Posted on 06/05/2025 5:18:50 PM PDT by ebb tide
A significant early challenge for Pope Leo XIV will be how he chooses to handle the restrictions that Pope Francis placed on the traditional Latin Mass (TLM).
Since Pope Francis issued his apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition) in July 2021, the freedom to celebrate the pre-1970 Mass has been curtailed — severely in some cases — with the long-term aim of allowing only the new Mass.
Cardinals, bishops, priests and many of the laity, including some who do not attend the TLM, have strenuously opposed the restrictions, seeing the clampdown as callous, unjust and needlessly divisive rather than unifying.
After Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum (Of the Supreme Pontiffs), any priest with a stable group of faithful attached to the old form of the Roman Rite was free to celebrate it, without requiring special permission from his bishop. But Pope Francis’ 2021 decree changed that radically, abrogating Summorum Pontificum, mandating priests to obtain their bishop’s permission and, since 2023, obliging bishops to obtain express approval from the Vatican to allow the TLM in their dioceses.
Other stipulations of Traditionis Custodes included generally not allowing the old Mass to be celebrated in parish churches, forcing many TLM communities to celebrate their liturgies instead in gyms and social or parish halls. The document also banned new traditional groups being formed, barred newly ordained priests from celebrating the old Mass without Vatican approval, and forbade confirmations and ordinations in the old rite.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
A flat-out lie from the Jesuit pope. The Second Vatican Council never called for the prohibition of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Ping
This is Pope Leo’s litmus test, and will give us a good indication of where he stands on just about everything.
1) the constant irreverence and doctrinal confusion associated with “new rite” is THE source of division in the Church. The so-called “liturgical reforms” of the early 1970s and following were and continue to be grave mistakes.
2) Orthodoxy begets vocations. The Latin Mass fosters vocations; the “reforms” produce a “priest shortage”.
Agreed. To those outside the faith, it may seem like a minor thing, but it’s not. It’ll tell us everything we need to know about how he is going to reign.
I think Leo is going to come through. One, he doesn’t seem to be a muddled ideologue and tyrant like Francis. Two, he did celebrate the old rite in the Vatican, with special permission from Francis
Interesting. Born and raised Catholic, educated in Catholic schools, I stopped goin to church when “new rite” came in. If they reinstate Latin mass, I might go back. Might.
2. Nobody will blame him for restoring the only rite within the Church that is growing in leaps and bounds.
3. He's an American, so he knows full well how strong the TLM has been in the U.S. -- in a historically PROTESTANT country.
The SSPX Priory in Walton KY has 7 priest, one priest is retired. We are growing, the girls school was completed about 11 years ago and the boys school construction is in progress, walls being poured this summer and shell of school completed by July 2026. Boys School is desperately needed. Grades 5-12 are in the church basement. Only a third of the school is funded so far, but we are growing n I’m confident w the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the money will be there to complete the school.
As a TLM attendee, I agree with you... yet I also understand that a pope has to consider the “optics” of so obviously repudiating his immediate predecessor. Yes, he can just pull the “bandaid” right off, reimplement Summorum Pontificum and deal with a bit of blowback from Bergoglian loyalists. But I also understand if he’d like to finesse the issue with some kind of “in via media” compromise, e.g., letting the local bishop decide. Traditionis Custodes has given the Bishop Martins of the world the excuse of “Hey, I’m only shutting you down because the Vatican says I have to.” Pull that stool out from under them, and I think the issue will resolve itself favorably pretty quickly in most places
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