Is the Vatican Retreating on the Latin Mass Ban?

Something quietly remarkable has happened in Rome, though you would not guess it from the way some commentators are trying to present it. Pope Leo XIV has reportedly reversed the direction of travel set under Pope Francis on the Traditional Latin Mass—without rewriting a single line of Church law. 

The Bishops of England and Wales have apparently been told, via the pope’s own representative in Britain, that their requests for permission to celebrate the Old Rite in parish churches will be granted, and renewed, as a matter of course. In other words: the strict regime of Traditionis custodes remains on paper, but its most restrictive provisions are being suspended in practice.

You would not know this from reading Catholic News Service—the U.S. bishops’ official outlet—which rushed to insist that “nothing has changed.” But the bishops who heard the nuncio’s briefing came away with a very different impression: Pope Leo is keeping the old rite alive, and the bureaucracy that tried to smother it is now being told to stand down.

According to The Pillar, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, the pope’s representative in Britain, told the bishops at their plenary assembly that Pope Leo would not repeal Traditionis custodes, the 2021 decree that sharply restricted where the pre-Vatican II Mass may be celebrated. But he would be “generous” in granting the exemptions that bishops must now request to use the 1962 Missal in parish churches. Those present took the hint: the pope wants the door left open, not locked.

This marks a decisive shift in practice. Under Pope Francis, renewal requests for these two-year permissions were often refused, and many bishops concluded that extensions simply would not be granted. Since Pope Leo’s election in May, however, the Dicastery for Divine Worship has begun extending earlier permissions and entertaining new ones—an unmistakable departure from the previous hard line.

CNS confirmed the nuncio’s comments but leaned heavily on a dicastery official’s insistence that the exemptions were merely a continuation of existing policy. After four years in which renewals were routinely blocked, that explanation is not convincing. The attempt to play down the move looks more like the liberal wing of the Church trying to dampen expectations than a true assessment.

Recent decisions in the United States underscore the shift. The dioceses of Cleveland and San Angelo both received permission this year to continue parish-based celebrations of the old Mass—exactly the kind of approvals many had assumed were no longer possible.

If bishops can now obtain, and routinely renew, these two-year exemptions, then Traditionis custodes will remain on the books but lose much of its bite. Stable TLM communities will be able to form and continue with Vatican approval, not in defiance of it. In Roman terms, that is a major shift in temperature, even if not yet in law.

As one source told The Pillar, Pope Leo’s instinct is to keep the Church’s doors open—including to those devoted to the older liturgy. Judging by the rush to pretend nothing is happening, some in the Church suspect that door is opening wider than they would like.