Holy Mass according to the Extraordinary Form will now be said each Sunday in Traunstein, where the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI spent his youth, and to which he famously referred as to "the dreamland of his childhood". The Mass has been assigned by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, for which personally I am especially glad, since it had been my impression that the German apostolate of this Society of Apostolic Life newly elevated to Pontifical Right did not flourish as much as in other countries. Mass will be celebrated in the so-called Saline Chapel (Sts. Rupert and Maximilian), an important example of Bavarian early Baroque (built in 1630/31), with a very fine interior including frescoes and pews from the time of building, later Roccoco additions, and a first-rate Franz Borgias Maerz organ of 1907 recently restored. The church, which now belongs to the city parish of St Oswald (the Holy Father celebrated his First Mass in the parish church of St Oswald in 1951, cf this and this post), not only preserves its baroque high altar, but also its communion rail of the late 18th century. An interesting curiosity: the statue of St Rupert carries the actual crosier of the last abbot of famous Seeon Abbey.
(Source: IK-Nachrichten 10/2008)
