Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the Santuario de San Juan Evangelista in Dagupan City is the only approved venue for the celebration of the Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962, also referred to as Mass in the Extraordinary Form.
In a circular letter dated July 24, the prelate said he issued the decree for the sake of "pastoral charity and in the spirit of ecclesial unity, in faithful and loving obedience" to the instructions of Pope Francis as expressed in his Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes on the Use of the Roman Liturgy Prior to the Reform of 1970.
Villegas also decreed that only Monsignor Orlando Sabangan and Msgr. Felipe Matias of the archdiocese and Father Michell Joe Zerrudo of the Diocese of Cubao have been "authorized" to celebrate the Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal in the said sanctuary.
He added that Masses using the Roman Missal of 1962 may be celebrated twice a month subject to the availability of the said priests.
"I am granting this permission after being assured and attaining my personal moral certitude that the members of the Latin Mass Society of Saint John the Evangelist are faithful and obedient to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council specially its unconditional belief in the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform," said Villegas.
"Furthermore, this favor is being granted in order to protect the Catholic faithful of this archdiocese from the erroneous teachings being promoted by the adherents of the Society of Saint Pius X, an association without a canonical status in the Church and whose ministries we consider to be illegitimate," he added.