With the release of the document Summorum pontificum in July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI extended permission for the old Tridentine Mass to be celebrated as "an extraordinary form of the Roman rite." Commonweal asked four writers to respond to the pope's decision:

Widening Our Hearts, by Peter Jeffery

A Step Backward, by Rita Ferrone

One Cheer, by Joseph A. Komonchak

Getting the History Right, by Bernard P. Prusak

Read more: Letters, September 28, 2007

Related: Mystery or Mystification? by Gerard S. Sloyan
Between Reform & Rupture, by Richard R. Gaillardetz