An Italian magazine reports that the Vatican will soon issue a set of regulations regarding celebration of the “extraordinary rite,” commonly known as the old Latin Mass.

In a document released this last July, Pope Benedict permitted regular celebration of the so-called Tridentine rite wherever there is a “stable group of faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition.” Nevertheless, a number of bishops in the U.S., Italy and elsewhere have balked at letting priests avail themselves of this new freedom; the new rules should make it clearer when they must do so.

So reports Ignazio Ingrao in the weekly magazine Panorama, who also writes that the Vatican might be about to make changes to the 1962 Latin Missal, including removal of the controversial prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the liturgy for Good Friday.

Ingrao also reports that traditionalist followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (who broke with Rome in large part over the eclipse of the old Latin Mass, after Vatican II made Mass in local languages the norm) are hoping that Benedict will revoke Lefebvre’s excommunication as early as December. A desire to reconcile with the traditionalists was one of Benedict’s avowed purposes in liberalizing use of the older rite.