Posted on 07/09/2026 8:34:16 AM PDT by ebb tide
Pope Benedict XVI was deeply saddened after learning that the broad permission he granted for the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) had been significantly restricted by Pope Francis, former aide Archbishop Georg Gänswein has revealed.
On July 7, Italian newspaper Il Giornale published an exclusive interview with Gänswein on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio that expanded access to the TLM. Gänswein said the late pontiff regarded the measure as a means of restoring peace in the Church’s liturgical life and was personally distressed when its provisions were later curtailed by Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes.
“When I read Traditionis Custodes to him, I saw that there was sorrow in his heart. That was my impression,” Gänswein said, recalling Benedict XVI’s reaction after the publication of the document that imposed new restrictions on celebrations according to the pre-conciliar Roman Missal.
Gänswein, who now serves as apostolic nuncio to the Baltic States and was Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary, said the late Pope introduced Summorum Pontificum to restore what he considered the rightful place of the older Roman Rite within the Church. According to Gänswein, Benedict believed the rite “had never been abolished” and wanted to give it “full recognition” while “promoting peace in the Church’s liturgical life.”
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Asked about the resistance that accompanied the document’s publication in 2007, Gänswein said Benedict “was accustomed to receive criticism, but when he was convinced that something was right, he pressed on toward his goal and simply took note of it.”
The archbishop also addressed the relationship between Summorum Pontificum and the Society of St. Pius X. “For him, who had witnessed up close the agreement that Lefebvre reneged on in 1988, the schism was a personal suffering. He said it would have consequences not just for a few days, but would be a wound to the unity of the Church destined to endure.”
Nevertheless, Gänswein said Summorum Pontificum was “not conceived primarily in that perspective, but rather aimed at the internal life of the Church. In his experience as prefect, he had already seen that there were unsatisfactory aspects in the application of Ecclesia Dei, and therefore something had to be done.”
Reflecting on the years that followed the document’s publication, Gänswein said Benedict believed the initiative had begun to bear fruit, “particularly among younger Catholics.” He described the motu proprio as “a beginning” and he believed that “it could lead to integration by removing the existing split within the liturgy.”
“He was convinced that such a rite, celebrated for so many centuries, could not fail to be revived,” Gänswein added. “He was also pleased with the work of the former Ecclesia Dei institutes, which offer an alternative for those who would otherwise go to – or remain within – the Society of Saint Pius X."
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Gänswein also pointed to the annual Paris-to-Chartres pilgrimage as evidence of growing participation by younger Catholics attached to the Traditional liturgy. “These young people are nourished by the beauty of the liturgy; they are not at all opposed to the Second Vatican Council. It is not true that those who have a Traditional liturgical sensibility and attend Tridentine Masses are anti‑conciliar – anyone who claims this is driven solely by ideology.”
Asked whether restrictions introduced by Traditionis Custodes should be removed, Gänswein expressed support for such a step. He said he hoped for a decision that would eliminate the existing prohibitions, describing the present moment as a kairos, i.e., an appropriate time, to move beyond the measures introduced in 2021, “to remove those prohibitions and overcome the incident represented by that text.”
Ping
I believe its not just about one man - Benedict XVI, Francis or even Leo
The modernization/liberalization/self-castration trend of the Church is a critical and primary aspect of post-modernism and global marxism and its masters for the last 75 years.
Specific parts of this larger plan, like the Obama Admin’s removal of Benedict XVI, continue apace. Leo seems to be another controlled figure in this long-running scheme.
It seems like the current leaders really worship the Second Vatican Council. Not sure why. The 60’s were a turbulent time.
Obama’s removal of Benedict?
Remember, when Francis first became pope, there was no move against the TLM. In fact, everything we read suggested that wasn’t even an issue he cared about, he was pressured by German cardinals. Then we surprised and hurt by the backlash.
glad to see Abp Ganswein consulted. had hoped he would have been brought in “from the cold” by now. but Leo is of the Francis strain. i feel Pope Benedict carved out the right solution - and no one knew him better than his right-hand man.
Benedict let us down so badly, even knowing the harm it would do. I’m not feeling much sympathy.
I am a confused Catholic at this point. Rome says that the latin Mass is not acceptable, yet all of the documents that come out of Rome are written predominantly in Latin.
The mass for me has never been the same when the TLM was replaced with pop culture liturgies accompanied by thumping guitars, banging drums and rattling tambourines. Many years ago I attended mass at a Benedictine Abby in Solesmes France. The Abby preserves the Latin liturgy and the Gregorian chant and decades later I still remember the reverence.
https://www.solesmes.com/why-latin
Please, can some explain why they are trying to eliminate the Latin Mass?
It interferes with that diabolical "Spirit of VC II" which has been the driving force of the conciliar (now synodal) "church" to create a "different church" as Pope Francis had exclaimed.
But God will never let the modernists succeed.
I’m Lutheran, but prone to appreciate Catholics. It saddens me to see them trying to do this.
Please pray for us and for Pope Leo; we all need them at this time.
Well, it’s more proper to call it “the older tridentine ritual mass”. The language is part of it. But the focus is more on the solemnity of it.
Making it very simple Pope Francis wanted conformity. It’s a lot more complex than that of course
Latin mass isn’t banned.
The Catholic Church has never banned or invalidated the use of Latin in worship. In fact, the Novus Ordo (the standard Mass established after Vatican II) can be—and occasionally is—celebrated entirely in Latin.
.The strict restrictions from Rome—most notably Pope Francis’s 2021 decree Traditionis custodes—apply specifically to the Tridentine Mass (the 1962 missal used before Vatican II), often colloquially called the “Traditional Latin Mass”. Rome’s restriction is not a rejection of the Latin language itself, but an effort to regulate the pre-Vatican II liturgical framework and ensure the global Church unifies around the reformed liturgy.
Pope Francis thought that the TLM was used to reject Vatican II, which to be fair it was.
To many, the justification feels like a contradiction: a Pope who constantly preaches about “synodality” (listening to everyone), “peripheries” (reaching out to marginalized groups), and pastoral accompaniment suddenly laid down a rigid legal hammer on a small, deeply devout segment of his own flock.
This is the opposite of Pope Benedict.
Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 decree, Summorum Pontificum, had actually created a stable, peaceful coexistence. By labeling the old Mass as an “Extraordinary Form” and the modern Mass as the “Ordinary Form,” Benedict lowered the temperature on the “liturgy wars.” He argued that what previous generations held as sacred could not suddenly be forbidden.
I am on the fence between old rite proponents and Novus Ordo as I see both rituals have pluses and minuses.
I think Pope Francis banning was wrong and it only stiffened opposition.
As far as I understand, which isn’t much. Pope Leo wanted to go back to Pope Benedict compromise but the SSPX pushed him in the opposite direction
Yes, ebby prayers for those injured by sspx are in order. Many have been hurt by sspx and its promoters and adherents.
Please tell us what you consider to be the minuses of the 1,500 year-old Mass celebrated by thousands of saints. I'm quite curious.
Also please tell what pluses you see in what Cardinal Ratzinger called,
"The liturgical reform, in its concrete realization, has distanced itself even more from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but devastation. In place of the liturgy, fruit of a continual development, they have placed a fabricated liturgy. They have deserted a vital process of growth and becoming in order to substitute a fabrication. They did not want to continue the development, the organic maturing of something living through the centuries, and they replaced it, in the manner of technical production, by a fabrication, a banal product of the moment.
It's never fun when a father beats his children; he wouldn't even grant them an audience. Imagine that!
Yet, you rejoice in it.
Quite weird, oystir!
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