What's new on the Latin Mass front?

A useful summary from a Swiss site.

Since the election of Leo XIV, traditionalist circles, particularly in the United States, have been lobbying hard to obtain from the American pope the repeal of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, by which Pope Francis restricted the use of the pre-conciliar Tridentine Mass in 2021. Will Leo XIV grant them satisfaction? The question is open, the answer very uncertain.

The use of the Tridentine Mass, wrongly called the 'Latin Mass,' has been agitating the Church for 60 years. (Cathcon:  The Latin Mass was substantially the same form as today from the time of Pope St Gregory the Great.  Modernists want to say that both Tridentine and 19th century Catholicism were historically conditioned which gives them the right to update matters of Faith and morals) Successive popes have wavered between banning and tolerating it. Before examining what options are open to Leo XIV today, it is worth taking a look back at the past. We can thus divide history into five periods, as the Society of Saint Pius X of Archbishop Lefebvre (SSPX), separated from Rome since 1988, does in a recent newsletter.

1970-1984: A virtual ban

The development of a new missal responded to the requirements of the Second Vatican Council, which adopted the decree Sacrosanctum Concilium in 1963 by 2,147 votes to 4 (of which Archbishop Lefebvre was not a member, editor's note). It marked a significant liturgical reform, emphasizing the active participation of the faithful and the need to adapt the rites to diverse cultural realities.

The entry into force of Paul VI's missal in 1970 froze the celebration according to the Tridentine rite. On June 14, 1971, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a note stating that after approval of the translations of the Novus Ordo Missae (NOM), all should use "only the renewed form of the Mass."

The use of the old rite was granted only to elderly or sick priests, in private and with the permission of the ordinary, until their death. At a consistory on May 24, 1976, Pope Paul VI insisted: "Our holy predecessor Pius V had made obligatory (...) the Missal reformed following the Council of Trent (the Tridentine Mass, editor's note). We demand (...) with the same supreme authority all the other liturgical, disciplinary, and pastoral reforms that have matured in application of the decrees of the Council." In doing so, the Pope clearly refuted the idea, still widespread among traditionalists, of the 'Mass of all time'.

During this period, no public Tridentine Mass was considered legal. Priests who continued to celebrate it publicly were reprimanded, sometimes tolerated, but never approved. Only Archbishop Lefebvre continued to train and ordain priests for the traditional rite, in open opposition to the Council and the new Mass. He was sanctioned with a "suspens a divinis" in 1976.

1984-1988: Minimal tolerance

Faced with persistent resistance from the traditionalist faithful, the Congregation for Divine Worship granted the indult Quattuor abhinc annos in 1984. This dispensation for celebration according to the 1962 Missal was granted by the bishops under very specific conditions: it was to be made publicly clear that priests and faithful had nothing to do with those who questioned the "juridical force" and "doctrinal correctness" of Paul VI's Missal.

The other conditions concerned the circumstances: celebration in specific churches, excluding parishes, at specific times and under specific conditions; the old and new rites were not to be mixed. This concession must in no way prejudice "the observance of the liturgical reform in the life of each ecclesial community." Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre refused such a concession.

The situation was thus as follows: 'legal' Tridentine Masses were introduced, at the discretion of the bishops. The Society of Saint Pius X and other traditionalist religious institutions refused these conditions and continued to celebrate only the Tridentine Mass, rejecting the new one.

1988-2007: Ecclesia Dei Adflicta

On June 30, 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops, citing "the grave necessity in which the Church finds itself." Until the last moment, Rome tried to hold him back, notably through the intervention of Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI. In fact, what Archbishop Lefebvre denounced was not so much the new Mass and the abandonment of Latin as the "errors of the Council": false conceptions of the Church, religious freedom, ecumenism, dialogue with the Jews and other religions, etc.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared the excommunication of Archbishop Lefebvre and the four bishops with the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta. While confirming the indult, he invited the bishops to apply it generously. He allowed the creation of priestly institutes using the Tridentine liturgy, while accepting the Council. This is how the Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) came into being, in dissidence from the SSPX, and various foundations in the years that followed. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was founded to administer these issues from Rome.

"The Indult is a concession that is not intended to last forever. […] The celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Missal is the exception, the rule, the liturgical reform introduced by the Church 25 years ago, and followed by 99% of the Church," recalled Bishop Camille Perl, secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, in 1993.

During this period, the Holy See continued the 1984 indult regime, but authorized the ordination of priests in institutes celebrating the Tridentine rite on the condition that they accept the New Mass and the Council. Archbishop Lefebvre's SSPX and other institutes that followed him placed themselves in a de facto state of schism.

2007-2021: Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI's Concessions

Benedict XVI's promulgation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum on July 7, 2007, brought a new element. This document affirmed that the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated—thus contradicting Paul VI—and established new and broader conditions for its celebration.

Benedict XVI established "two forms of the same Roman Rite" in force: ordinary and extraordinary. The Tridentine Mass was declared equal to the new one. All priests could celebrate it, at least privately, and also publicly with certain organizational limitations, always on the condition of accepting the Council and the new Mass.

The new regime allowed the celebration of the old Rite to flourish by traditionalist communities such as the Society of Saint Peter, to which a significant number of bishops granted regular service in certain churches. But despite the concession of the extraordinary rite and the lifting, in 2009, of the excommunication of bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, the SSPX still refuses the hand extended by Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis's motu proprio Traditionis Custodes of July 16, 2021, reshuffles the deck by abrogating his predecessor's Summorum Pontificum. In fact, it is a step backward, since the document essentially reiterates the spirit and letter of the 1984 indult. It reaffirms that the sole form of the Roman rite is the missal of Paul VI. The continued, albeit limited, concession of the Tridentine Missal falls into the category of exception.

Pope Francis explains his decision by the desire to preserve the unity of the Church by avoiding the risk of seeing a parallel Church emerge, rejecting not only the New Mass but all the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The desire for unity has been "gravely disregarded," and the concessions offered with magnanimity have been used "to increase distances, reinforce differences, and build oppositions that harm the Church and hinder its path, exposing it to the risk of division," he writes.

In a similar vein, the Pope dissolved the Ecclesia Dei Commission in 2019 to integrate the institutions that depended on it into the ordinary organization of the Church.

While Traditionis Custodes should have signaled, at least in the long term, the disappearance of the Ecclesia Dei communities, Pope Francis paradoxically extended the exceptional status they enjoyed, not even requiring them to celebrate in both rites.

Various bishops, including in France and the United States, are nevertheless withdrawing the responsibilities entrusted to traditionalist congregations, or are striving to enforce more strictly the ban on celebrating the Tridentine Mass in parish churches. These are the two points most vigorously contested by traditionalists, who feel unjustly deprived of their "place of belonging" after having created their own "parish" microcosm around the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, complete with catechesis, celebration of the sacraments, pilgrimages, choirs, youth groups, and sometimes even schools, based on the model of a Christian society from the first half of the 20th century, now a thing of the past.

For its part, the FFSPX sees its opposition strengthened. It still considers the two Masses to form two Churches. It hopes, more or less explicitly, to see Catholics disappointed by Rome's attitude join it. (cath.ch/mp)

To be continued, how will Leo XIV respond?

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