Summorum Pontificum
(English: 'Of the Supreme Pontiffs') 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" (the latest edition of the Roman Missal, in the form known as the Tridentine Mass or Traditional Latin Mass) and administer most of the sacraments in the form used before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. The document was dated 7 July 2007 and carried an effective date of 14 September 2007. Pope Benedict released an accompanying explanatory letter at the same time. It granted greater freedom for priests to use the Tridentine liturgy in its 1962 form, stating that all priests of the Latin Church may freely celebrate Mass with the 1962 Missal privately. It also provided that "in parishes where a group of the faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition stably exists, the parish priest should willingly accede to their requests to celebrate Holy Mass according to the rite of the 1962 Roman Missal" and should "ensure that the good of these members of the faithful is