ATTLEBORO - Roman Catholic parishes have papal permission to celebrate the old Tridentine Rite or Latin Mass beginning today, but so far the interest among area parishioners seems limited.

Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree in July that takes effect today and that eases restrictions on celebrating the form of the Mass that was the norm for 1,500 years until the newer Mass was instituted following the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

Since then, the Latin Mass could only be celebrated with a bishop's permission, but the new order allows its celebration without that permission, if a group of parishioners comes forward and requests it.

Monsignor Stephen Avila of St. Mary's Parish in Mansfield said he has not had any formal requests from parishioners so far. Priests in the Attleboro area discussed the pope's decree at their meeting this week, he said, and all of them said they have not heard much interest.

Some parishioners have been asking what the decree means, he said, but "the requests are not there." The Rev. Richard Roy, pastor at St. John the Evangelist in Attleboro, said no parishioners have approached him at his parish.

If area Catholics do request it, he said, area pastors may consider offering the Mass regionally at one parish.

"We will wait and see if there is any interest," he said.

Currently, the only place the Latin Rite is regularly celebrated in the Diocese of Fall River is at Our Lady of Grace Chapel in Chatham on Cape Cod, where it has been offered on Sunday afternoons since 2002. About 50 people usually attend, according to a recent article in The Anchor, the diocesan weekly newspaper.

Throughout Massachusetts, the Latin Mass has been celebrated in recent times at only four locations.

Based on the decree, another parish in the diocese will soon begin offering it on a regular basis. St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford has plans to celebrate the Mass on the first Saturday of every month beginning Oct. 6.

Although often referred to as the Latin Mass, the Tridentine Rite is actually very different from the modern Mass in ways other than language.

The key difference is the lack of lay involvement. The priest has his back to parishioners, and almost all the prayers are said by him in Latin. Worshipers follow the Mass in missals or pray the rosary silently, and they kneel before the priest to receive Communion on the tongue.

Today, the priest faces the people, the altar is placed closer to the congregation and lay Catholics participate as readers and Eucharistic ministers. Prayers are said in the local language, parishioners can opt to receive Communion in the hand, and girls can be altar servers, which was not allowed in the past.

Some Catholics who favor the Latin Mass see it as more sacred, more mystical than the modern version. Critics see it as a throwback to a time in the Church when the priest was at the center of the celebration and lay Catholics had no role, especially women. The reasons given for the pope's decision to ease restrictions on the Latin Mass is that he is trying to appeal to traditionalists who have left the Church because of discontent with modernized practices.

But critics say it is a major step backward for the Church and the first step toward the gradual restoration of former practices that reflect Benedict XVI's conservatism.

The Latin Mass is currently favored by limited numbers of Catholic lay organizations, religious communities and breakaway groups, including one that says on its Web site that the Tridentine Rite could help resolve many of the problems in the Church today.

Others say it will deepen the divide between traditionalists and progressives.

According to a recent article in U.S. News and World Report, only about 2 percent of Catholics are proponents of the Latin Mass.