Pope Benedict XVI, Happy Birthday to You! My, how times have changed! It doesn’t seem so long ago that you blessed the Catholic world with perhaps the most important document in modern times, that venerable motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. Do you realize how much that singular letter has benefited Catholic men and women, individuals and their families, priests and religious……sorry, Your Holiness…..not many in miters. Some, not many. Oh well, that’s another day. Today is your birthday. God love you, and thanks again. Please consider coming back.

Since time immemorial it has been necessary — as it is also for the future — to maintain the principle according to which “each particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted apostolic Tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church’s law of prayer corresponds to her law of faith.”