Pope Leo: Traditional Latin approach to traditional Latin Mass?
The pontiff is looking at big liturgical questions. What happens for now?
During colonial times in Latin America, officials who received from Spain orders that were impossible or simply unwelcome had a saying: “Se acata pero no se cumple.”
“Duly noted,” the phrase goes, “but not enforced.”
In other words, while such orders from Spain remained technically in force, business across the Atlantic continued as usual. And long after the Spanish crown had authority in Latin America, the term persisted.
In his decades in Peru, Pope Leo XIV probably heard the phrase more than once.
And it’s worth asking whether the phrase represents in part the pontiff’s expectation for bishops on the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, while he works in Rome to find a definitive solution — one that, in all likelihood, won’t come soon.
Many observers expected that the next extraordinary consistory of cardinals, set for June 26 and 27 would take up the liturgical question which remains a live issue in many parts of the Church.
But in a letter this week to the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo said that he wished the cardinals to focus their discussions on evangelization and more specifically on Evangelii Gaudium.
That means the college of cardinals will not likely take up the topic, or help the pope find a swift solution to the restrictions on older liturgical forms, in place since Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis custodes.
A discussion among the Church’s cardinals could eventually be useful to the pontiff’s considerations of the subject: Pope Benedict XVI himself said that the discussions during the 2006 meeting between cardinals before an ordinary consistory influenced his decision to publish Summorum Pontificum, allowing a mostly unrestricted celebration of the extraordinary form across the Church.
For his part, Pope Leo hasn’t given any indication that a formal, stable solution for the traditional Latin Mass is close at hand. In fact, several cardinals and curial officials consulted by The Pillar said they don’t expect a solution in the near future, at least not this year.
On the other hand, many believe the pope will address a set of liturgical questions in broader terms, not solely focused on the traditional Latin Mass, but also addressing the liturgy in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, and the issue of inculturation of the liturgy.
In fact, several Latin American cardinals considered to be theologically moderate or progressive told The Pillar that they were concerned about how poorly the liturgy is often celebrated in their region, and said that a papal document could help address the issue.
A Vatican official told The Pillar that in a 2025 meeting, Leo acknowledged he did not know much about traditional communities or the traditional liturgy. According to the official, the pope’s central concern was not the liturgy itself, but whether members of those communities accepted the Second Vatican Council.
The pope accepted a suggestion to meet with cardinals, bishops, and others close to traditional communities in order to receive firsthand information from them.
This led to the audiences that the Pope has had with Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. John Berg, superior general of the Fraternity of Saint Peter, and the researchers Stephen Bullivant and Stephen Craney, who are set to publish a book on traditional communities in the U.S.
In all likelihood, a more stable solution, which could at least partially roll back Traditiones Custodes , will probably be drafted after the pope chooses the successor of Cardinal Arthur Roche at the helm of the Dicastery for Divine Worship.
Roche is past retirement age, and recent rumors suggest the cardinal could soon be appointed as patron of the Order of Malta.
However, several cardinals and senior Vatican officials told The Pillar that they believe the main issue in the DDW on the extraordinary form is not Roche, but the dicastery’s secretary, Archbishop Vittorio Viola.
“Roche is ambitious, but he’s not that ideological. He’s a ‘yes man,’ he did what he was told. But Viola’s opposition to the TLM is more ideological,” a cardinal told The Pillar.
A senior Vatican official told The Pillar that Viola had more to do with the drafting of Traditionis custodes and with subsequent proposals to restrict the extraordinary form which didn’t come to fruition, with the collaboration of lay theologian Andrea Grillo.
One bishop noted that Viola wears the episcopal ring of Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, secretary of the Council for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy after the Second Vatican Council — and eventually secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship —- who is credited with some of the most controversial proposals of the postconciliar liturgical reform.
Viola’s first five-year term as the DDW’s secretary is due to end this May. Whether Pope Leo renews that term, moves Viola to a different curial position, or appoints him to an Italian diocese could say a lot about what the pope intends to do with the liturgy in the near term.
Still, Pope Leo has elected a similar kind of profile in most of his senior appointments: non-ideological, uncontroversial prelates who are good administrators. Whoever succeeds Roche and Viola - if Viola is appointed elsewhere - will likely fit that bill.
Moreover, several cardinals and curial officials have in recent months been more cautious or circumspect when discussing the older liturgical forms.
For example, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg said in January he could imagine a future in which restrictions are liberalized, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin said he shared Pope Leo’s “assessment” of the situation.
While some observers have expressed disappointment that the liturgy won’t be taken up in the June consistory, that decision could seem entirely consistent with the pope’s approach to date.
While there’s still plenty to know about the pope’s own mind, one thing so far is certain: he doesn’t rush.
Even so, there are signs the pope wants to continue giving traditional communities some breathing room while he gathers information and weighs possible solutions.
In November, The Pillar reported that the Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia addressed the plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, informing the bishops that the Vatican would “be generous” when asked to dispense from the restrictions to the traditional liturgy.
And in March, Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a letter to the French bishops’ conference before their plenary assembly, that “the pope is ‘particularly attentive’ to the bishops’ discussion on the liturgy, “in the context of the growth of communities bound to the vetus ordo.”
“It is troubling that a painful wound concerning the celebration of Mass, the very sacrament of unity, continues to open in the Church,” the letter says.
“May the Holy Spirit suggest to you concrete solutions that will allow for the generous inclusion of those sincerely attached to the vetus ordo, in accordance with the guidelines established by the Second Vatican Council regarding the liturgy,” the letter concludes.
Leo has been widely noted in his short pontificate for his attention to norms and procedures. But on liturgy, he may be showing a distinctly Latin American worldview: That sometimes, interpretation matters as much as the law itself.
If so, the Church may be in for some time of se acata pero no se cumple.