The CDF survey sent this year includes questions such as “In your opinion, are there positive or negative aspects of the use of the extraordinary form?” and “How has the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum had an influence on the life of seminaries (the seminary of the diocese) and other formation houses?”
The questionnaire also asks whether the extraordinary form responds “to a true pastoral need” or is “promoted by a single priest.”
Bishops are asked to say whether they personally use the 1962 Missal and what advice they would offer about the extraordinary form.
The document also asked whether “in your diocese, the ordinary form has adopted elements of the extraordinary form?”
In his cover letter, which was first published by the website Rorate Caeli along with the survey, Cardinal Ladaria wrote: “Thirteen years after the publication of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum issued by Pope Benedict XVI, His Holiness Pope Francis wishes to be informed about the current application of the aforementioned document.”
Ladaria asked bishops to send their responses by July 31, 2020.
The survey is not the Holy See's first solicitation for feedback about the extraordinary form.
In his 2007 letter, Benedict XVI asked bishops “to send to the Holy See an account of your experiences, three years after this motu proprio has taken effect,” in 2010.
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei subsequently issued the 2011 instruction Universae ecclesiae, clarifying aspects of Summorum Pontificum.
Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, told CNA that in his view, the survey results will speak to a positive place for the extraordinary form in the life of the Church.
In a statement, Shaw said: “Assuming the CDF receives reasonably complete responses, comparing reports written in 2010 and in 2020 will show not only a steady growth in the number of celebrations, but an increasing and serene integration of the EF [extraordinary form] into the life of the Church, something attributable in large part to the attitude of the bishops themselves.”
“What the older generation of more hostile bishops believed is that with some discouragement priests and people would lose interest in it, but this has not happened,” he added.
“On the contrary, their successors are almost always more open-minded, and as time goes on it becomes clearer to younger priests and laity how the old arguments against the EF were often based on flawed scholarship and theological misunderstandings, and that as Pope Benedict noted, the ancient Latin liturgical tradition continues to have value for new generations,” Shaw said.
