Pope issues document on Latin mass

ROME: The Vatican on Saturday issued a long-awaited document by Pope Benedict XVI on the traditional Latin Mass.
 
Analysts in Rome expect the apostolic letter entitled Summarum Pontificium to make it much easier to celebrate mass according to the old liturgy.
 
The so-called Tridentine Mass, in which prayers are said in Latin, was abolished in the modernizing reforms of the 1960s following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
 
The Latin mass was banned for a while but in 1984, the then pope John Paul II allowed some masses to be celebrated in Latin but only under strict regulations.
 
Observers said Benedict intended to ease regulations to overcome the conflict with traditionalists in the Catholic Church.