VATICAN CITY, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue an edict allowing Roman Catholic priests to say mass in Latin unless their bishops forbid it.
The move might help bring ultra-conservative Catholics led by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre back to the church, The Telegraph reported.
Catholics have heard the Mass in their native languages since the 1960s. Under current rules, priests can say the Latin or Tridentine mass -- relating to the 16th-century Council of Trent -- only after a petition to the bishop.
The liturgy adopted after Vatican II was also more open to the congregation.
In the Tridentine mass the priest faces the altar for much of the service, reciting the ancient ritual in Latin in words that many of the congregation cannot hear, let alone understand.
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