07/07/07: the Church changed forever Posted by Damian Thompson on 26 Dec 2007 at 14:52 Tags: Pope Benedict XVI , Latin Mass , Extraordinary Form , English Bishops There is only one candidate for my religious highlight of 2007: that glorious day in July when Pope Benedict XVI healed a disastrous rift in the history of the Western Church by restoring the ancient Latin Mass to its full dignity. By restoring the Latin Mass the Pope made 2007 a glorious year The Holy Father’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum was a thrilling and shocking event: thrilling for traditional Catholics because its liberation of the older Mass was so much more comprehensive than they had dared hope, and shocking for ossified liberals who believed that the “Tridentine” liturgy was a thing of the past. In the short term, it might appear that the Pope created a rift rather than closed one. But that is because the liberal hierarchies of many countries – now, thank God, on the verge of retirement