Hundreds of traditionalist Roman Catholics gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass, a liturgy that was replaced by church reforms in the 1960s and further restricted under Pope Francis.
Saturday’s Mass took place with Pope Leo XIV’s permission, giving hope to traditionalists in many countries that he might loosen those restrictions.
“It’s like eating caviar or eating beans,” said one participant, Luigi Casalini, comparing the traditional Latin Mass with the Mass that has been celebrated worldwide since the reforms undertaken by the Catholic Church in the 1960s.
Under Francis, the debate over the traditional Latin Mass became a proxy for broader conflicts over what some conservatives saw as Francis’ progressive deviation from church doctrine as well as his watering down of tradition and ritual.
Pope Benedict XVI had been more open to the use of the traditional Latin Mass, but in 2021, Francis placed heavy restrictions on its celebration. Beyond permitting Saturday’s Mass, Leo has given no official indication on where he stands on a liturgy that is used by a relatively small percentage of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
In a new biography published in Spanish last month, Leo said it was “very unfortunate” that the traditional Latin Mass had become divisive, and that he was open to discussion on the issue, in line with his stated desire for unity and reconciliation in the church.
Saturday’s Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American figurehead of the conservative and traditionalist wing of the church and one of Francis’ fiercest critics over the restrictions on the ancient liturgy.
“To be authorized by the pope to celebrate a Mass in St. Peter’s — it means something,” said Rubén Peretó Rivas, one of the organizers of an annual pilgrimage to Rome by supporters of the traditional Latin Mass. For the last two years, they did not celebrate Mass inside the basilica during the pilgrimage because they did not have Francis’ authorization.
Leo’s permission, Mr. Peretó Rivas said, also sent a message to bishops “around the world” who had restricted the celebration of the traditional ritual, as his bishop in his native Argentina had done.
On Saturday, with Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s gilded bronze throne towering above them, the priests, wearing ornate, gold-threaded vestments, kept their backs to the faithful while presiding over the incense-perfumed Mass, spoken and sung almost entirely in Latin. People came from five continents, organizers said. So many attended that they spilled into the transept of the basilica.
The faithful stood, knelt, sang and prayed, following a liturgical choreography handed down over centuries. Many women wore lace veils. During his homily, Cardinal Burke said it was a “source of deep joy” to celebrate the Mass in the basilica.
The traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, was in use until the late 1960s, when the church began to celebrate Mass using living languages. But the Tridentine Mass continued in some places. In 2007, Benedict said it should be more widely accepted and easily celebrated, a decision applauded by conservatives.
In 2021, Francis cracked down on its use, saying proponents were exploiting it to oppose more recent church reforms and to divide the faithful.
In the United States, debates over celebration of the traditional Latin Mass have been particularly charged, with small but energetic cohorts of traditionalists pushing back against bishops who have cracked down on the Mass in some dioceses. Adherents include some influential conservative bishops and a noticeable share of young adults who are drawn to stricter forms of observance.
Many liturgical traditionalists in the United States perceived Francis as especially hostile. He denounced the “backwardness” of some American conservatives and derided the formal vestments preferred by many traditionalist priests as “grandma’s lace.”
Some American bishops have enacted new restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass even since Leo became pope. The bishop of Charlotte, N.C., Michael Martin, recently reduced its availability to one designated chapel from four parish churches, drawing outrage from adherents across the country.
But now, some American advocates for the traditional Latin Mass say they are optimistic that Leo is already setting a less combative tone.
“There’s a different atmosphere,” the Very Rev. Joshua Caswell said in an interview this week. He leads the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, a religious community based in Chicago that is devoted to what they call “reverent” liturgical forms, including the traditional Latin Mass.
Christian Marquant, of the French traditionalist group Paix Liturgique, attended Saturday’s Mass and said in an interview this week, “My dream, my objective, is to meet the pope” face-to-face to champion the case for the traditional Latin Mass.
“We are a living force inside the church,” said Mr. Casalini, who runs a blog for Italian traditionalists, pointing out that the average age of the participants of Tridentine Masses in Italy was half that of people who attended regular Mass. “All we want to do is celebrate in our own way.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times.
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