Latin Mass supporters welcome 'signs of policy change'

OXFORD, England (OSV News) -- Supporters of the traditional Latin Mass have welcomed hints of an easing of restrictions, while cautioning that traditionalist practices still face tough resistance from some church leaders.

"Bishops already have discretionary powers to request permits for the Latin Mass -- but many have chosen instead to reduce it to just one or two locations," said Joseph Shaw, chairman of the London-based Latin Mass Society.

"The latest message that more permits will be granted marks a significant policy departure. It suggests implementation of the rules has changed, even if the rules themselves have not."

The lay Catholic was reacting to a mid-November report that Catholic bishops from England and Wales had been informed by the Vatican's apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, that renewable two-year dispensations would now be granted to bishops wishing to allow the Latin Mass in their dioceses, without formally lifting restrictions imposed by the late Pope Francis.

In an OSV News interview, Shaw said tensions over the Latin Mass had been less severe in Britain than the United States, where some dioceses had launched an "upsetting official campaign" against it.

He added that calls for a "more positive attitude" by Pope Leo XIV could "change realities on the ground," and help bring young people favoring "more traditional forms of worship" back to the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, a senior Latin Mass Society trustee told OSV News traditionalist Catholic activities were increasing, with many families coming long distances to attend Latin Masses, requiems and sacred music events, adding that the latest "conflicting reports" had left many enthusiasts "in a positive mood."

"In making a full commitment to Catholicism in today's society, which is so much at odds with it, many young people believe they should do it properly," said Sarah Ward, a Catholic lawyer, whose nine children attend the Latin Mass.

"It seems crazy not to listen to the growing number coming to traditional liturgies. To tell them their needs can't be met for some abstract reason risks putting them off."

Curbs on the Latin, or Tridentine, Mass, which predates the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, were imposed by Pope Francis in a July 2021 apostolic letter, "Traditionis Custodes," which ruled that post-Vatican II liturgies were the "unique expression" for Latin-rite Catholics.

Some critics have accused enthusiasts of using the traditional Mass as a rallying point against church reforms, and say use of Latin in place of the new Mass, or Novus Ordo Missae, is insensitive and divisive.

However, multiple statements and petitions have called for the restrictions to be eased, including a July 2024 letter by 48 British public figures, organized by Catholic composer James MacMillan.

A traditional Latin Mass, attended by around 200 priests, was celebrated with papal permission on Oct. 25 in St. Peter's Basilica by Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, formerly prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal, who told a June conference in London he had asked Pope Leo to end "the present persecution" of traditionalist Catholics.

In a Nov. 14 communique, the Vatican's London nunciature said it regretted Archbishop Maury Buendía's statement the English and Welsh bishops' plenary about renewable two-year dispensations for the Mass had been leaked, causing "confusion to the faithful."

However, Shaw told OSV News he had sensed a "better atmosphere" during his late October Rome visit, with a new "openness to dialogue," adding that clerical and lay attendance at Cardinal Burke's Mass had been far larger than at previous traditionalist liturgies.

"When people have suffered the loss of their traditional Mass, they can't be blamed for being bitter and cynical," the Latin Mass Society chairman told OSV News.

"In parishes where traditional Masses remain available, people often come from a wide area, contributing to renovations, fund-raising and other church work. If you extend pastoral care to those who've felt excluded, they will respond -- it's a tragedy this has been put into reverse and so much trust lost over the past four years."

The traditional Latin Mass was first restricted by St. Paul VI in line with Vatican II reforms, but permitted in England and Wales under a 1971 papal dispensation, following a celebrity petition, signed by Agatha Christie among other big names.

Permission to celebrate the Mass was extended by St. John Paul II in 1984 and 1988, and granted to all Catholic priests by Pope Benedict XVI in a 2007 apostolic letter, "Summorum Pontificum."

In "Traditionis Custodes," however, Pope Francis ruled the Mass should only be allowed by bishops under Vatican supervision if practitioners "do not deny the validity and legitimacy of liturgical reform" dictated by Vatican II and the church's magisterium.

In a Sept. 14 interview with Crux, Pope Leo said the issue of the Mass remained "very complicated," as uses of the liturgy contributed to a "process of polarization."

He added, however, that some people found "a deeper experience of prayer, of contact with the mystery of faith" in the Tridentine Mass, and said it remained an issue "we have to sit down and talk about."

Speaking after a Nov. 15 Vatican meeting with the U.S.-born pontiff, Brazilian Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan, whose personal apostolic administration of St. John Vianney ministers around the Latin Mass, said he had used the opportunity to "swear loyalty" to Leo, and set out "how the Tridentine community lives its mission within the church."

"He realized we are very different from other radical and schismatic groups," Bishop Rifan said in a video message.

"We asked him to continue supporting us, giving us strength, and we showed him we preserve the liturgy in its ancient form, but in full communion with the church. He was very pleased."

In her interview, Ward said she was encouraged the pope was now "speaking with traditional Catholics," adding that recent media coverage had raised the profile of the Latin Mass and reawakened interest among Catholics.

"Having been viewed as a pariah on the peripheries, I'm pleased church leaders are now following a synodal approach by encountering us as regular Catholics who simply wish to practice our faith unpretentiously in a traditional way," said the Catholic lawyer, who runs a social media group with over 2,000 British and American Mass supporters.

Meanwhile, Shaw said he believed many church and Vatican leaders had viewed the Novus Ordo Missae adopted at Vatican II as perfect, and blamed any desire for alternatives on a failure to "celebrate it correctly."

He added that this view had now been challenged by high-profile interventions from a wide variety of public figures, and could be countered further if Pope Leo concluded the traditional Mass was "not just a necessary evil, but a positive part of the church's life."