ideas that one Diocese should become a centre for the old Rite or that within that Diocese there should be a seperate group devoted to the Latin Mass completely flies in the face of the spirit of the Motu Proprio and the intentions of the Pope to make the Latin Mass intrinsic to the life of the Church.   But it also spells a danger for various religious institutes such as the Fraternity of St Peter, without whom the Latin Mass would not have survived in times rather more hostile than today.