Amici?

I've been saying it since I first saw Cardinal Arinze speaking to Raymond Arroyo on EWTN, shortly after taking over CDW, and long before I knew what a blog was, much less began reading them or started my own. The Cardinal is not a friend of the old Mass, and there's a good question whether he's even really a friend of the Adoremus crowd within the Novus Ordo. Reports on the Cardinal on the steps proposed for the SSPX reconciliation plan, steps that should be taken with or without the SSPX in tow:

The plan met some resistance. Informed sources say that Cardinal Francis Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, insisted that the SSPX should be required to acknowledge the validity of the documents of Vatican II and the post-conciliar liturgy. The traditionalist group insists on celebrating the old Latin Mass, but the Nigerian cardinal was cited as saying that SSPX priests should be expected to participate in Novus Ordo as well.

Cardinal Arinze, sources reported, suggested that instead of a sweeping papal directive giving all priests the explicit right to use the Tridentine liturgy, the Holy See should issue a new document asking diocesan bishops to accommodate the desires of Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass. If the reports are accurate, it is not clear how the directive proposed by Cardinal Arinze's proposal would differ from the apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei, issued by Pope John Paul II, calling upon diocesan bishops to offer a "wide and generous application" of the papal indult allowing the use of the Tridentine rite.

The jury's still out as to whether the Holy Father will run the Curia, or, like his predecessor, he'll let the Curia run him. However, his handling of this matter will serve as a verdict, and we'll know what to expect for the rest of his pontificate, not just on issue #1 (the restoration of the old Rite and the weltanschung that goes with it, and the canonical rehabilitiation of those who--whatever their other faults--must be credited for preserving it), but on every other issue of governance as well. Pray, pray for Ratzinger, er, Benedict. Pray for Arinze, too!
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