The recent revelation appears to confirm that such a document aimed at severely curtailing the Latin Mass does indeed exist, despite the fact that information on its existence was mixed over the summer.
Background
A brief summation of recent events is necessary to understand the import of the Pope’s comment, before full details of it are outlined below.
Over the summer of this year, rumors emerged that a new document to severely restrict the traditional Mass was set to be issued. It was believed to take especial aim at diocesan priests, given that two of the leading Latin Mass priestly communities – Fraternity of St. Peter and Institute of Christ the King – had recently had their constitutions and charisms approved by Francis himself in private meetings and would likely be left unaffected. (Here and here.)
Believed to be written by the secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship (Abp. Vitoria Viola), it was also reported to have received the key backing of Cardinal Pietro Parolin the Secretary of State, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti and French Nuncio Archbishop Celestino Migliore.
As reported on PerMariam, a number of sources close to Pope Francis said they had no knowledge of such a rumored document. Nor could The Pillar confirm existence of the rumored document, despite its record of having talkative and apparently well-placed sources throughout the Vatican and especially in the Secretariat of State – the office led by Cdl. Parolin.
Then in August, Abp. Migliore, Cdl. Gugerotti, and eventually Cdl. Parolin in September, also denied to this correspondent that they were involved in the rumored project. Cdl. Parolin wrote that “the media reports about a role of mine in the ‘Latin Mass’ issue are completely unfounded. I can only be saddened that false news is being circulated, but my defense is the Lord (cf. Ps. 7).”
With the summer having passed without the emergence of the rumored document, coupled with the denials of involvement from high profile prelates, it appeared that the text would at the least not emerge imminently.
Furthermore, an immense outpouring of public support for the traditional Mass was subsequently seen after the initial rumors of the document emerged, with both Catholic and non-Catholic lay figures and respected cardinals all petitioning Francis not to take any further punitive action against the ancient Mass.
Papal confidante’s alleged role
With the matter having gone quiet, veteran Vatican journalist Dr. Robert Moynihan revealed during a recent Inside the Vatican interview that a friend he introduce to the Pope allegedly played a key role in preventing the document from publication.
Speaking in a November 7 podcast, Moynihan stated:
I’ve a friend who is Russian Orthodox, I introduced him to Pope Francis some years ago more than ten years ago. They exchanged numbers.
I’ve always told him that we are very desirous of keeping a space in the church … for the old liturgy, which was similar in many ways to the Byzantine liturgy. He has appreciated this because he too is [Russian] Orthodox.
I said “tell the Pope that when you’re communicating with him because there are rumors that he may want to actually abolish the old liturgy, in a way that Joseph Ratzinger suggested was not even possible to do.”
He said he communicated with the Pope this past summer and told him that there were so many good, young people in America and other countries who love the old liturgy and they didn’t love it as a kind of sign of their anger against him, but simply because they love Jesus. They wanted to draw close to Him and the liturgy did that. And it was very similar to the way that simple people in Russia drew to the liturgy in the 1600’s, when the Old Believers were condemned because they wanted to keep the same, old liturgy and not the reformed liturgy in the 1660’s in Russia.
So this Russian told the Pope these things and the Pope said to him “I’ve got the text on my desk. They’ve told me that I should sign, but since you’ve told me all this, I won’t sign.”
The identity of his friend Moynihan kept confidential in public, though PerMariam is aware it is a reliable and ranking source.
Traditional communities a sign of life
Should the Russian source’s remarks be true, and Francis’ also, it highlights that the rumored document did in fact exist and the Church came very close to having it promulgated. Already Pope Francis has been accused of causing immense division and suffering in the Church through issuing Traditionis Custodes in 2021. When asked about it by this correspondent, he waived aside concerns and replied “Read the motu proprio; everything is there for you.”
The vitriol against the traditional Mass from high-ranking officials in the Congregation for Worship is also already reliably documented. Indeed, former CDF Prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller revealed this year that “a senior representative of the Roman Dicastery for Divine Worship” was dismayed when he heard of the huge numbers of young pilgrims on the traditional Mass pilgrimage to Chartres.
Cdl. Müller said the official “objected that this was by no means a cause for joy, because Holy Mass was celebrated according to the old Extraordinary Latin rite.”
The precise details of the rumored document have never been officially confirmed. However, a number of high profile clerics and theologians – such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Father Chad Ripperger – have warned that a Pope does not have authority to completely ban a rite of the Mass, especially one so ancient.
Expanding on related questions in his new work The Limits of Papal Authority Over the Liturgy, Fr. Ripperger quoted from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to note:
The pope is not an absolute monarch whose will is law; rather, he is the guardian of the authentic Tradition and, thereby, the premier guarantor of obedience. He cannot do as he likes. … His rule is not that of arbitrary power, but that of obedience in faith. That is why with respect to the Liturgy, he has the task of a gardener, not that of a technician who builds new machines and throws the old ones on the junk pile.
Notwithstanding the debate about the technical power of a Pope over the liturgy, the wide scale devastation upon traditional communities in the wake of Traditionis Custodes remains.
Responding to the recent news that the Congregation for Worship has banned nearly all of the traditional Masses in Bishop Strickland’s former Diocese of Tyler, Bp. Schneider termed it a “persecution.”
Since Traditionis Custodes the Holy See is really persecuting the traditional Latin Mass, and with this persecution – good Catholics, who are not sedevacantists, not schismatics, who really love the Pope, who love the bishop, who simply want to pray as their grandfathers did as the saints did.
“This,” he added, “is the only reason they are marginalized, they are discriminated publicly with such actions from the Holy See. It will go down in history, for sure, as a great in justice from those are holding the power in the Holy See.”
In the midst of the devastation wrought upon such faithful communities across the globe, growing calls are now being made to usher in female deacons – contrary to the infallible teaching of the Church – along with married clergy and lay leadership of liturgies. Many cite the lack of priestly vocations as the reason. Cardinal Ulrich Steiner told the Vatican press corps in October that he performs a quasi-ordination rite for women whom he sends out to perform ministry – the reason for their role is due to the lack of clergy in the region.
While attempts to break Church teaching are made in a vain attempt to solve vocations, the traditional communities are thriving. Arguably even bolstered by Traditionis Custodes, Latin Mass groups have recorded year on year records of new admissions to their seminaries.
The four most well known include around 600 seminarians combined.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) now has 197 seminarians in its two seminaries in Europe and the U.S. The Institute of Christ the King accepted twenty applicants this year to bring their total to 108 seminarians in their single seminary in Italy. The Institute of the Good Shepherd, much smaller and recent in comparison but now numbering 44 seminarians in its French house.
A grand total of 64 new applicants were accepted to the Fraternity of St. Pius X in its 4 seminaries, bringing them to over 250 seminarians.
While attempts are made from the highest offices to stamp out the traditional Mass, where it exists it remains thriving. Should the officials in the Roman Curia truly wish to find a way to reverse the decline in practice of the Faith and numbers of the clergy, a viable option is before them, but one which they seem determined to eradicate.