New curbs on the Traditional Latin Mass “broke Pope Benedict’s heart”, according to his private secretary.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the closest confidant of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, revealed that the de facto reversal of his policies to liberate the Old Mass came as a heavy blow to the former pontiff.
“It hit him pretty hard,” said the archbishop. “I believe it broke Pope Benedict’s heart to read the new motu proprio because his intention had been to help those who simply found a home in the Old Mass to find inner peace, to find liturgical peace, in order to draw them away from [the schism of Marcel] Lefebvre.
“And if you think about how many centuries the Old Mass was the source of spiritual life and nourishment for many people, including many saints, it’s impossible to imagine that it no longer has anything to offer.”
He added: “Let’s not forget that many young people who were born long after Vatican II and who don’t really understand all the drama surrounding the Council, that these young people, knowing the New Mass, have nevertheless found a spiritual home, a spiritual treasure, in the Old Mass as well.
“To take this treasure away from people – well, I can’t say I am comfortable with that.”
His remarks came in a filmed interview conducted in Rome by Guido Horst, chief editor of Die Tagespost, a German Catholic newspaper.
Benedict had lifted many of the restrictions on the celebration of the Old Rite, or Tridentine Rite, with Summorum Pontificum, a motu proprio of 2007.
He sought to unify a divided Church by permitting liturgies in the “Extraordinary Form” and to also re-introduce the beauty and mystery sometimes missing in many celebrations of Mass in the Ordinary Form (the New Rite).
In summer 2021 his reforms were largely rescinded by Pope Francis in the motu proprio Traditiones Custodes, and in December of that year by a Responsa ad dubia issued by Yorkshire-born Cardinal Arthur Roche, the newly-appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, which added further restrictions.
The remarks of Archbishop Gänswein demonstrate that Benedict shared the grief of many thousands of faithful priests and lay Catholics attached to the Old Rite and who could not understand its suppression.
Although the Old Rite is available in some parishes where it is established, priests may now neither advertise such liturgies in church bulletins and media nor form new groups.
Last year the new restrictions prompted English bishops to cancel scores of Old Rite confirmations.
Preparations for about 20 confirmations in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite were scheduled to take place at the Birmingham Oratory in February and more than 40 were expected to be conferred at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London, in June.
But all of them were called off after the Responsa suggested that all Old Rite liturgies were impermissible with the exception of the Mass, which is also now heavily proscribed.
The crackdown by the Vatican was intended to halt possible divisions within the Church following the growing popularity of the Old Rite particularly among young people and families.
Some priests who offer Mass in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms said, however, that the move had alienated many of the faithful, leaving them “bewildered and flummoxed”.
“Everybody is very disappointed,” one priest told the Catholic Herald at the time. “People can’t understand it. It is a monumental failure of not listening and not caring. This seems to be just a slap in the face.
“Pope Benedict achieved peace in this area,” he added, “but now war has been declared and nobody quite understands why.”
Another priest, who also did not wish to be named in fear of reprisals, said: “I have never been so sad in my life”.
Traditionis Custodes did not prohibit liturgies celebrated according to the 1962 books, but set limitations on the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass by rescinding the universal access granted by Pope Benedict.
Pope Francis stated instead that diocesan bishops possessed the “exclusive competence” to authorise the use of Mass celebrated in accordance with the Roman Missal of 1962.
The Responsa further suggested, however, that it is illicit to use the missal to celebrate other liturgies or sacraments including marriages and confirmations.
Many exorcists choose to exercise their ministry using prayers from the 1962 missal because they find that Latin is more effective in deliverance.
In England and Wales, the Latin Mass was rarely the source of division in parishes and most bishops have permitted those priests who celebrated Old Rite liturgies to continue without harassment.