Summorum Pontificum is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued in July 2007. This letter specifies the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate Mass according to what Benedict XVI called the "Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962" and administer most of the sacraments in the form used before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.
A pre-1969 Roman Rite altar with reredos. A main altar was usually preceded by three steps, below which were said the prayers at the foot of the altar. Side altars usually had only one step.
Low Mass celebrated at the Chapel of the Dawn Gate in Wilno (Vilnius). Interior in 1864.
Assisted mass by missal 1962 (Prague)
Mass in the Catholic Church
The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner". The Church describes the Mass as the "source and summit of the Christian life", and teaches that the Mass is a sacrifice, in which the sacramental bread and wine, through consecration by an ordained priest, become the sacrificial body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as the sacrifice on Calvary made truly present once again on the altar. The Catholic Church permits only baptised members in the state of grace to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
Depiction of the first Mass in Chile, by Pedro Subercaseaux
Mass of Paul VI (post–Vatican II)
Tridentine Mass (1962 missal), Solemn Mass form
Altar of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome.
