The Italian Latin Mass blog reports that a practical obstacle of no small moment has long been imposed upon Priests wishing to celebrate Mass using the Missal of 1962 in St. Peter's: the Sacristy of the Basilica did not preserve even a single Missal for the Extraordinary Form.
Every Parish Church and Chapel of Ease, not to say Cathedral, would have accumulated Missals over the centuries, but, suddenly, everything disappeared from St. Peter's. Who knows what happened: it seems that a liberating or renewing book-burning must have taken place in the immediate post-Conciliar period.
Father Stefano Carusi, a Priest of the Institute of the Good Shepherd (seen to the left above), has released the letter he sent to the Cardinal Archpriest, to lament the fact and point out how, in the words of those in the sacristy, it appeared clear that absence of missals was not accidental.
Now, we are pleased to make known that the Archpriest, who is also the Cardinal Vicar for the Vatican City State, Cardinal Comastri, has pledged to make available four copies of the 1962 Missal... and only a mere two years and three months after Summorum Pontificum came into force.
When asked to comment on the day following the celebration of Pontifical High Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Basilica on 18th October, 2009, by Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, His Eminence said: "The Mass represented an extraordinary event, an event authorized on the occasion of the conference." The Cardinal declined further comment, but another Vatican official said the Mass probably was the first pontifical high Mass using the 1962 Rite to be celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica in almost 40 years.
Venerable Pope Pius XII pray for us!