[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Mutsaerts: Go to Latin Mass instead of trying to fix your own parish

LifeSite News ^ | October 6, 2026 | Antonio Cambria

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[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Mutsaerts: Go to Latin Mass instead of trying to fix your own parish

'If there's a bad Novus Ordo Mass, you can't improve those priests, I'm afraid. So just go anywhere else,' Mutsaerts told LifeSite at the Catholic Identity Conference.

Bishop Robert Mutsaerts said that Catholics who attend parishes with irreverent Novus Ordo Masses should find a Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or another reverent liturgy instead of attempting to transform their home parish.

During a brief October 3 interview with LifeSite after his talk at the 2026 Catholic Identity Conference (CIC), Mutsaerts responded to a question about whether the faithful should try to improve their home parish with a bad liturgy or attend the TLM.

Mutsaerts, a conservative Dutch bishop who only knows how to celebrate the Novus Ordo, stressed that trying to improve bad parishes is futile. Instead, laypeople should go somewhere where their faith and that of their families is actually nourished.

“If there’s a bad Novus Ordo Mass, you can’t improve those priests, I’m afraid. So just go anywhere else,” Mutsaerts told LifeSite. “I used to think, ‘Support your own parish.’ I’m not saying that anymore … because you might lose your faith there. Go somewhere where you think, ‘This is right, this is authentic, this is true.'”

“Go there, and if you have children or youngsters, go where they’ll meet other young people. That’s what stimulates,” he added. “And young people, they meet one another in the Vetus Ordo, the Novus Ordo, but (at) places where they find the sacred, where the liturgy is in order … You need some encouragement (from your parish community), you don’t get it if you’re 18 and all the rest (of the parishioners) are 80.”

This story is developing…

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[Trump_Triumphant]

Sounds like good advice.

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That seems somewhat akin to the Protestant folks who encourage people to jump into whatever denomination best fits (usually the poster’s) idea of real Christian practice.

You may think so; but comparing Catholics who prefer to worship God in a Mass that is 1500 years old to protestants only indicates you are poorly formed catholic.

[ThanhPhero]

A traditional mass and/or a Byzantine mass are way out of my reach. 100+ miles. I have to restrict my driving to short trips, now. and only do those whenI can’t find another ride. I do attend a Novus Ordo here in Vietnamese and this parish dispenses with guitars and altar girls and the priest has said nothing approving about lgbt and divorced and remarrieds taking communion. We have them and they don’t. If I could reach a proper mass, I would attend. Because the mass is in Vietnamese we get left alone while the parishes around us get more ane more like social get-togethers.

[Chickensoup]

There is a Latin oratory about 40 minutes from here...

Attend occasionally.

[sneakers]

We were driving about 35 miles to the Latin Mass. Last year, we moved closer to our son and his family, which is also closer to the Latin mass. We now drive about 15 minutes to go to church. It’s a beautiful church, built in the early 1900’s, and fully renovated. Lots of young families attend.