Prominent cultural figures, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have signed a letter calling on the Vatican not to issue any further restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.
In the letter to The Times of London, more than 40 UK artists, businessmen, politicians, and journalists lamented the “painful and confusing” prospect of the Latin Mass being banished from almost every Catholic church.
Signatories include composer Lord (Andrew) Lloyd-Webber, opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and human rights activist Bianca Jagger. They write:
The traditional liturgy is a “cathedral” of text and gesture, developing as those venerable buildings did over many centuries. Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine; but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten.
The signatories—who also include fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, Downton Abbey creator Lord (Julian) Fellowes, and historian Tom Holland—urge the Holy See to “reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
Another signatory, the composer Sir James MacMillan, has written an accompanying op-ed for The Times, in which he described the restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass issued in the 2021 Motu Proprio Traditiones Custodes as a “shattering blow to Generation Z Catholics who have found their spiritual home in the old liturgy.”
They are bewildered by the new hostility they face—but now it appears that worse is to come. Sources report that the Vatican is planning an almost total ban on the “Mass of the Ages”, as it’s known.
The fact that there are Vatican functionaries indulging in this petty, philistine authoritarianism against their own co-religionists is shocking for a non-Catholic audience.
The letter follows rumours, first reported in the usually well-informed Catholic blog “Rorate Caeli,” that a draft document is circling within the Vatican that would impose draconian restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
In a subsequent report for The Remnant, Vatican journalist Diane Montagna wrote that the document would prohibit nearly all priests, apart from those attached to specific communities, from celebrating the traditional Mass.
The letter models itself on a similar one by writers and artists—including author Agatha Christie, musician Yehudi Menuhin, and historian Kenneth Clark—published in The Times in 1971. That letter also called for the preservation of the old Mass, saying it “inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts—not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs.”
“Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians,” they wrote.
