For our English-speaking visitors, the blog Nowy Ruch Liturgiczny (The New Liturgical Movement in Poland) gives a short summary of the development of Usus Antiquior in Poland:On the day of Summorum Pontificum proclamation, there were only 8 places in Poland (excluding FSSPX communities) where the Traditional faithful could hear Traditional Latin Mass. Since that time, there has been a slow but stable development visible. Nowadays, TLM can be found in 22 places. There are three venues, where Masses are said each day, seven churches where Mass is said at least weekly and twelve places with at least monthly celebrations.
Traditional priestly institutes have very little presence in Poland and have no officially erected houses yet. This is probably one of the biggest issues, since there are about 10 Polish seminarians in Wigratzbad (FSSP) and Courtalain/Rome (IBP), and some TLM communities still have problems with finding a proper shepherd for regular TLM celebrations.
Last year was fairly good for Polish traditional Catholics. First bishops attended Masses in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and gave us their blessing. There were first Traditional Rite confirmations and the first Polish ordinary — bishop Wacław Depo (Zamość – Lubaczów Diocese) celebrated Mass according to 1962 Missal. A Polish version of an old daily missal has been finally republished after almost 40 years of virtually non-existence, and there are other important books available now. Polish deacon, Grzegorz Śniadoch of the Institute of Good Shepherd, was ordained priest in October and now continues his studies in Poland, supporting various TLM movements. FSSP Superior General Fr. John Berg visited Poland in October. He met Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz to discuss official erection of FSSP house in Cracow.
A couple of interesting projects (including our blog) run by committed Polish traditional Catholics are getting more and more mature and yield first good fruit. Whilst Polish bishops do not particularly favour old Mass, there was no particular open hostility seen last year, either. Considering their conservatism in the doctrine, we do hope that the acceptance of the new liturgical movement will be spreading across Poland in 2009.
