The Motu Proprio, Alice von Hildebrand, and the Indult

First of all, there's this snippet from Joseph Bottom, "Notes from Underground" (First Things, April 5, 2007), which takes the cake:

A word in your ear—A well-known physicist told me that a popular blogger told him that an unnamed source told her that a distinguished elderly lady told the unnamed source that the pope told the distinguished elderly lady that the long-rumored motu proprio on the Latin Mass will appear on the feast day of St. Pius V, which is May 5. So that’s settled.

Then there is this, from Michael J. Matt, Editor of The Remnant, in his post of April 11, 2007:

By the way, word recently reached this office that Pope Benedict informed Alice Von Hildebrand in a private audience in March that his motu proprio on the universal indult for the return of the traditional Mass will be released on the Feast of St. Pius V, May 5, 2007. We’ll see . . . (emphasis added)

I don't know whether there is anything to this. But I do know, for what it's worth, that there is some precedent here: In "An Audience With Peter," in Crisis magazine (May 2005), GUEST COLUMN II, Alice von Hildebrand describes the extraordinary privilege she was granted in 1980 of a private audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II. She says she dared to request the audience only because she knew John Paul had a great admiration for her late husband. They were, of course, both philosophers and fellow phenomenologists. While Mrs. von Hildebrand's account of the audience is well worth reading in full, the relevant portion to this post follows:

My main concern, however, was the fact that the Tridentine Mass had been prohibited. Indeed, some bishops declared that if a person attended the so-called old Mass on Sunday, he would not thereby fulfill his Sunday obligations. I introduced the question as follows:

“Your Holiness, the last years of his life, my husband was much concerned about an ethical question: namely, whether it is ever legitimate to prohibit a holy tradition. Should not formal prohibitions be limited to what is evil or harmful? The Tridentine Mass has been a precious heritage for centuries, said by all priests until a few years ago. One thing was to introduce a new, valid liturgy; quite another was to prohibit one that all the fathers of Vatican II had prayed during the council.”

The pope was silent for a brief moment, and then said: “Your husband is no doubt one of the very great ethical thinkers of the 20th century.” I knew that the pope would consider this seriously. Soon afterward, he gave the indult.

Who knows? God knows.

The wisest words I have read about the matter come from Rorate Caeli's "Notes" (April 10, 2007): "Do not be unreasonably concerned with the actual date of the document on the 'liberalization' of the Traditional rites of the Latin Church. It will come out."