Top American cardinal celebrates old Latin Mass in St. Peter’s in sign of hope for traditionalists

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Traditionalist Catholics feeling abandoned after Pope Francis restricts the ancient Latin Mass happy on saturday As we prepare to celebrate traditional masses in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the express approval of Pope Leo XIV.

Conservative American leader Cardinal Raymond Burke was to celebrate the ancient Mass for pilgrims during the Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday. Another cardinal, Matteo Zuppi of Italy, celebrated a packed dinner ceremony for them on Friday night.

For many traditionalists, the moment was a concrete sign that Leo might be more sympathetic to their plight after feeling rejected by Francis and his 2021 crackdown on ancient rites.

Francis took action after the spread of the ancient rites. especially in the United StatesIt coincides with the rise of religiously inspired political conservatism and the decline in church attendance in more progressive congregations.

“I’m very hopeful,” said Rubén Peretó Rivas, a professor of medieval philosophy at Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and one of the pilgrimage organizers. “The first signs of Pope Leo are dialogue and listening, truly listening to everyone.”

Liturgy battles have been preparing for a long time

The latest rounds in the liturgical wars date back to the Second Vatican Council meetings in the 1960s that modernized the church. Reforms included celebrating Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin, with the priest facing the faithful in the pews rather than at the altar.

In the years that followed, the old Latin Mass was still present but not widespread. During those years, the Vatican was dealing with the growth of a schismatic group that rejected the Vatican II reforms and celebrated only the Latin Mass. St. Pius X Society.

Pope Benedict

In 2007, Benedict relaxed restrictions on the celebration of the ancient Latin Mass as part of his general support for traditionalists.

“The things that previous generations held sacred are sacred and great to us,” Benedict wrote at the time.

Francis’ edition in 2021

In one of the most controversial acts of his papacy, Francis reverses Benedict decision in 2021 It was reformed in 2007 and restrictions on the celebration of the old rite were reintroduced. Its spread has become a source of division in the church and is being exploited by Catholics opposed to Vatican II, Francis said.

Under Francis’ restrictions, Bishops must petition Rome Let’s say a newly ordained priest wants to celebrate the old rite. If a bishop wants to allocate an additional church for services and is forced to hold some celebrations in church halls far from each other, the Vatican must approve this.

But rather than mending divisions, Francis’ pressure appeared to fuel further tensions.

“We are orphans,” said Christian Marquant, the French organizer of the pilgrimage.

The election of Leo and his promise to bring peace and healing

Leo, the first American pope in history, was elected by broad consensus among the cardinals and The goal is unity and reconciliation in church A lot conservatives and traditionalists he specifically called on him to heal the liturgical divisions that pervaded the Latin Rite.

Following Leo’s election, Marquant wrote to Leo on behalf of nearly 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.

Meeting with Leo on August 22, Burke gave him the letter. Marquant said Leo called Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Abbot of St. Peter, and gave permission.

Immediately after his crackdown in 2021, Francis also allowed Latin masses to be celebrated in the basilica, but only by low-ranking priests. In 2023 and 2024, traditionalists could not find anyone willing to approach Francis and ask permission, and no Mass was celebrated, Marquant said.

In July, Vatican documents leaked It undermined Francis’s rationale for imposing the restrictions in the first place: Francis had said he was responding to the “expressed wishes” of bishops around the world who responded to a 2020 Vatican survey and his own view of the Vatican doctrinal office.

But the documents suggest that the majority of Catholic bishops who responded to the survey expressed general satisfaction with the old Latin Rite and warned that restricting it would “do more harm than good.”

Tradition-oriented Catholics in the pews are hopeful

James Rodio, a psychiatrist and father of three, has been attending a traditional Latin Mass with his family in Cleveland, Ohio, for nearly three decades.

“I was struck by the respect, the beauty and the symbolism in the actions and gestures, and of course the content,” he said in a telephone interview.

Although Rodio always had access to traditional liturgies in Cleveland, he and other parishioners felt “frustration” with Francis’ pressures and restrictions he imposed.

He said there was “a sadness behind everything” and a sense that Francis did not understand them. “How can an organization have an approach that is 16-17 centuries old and then say it is no longer valid?”

Rodio said he and his fellow parishioners are optimistic about Leo and hope he will allow more congregations to offer the traditional liturgy. There is no need for Leo to reject Francis outright, although Rodio welcomes the obvious: He can instruct the Vatican liturgy office to generously approve individual requests from bishops.

In recent weeks, the Cleveland diocese received a two-year extension to continue allowing the Latin mass in two diocesan churches.

“My guess is that Leo might try to do more by not doing much publicly,” Rodio said.

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