Sacked by his Bishop, honoured by the Pope

I send my best wishes for a very happy new year. God bless us, one and all; and, for British readers in this general election year, God help us!

Moving swiftly on from the state of the UK and its political scene: Rorate Caeli has the following report on the appointment of two new members of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Apart from the main theme of the story, there is an extra element of interest, which I have highlighted:

Saturday, January 02, 2010
New PCED Members

Messa in Latino has announced that the newest members of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei will be Fr. Vincenzo Nuara OP and Fr. Almiro de Andrade FSSP.

Fr. Almiro de Andrade is the first member of any of the "Ecclesia Dei Communities" to be officially appointed to the Commission. He also serves as MC at SS. Trinita dei Pellegrini, and is already considered as the de facto "secretary to the Secretary" of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Msgr. Guido Pozzo.

Fr. Vincenzo Nuara, on the other hand, is the founder of the "Amicizia Sacerdotale Summorum Pontificum" and of "Giovane e Tradizione". Fr. Nuara, who had been removed from his position as vicar for religious in the Diocese of Acireale for his role in assisting the organizers of the celebration of the Traditional Mass in that diocese (in Sicily, which currently has only two locations with a regular TLM) -- a Mass that was saved only upon the intervention of the PCED -- has been very much at the forefront of promoting Summorum Pontificum,being one of the leaders in organizing study days and conferences on the Traditional Roman Rite, in Rome most notably the October 2009 conference that concluded with Archbishop Burke's Pontifical Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

(H/t to our regular reader Gideon Ertner!)

It is particularly striking that a priest who had such a difficult time in his diocese should have been appreciated and honoured in this way by the Holy Father.