VATICAN CITY (AP) — Traditionalist Catholics who felt abandoned after Pope Francis restricted the old Latin Mass rejoiced Saturday as they prepared to celebrate the traditional liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica with the explicit approval of Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, the conservative American figurehead, was to celebrate the old Mass for pilgrims on Saturday during their Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome. Another cardinal, Matteo Zuppi of Italy, celebrated a packed vespers service for them Friday night.
For many traditionalists, the moment was a tangible sign that Leo might be more sympathetic to their plight, after they felt rejected by Francis and his 2021 crackdown on the old liturgy.
Francis had taken action after the spread of the ancient liturgy, especially in the United States, dovetailed with the rise of religiously inspired political conservatism and decline in church attendance at more progressive parishes.
“I’m very hopeful,” said Rubén Peretó Rivas, a professor of medieval philosophy at Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and an organizer of the pilgrimage. “The first signs of Pope Leo are those of dialogue and listening, truly listening to everyone.”
Liturgy wars a long time brewing
The latest rounds in the liturgy wars date back to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church. Among the reforms was the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular, rather than Latin, with the priest facing the faithful in the pews rather than the altar.
In the decades that followed, the old Latin Mass was still available but not widespread. In those years too, the Vatican was dealing with the growth of a schismatic group that rejected the Vatican II reforms and celebrated the Latin Mass exclusively, the Society of St. Pius X.
Pope Benedict XVI, both as a cardinal and later as pontiff, tried to heal the schism and bring the SSPX group back under Rome’s wing, fearing the spread of a parallel, pre-Vatican II church.
In 2007, Benedict relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass as part of his overall outreach to traditionalists.
“What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too,” Benedict wrote at the time.
Francis’ 2021 crackdown
In one of the most controversial acts of his pontificate, Francis in 2021 reversed Benedict’s 2007 reform and reinstated restrictions on celebrating the old Mass. Francis said its spread had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to Vatican II.
Under Francis’ restrictions, bishops must petition Rome if, say, a newly ordained priest wants to celebrate the ancient rite. The Holy See must give its OK if a bishop wants to designate an additional parish church for the Masses, forcing some celebrations to be held in far-flung church halls.
Rather than heal the divisions, though, Francis’ crackdown seemed to further drive a wedge.
“We are orphans,” said Christian Marquant, a French organizer of the pilgrimage.
Leo’s election and vows to bring peace and healing
Leo, history’s first American pope, was elected with a broad consensus among cardinals and has said his aim is unity and reconciliation in the church. Many conservatives and traditionalists urged him to heal the liturgical divisions that spread over the Latin Mass, especially.
After Leo’s election, Marquant wrote Leo a letter on behalf of some 70 traditionalist groups asking, among other things, for permission to celebrate a Mass according to the ancient rite in St. Peter’s Basilica during the traditionalists’ annual pilgrimage to Rome.
Burke, who had an audience with Leo on Aug. 22, gave him the letter. Leo phoned the archpriest of St. Peter’s, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, and gave his permission, Marquant said.
Francis, too, had allowed Latin Masses to be celebrated in the basilica even in the immediate aftermath of his 2021 crackdown, but only by low-ranking priests. In 2023 and 2024, the traditionalists couldn’t find anyone willing to approach Francis to ask permission, and no Mass was celebrated, Marquant said.
In July, leaked Vatican documents undermined Francis’ stated reason for having imposed the restrictions in the first place: Francis had said he was responding to “the wishes expressed” by bishops around the world who had responded to a 2020 Vatican survey, as well as the Vatican doctrine office’s own opinion.
But the documents suggested that the majority of Catholic bishops who responded to the survey had expressed general satisfaction with the old Latin Mass and warned that restricting it would “do more harm than good.”
Tradition-minded Catholics in the pews hopeful
James Rodio, a psychiatrist and father of three, has been attending the traditional Latin Mass with his family for nearly three decades in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I was just struck by the reverence and beauty and symbolism in action and gesture, and of course the content too,” he said in a telephone interview.
Even though Rodio had always had access to a traditional Mass in Cleveland, he and other parishioners felt “frustration” at Francis’ crackdown and the restrictions that he imposed.
“Behind it all, there was a sadness” and sense that Francis didn’t understand them, he said. “How could any organization have an approach for 16 or 17 centuries and then say it wasn’t valid anymore?”
Rodio said he and his fellow parishioners are optimistic about Leo and hope he will allow more parishes to offer the traditional liturgy. While Rodio would welcome something explicit, Leo need not overturn Francis outright: He can just instruct the Vatican liturgy office to generously approve individual requests from bishops as they come in.
In recent weeks, the diocese of Cleveland received a two-year extension to keep allowing the Latin Mass at two diocesan churches.
“My guess is Leo may try to do a lot by not doing a lot publicly,” Rodio said.
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