The Franciscans of the Immaculate, who for some time now have increasingly been celebrating the
usus antiquior, have now declared their predilcetion for the Extraordinary Form and explained their reasons for this. This was done by a letter to the editor of the Italian newspaper
La Stampa by the Procurator General of the Order, Fr. Alessandro Maria Apollonio, of which
messainlatino.it gives some excerpts. Here is an NLM translation of these:
The Franciscans of the Immaculate avail themselves, with joy and grateful appreciation, of the initiative taken by Pope Benedict XVI with the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. [...] The choice to predilect the "extraordinary form" corresponds to a legitimate internal choice of the religious family, as foreseen in the same motu proprio, in a Catholic spirit of fidelity to the Pope and to the liturgical tradition of the Order founded by St. Francis of Assisi. [...]
The spirit of St. Francis, in fact, tends to the greatest possible glorification of God through the good and beautiful things of the world and has always led us to seek what most helps to elevate the mind and heart to the "Most High, Almighty and Good Lord" to whom alone are due "praises, glory, honor and all blessing"(Canticle of the Sun). The extraordinary form of the liturgy of the Vetus Ordo - which is accompanied by that of the Novus Ordo (Missal of Paul VI) - offers, indeed, the happy possibility to live more intensely the vocation and mission of St. Francis of Assisi, within the universality of the Church and its wealth of expressions.
