CONSERVATIVE Roman Catholics have called on Pope Leo XIV to relax current restrictions on the traditional Latin mass, claiming that its wider use will stimulate a Church revival.
“Many vocations are coming today from places where the traditional liturgy and faith are maintained — I hope Pope Leo will recognise this,” the Rt Revd Athanasius Schneider, a leading conservative spokesman and auxiliary bishop from Kazakhstan, said.
“Our Church needs unity and a capacity to grow in missionary zeal. When traditional means are proving effective, we should make use of them.”
He was addressing a conference last weekend at Brompton Oratory, in London, to mark the 60th anniversary of Britain’s Latin Mass Society, which forms part of an international network of traditionalist organisations.
The bishop, who was nominated for the episcopacy by Pope Benedict in 2006 and spent formative years in Germany and Austria, told the Church Times that Pope Benedict’s lifting of curbs on the Latin mass in 2007 had spurred an expansion of RC communities which had then been halted under Pope Francis.
Another prominent Latin mass supporter, Cardinal Raymond Burke, said that sacred worship remained “the highest and most perfect form of Catholic faith”. He added that a link between “liturgical corruption” and “doctrinal and moral divisions” had been recognised from the time of St Paul.
“Pope Leo should put an end to the present persecution of those who desire to worship God according to ancient usage,” Cardinal Burke said. An American former prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Tribunal, he participated in the last two papal conclaves.
“I’ve had occasion to express this directly to the Holy Father, and it’s my hope he’ll study this question as soon as possible, and continue developing what Pope Benedict so wisely and lovingly legislated for the Church.”
The sell-out conference took place four years after a July 2021 apostolic letter from Pope Francis, Traditionis Custodes, ruled that Latin masses should be allowed by bishops under Vatican supervision only if their adherents “do not deny the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform dictated by Vatican Council II and the Magisterium”.
The late Pope imposed the curbs after claims that the traditional mass, last set out in a pre-Vatican II 1962 Missal, was being used as a divisive rallying point against liberal changes and ecumenical co-operation.
Several petitions, however, have since urged a rescinding of the restrictions, including a July 2024 open letter to The Times, co-signed by the composer Sir James MacMillan and other public figures, which warned against moves to unravel the traditional rite’s “magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage” (News, 26 July 2024).
In his conference address, Cardinal Burke said that the Latin Mass belonged to an “unbroken tradition” from the Last Supper, adding that respect for the Church’s divine authority had suffered because of “hasty and unwise decisions”.
Bishop Schneider also told the Church Times that some RC bishops were “ideologically opposed” to the Latin mass in their efforts to “Protestantise their Church”, but he believed that most would follow Pope Leo if he promoted it in a bid to ensure “clarity in doctrine”.
Up to 20,000 young people from 30 countries took part in a traditionalist pilgrimage to Chartres this month, chanting in Latin as a mark of support for the rite.
The Tablet, which previously argued against the Latin mass, said in an editorial last week that it now also believed that a “revival of Latin” could help to drive “liturgical renewal across the global Church”.