[Catholic Caucus] Roche falsely claims Summorum Pontificum’s goal was SSPX ‘returning’ to Church

LifeSite News ^ | October 14, 2026 | Emily Mangiaracina

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[Catholic Caucus] Roche falsely claims Summorum Pontificum’s goal was SSPX ‘returning’ to Church

Pope Benedict XVI has said it is ‘absolutely false’ that the ‘reauthorization’ of the Latin Mass was ‘primarily a concession’ to the SSPX.

Anti-traditionalist Cardinal Arthur Roche has repeated the false claim that Pope Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum to “smooth the way” for the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to “return to the Church.”

The prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship told AdVaticanum in an interview published Tuesday that “Summorum Pontificum was created to accommodate, and also to smooth the way for, the Society of Saint Pius X to return to the Church.”

Summorum Pontificum clarified that the traditional Mass was never abolished, and that no priest needs his bishop’s permission to offer it.

According to Roche, bishops around the world were concerned about the outcome of Summorum Pontificum because it didn’t produce its “intended” outcome of bringing the SSPX “into” the Church.

In fact, in his “Last Testament” interviews with Peter Seewald, Benedict clarified that this was not the aim of Summorum Pontificum.

When Seewald asked him if “the reauthorization of the Tridentine Mass” was “primarily … a concession to the Society of St Pius X,” Pope Benedict responded:

That is just absolutely false! It was important for me that the Church is one with herself inwardly, with her own past; that what was previously holy to her is not somehow wrong now. The rite must develop. In that sense reform is appropriate. But the continuity must not be ruptured. The Society of St Pius X is based on the fact that people felt the Church was renouncing itself. That must not be.

But as I said, my intentions were not of a tactical nature, they were about the substance of the matter itself. Of course it is also the case that, the moment one sees a Church schism looming, the pope is obliged to do whatever is possible to prevent it happening. This also includes the attempt to lead these people back into unity with the Church, if possible.

Traditional Catholic journalist Timothy Flanders has additionally remarked:

It is quite clear to anyone who studies Ratzinger’s thought that he condemned Paul VI’s suppression of the Latin Mass in 1969, without any consideration of what the SSPX was or was not doing.

That’s why His Eminence Cardinal Sarah, the greatest living exponent of Ratzinger’s thought (whom Benedict appointed to implement his “reform of the reform”) condemned Traditionis Custodes on the basis of the reform itself, regardless of the SSPX. (His Eminence’s text is also found in From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’s War, pp. 295-297.) Reconciling with the SSPX, as Benedict says above, was of secondary importance. 

In other words, Summorum Pontificum would have been necessary even if SSPX never existed. It was about the substance of the matter itself.

In a 2022 blog post, Matthew Walther pointed out that the idea Summorum Pontificum was intended to reconcile the SSPX and was “revocable at any time, for any reason” is a “novel interpretation” of the document that is “difficult to square” with it. Summorum Pontificum declared that the traditional Latin Mass was “never abrogated,” affirming the permanent authorization granted to the Mass by Quo Primum.

The “normative interpretation” of Summorum Pontificum, Walther noted, was that priests had a right to offer the traditional Latin Mass, which could not be interfered with by Church legislation.

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TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Theology; Worship
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The “normative interpretation” of Summorum Pontificum, Walther noted, was that priests had a right to offer the traditional Latin Mass, which could not be interfered with by Church legislation.

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