The late Pope Francis' 2021 decree limiting the Roman Catholic Church's celebration of its Traditional Latin Mass was largely based, the pontiff said at the time, on a survey of the church's bishops claiming the Mass, known as TLM, was divisive and creating problems within the Catholic Church.
Now, it turns out that claim of Francis' was completely untrue. The revelation of Vatican documents showed that a majority of bishops in fact supported the 2007 apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" written by Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, that permitted and encouraged greater celebration of the traditional rite.
In just the past week, this revelation has generated increasing calls on Pope Leo XIV, who succeeded Francis in May, to end all restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.
In a sensational story Tuesday that drew worldwide attention to the Catholic Church and its inner workings, veteran Vatican correspondent Diana Montagna revealed that in 2020, in response to a survey initiated by Pope Francis, the majority of bishops were actually satisfied with Benedict's permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. Changing this, they warned, "would cause more harm than good."
Montagna, in fact, unveiled the Vatican documents showing widespread support for the Traditional Latin Mass celebration among bishops.
But, a year later, when Pope Francis issued his apostolic letter "Traditionis Custodes" that limited traditional Latin Mass and required permission from bishops for them to be held, he claimed that the bishops of the world had spoken with "clarity" and "unity" about divisions caused by the Mass and said their responses to the survey "preoccupy and sadden me." Therefore, he said, he felt "the need to intervene."
"Pope Francis explicitly justified his restriction of the Traditional Latin Mass in 'Traditionis Custodes' with the results of the survey of national bishops' conferences that he ordered," Paul Danello, canon (Catholic doctrine) lawyer and board member of the traditionalist Paulus Institute, told Newsmax.
"Most bishops found no fault with Benedict XVI's liberalization of the availability of the ancient liturgy in 'Summorum Pontificum.' Many national bishops' conferences, in fact, actually favored having both the modern form and the ancient form of the liturgy available," Danello said.
Danello also said, "With the election scarcely two months ago of a new pope who has visibly gone to lengths to revive traditions that his predecessor ignored or discarded, a more propitious moment to restore liturgical balance and pacify fraught ecclesial opponents can hardly be imagined."
Whether — and, if so, when — Pope Leo will undo the controversial restrictions remains to be seen. While serving as a bishop in Peru, the present pontiff oversaw celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and has reportedly celebrated the Mass himself numerous times.
Noting that conservative cardinals who favor ending Francis' restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass supported the former Cardinal Robert Prevost's election as Pope, Newsmax reported in May that "[s]everal Vatican sources have indicated that Leo will soon lift restrictions on the Latin Mass."
Among the 1.4 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, the number devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass is small — perhaps 10% of those who attend weekly Mass. But it is clearly growing among younger Catholics, who frequently say they like the solemnity and kneeling for the sacrament of Holy Communion (as opposed to standing in the contemporary vernacular Mass, which has been predominant in the Catholic Church since the 1970s).
Two days after Montagna's revelation, Vatican spokesman Marco Bruni called the report on the bishops' responses "a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process" and insisted "other documentation, other reports, also the result of further consultations" were also taken into consideration with regard to restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass. He did not elaborate.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.