RORATE CÆLI: Francis’ Cruelty – Costa Rica: Fr. Varela, the First Priest Suspended for Celebrating the Traditional Mass Following the new Motu Proprio

I feel the need to write this chronicle due to the concern expressed in different parts of the world to know clearly what is happening in Costa Rica after the promulgation of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI published his apostolic letter in the form of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. With this document, the Pope established that it was licit to celebrate the sacraments with the liturgical books prior to the post-conciliar liturgical reform. Thus, in the Roman Rite there was an ordinary form and an extraordinary form, and no priest needed any permission to celebrate Holy Mass with the 1962 missal, edited by St. John XXIII. Moreover, the faithful who requested it were to be admitted to such celebrations. A few years later, on April 30, 2011, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the instruction Universae Ecclesiae. In it, some clarifications were made regarding the suitable priest and the group of faithful. Among other things, it clarified that the group requesting Mass in the extraordinary form could be created after the publication of Summorum Pontificum and could be made up of faithful from various parishes or dioceses. Around the same time, some of the faithful in Costa Rica had joined together with the objective of celebrating the sacraments in the extraordinary form in the country. Some had spoken with Father Sixto Varela Santamaría, who had been sent by the then Bishop of Alajuela, Monsignor Ángel San Casimiro, to study communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Father Sixto expressed his openness so that, at some point, these celebrations could be held in his parish in Costa Rica. Other faithful had contacted the then Archbishop of San José, Monsignor Hugo Barrantes Ureña, in order to have the Traditional Mass in Latin in the archdiocese.

RORATE CÆLI: Francis’ Cruelty – Costa Rica: Fr. Varela, the First Priest Suspended for Celebrating the Traditional Mass Following the new Motu Proprio