Pope Leo’s ‘Traditionis’ options
What might the pope do about 'Traditionis custodes?'
Whatever else happens this summer, Pope Leo is certain to face a test of resolve in the face of the Switzerland-based Society of St. Pius X, and the group’s commitment to consecrate new bishops despite a papal prohibition against the move
.While Pope Leo’s Vatican has promised swift consequences if the group moves forward, the controversy has gained international attention, given especially the stark terms in which the situation can be described, and given the growing attention paid to preconciliar liturgical rites since Pope Francis restricted in 2021 their usage.
To some, the pope’s SSPX showdown raises questions about obedience and authority in a hierarchical Church. But to others it raises questions about how Leo will deal with the messy remnant of his predecessor’s effort to curtail the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, especially amid its apparently growing popularity among younger Catholics in the West.
Addressing that situation will be more than a test of resolve for Leo. It will be a test of the pontiff’s canonical and pastoral creativity, in the face of a circumstance which has shown itself unwilling to simply go away.
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The most likely scenario for the SSPX over the course of the summer is that its bishops will do what superior general Fr. Davide Pagliarani has said they will do — consecrate bishops, despite a papal admonition against the plan.
The result will be that the consecrated and consecrators will incur the canonical penalty of excommunication, which Leo has indicated that Vatican is likely to formally declare — a rare step for the Vatican, but one intended to convey the seriousness of the SSPX’s disobedience, and to call its leadership to return to communion with the successor of St. Peter.
In recent weeks, Vatican doctrinal prefect Cardinal Victor Fernandez has suggested the possibility that ordinary priests and even laity could incur and see declared the excommunication likely to be incurred by SSPX leadership. The prospect of declaring that penalty for laity seems unlikely.
But to whatever extent the penalties of the Society of St. Pius X are declared and publicized, the situation with the group’s leadership is sure to raise a question about those who presently attend the group’s liturgies: “What about them?”
In short, given that leaders of the Society of St. Pius X are almost certain to be sanctioned this summer, it’s natural that the unfolding events will raise questions about whether the Church will reconsider its accommodations to lay Catholics with a devotion to the preconciliar liturgies — if they are, all the more definitively, to avoid the Masses offered by the SSPX, where should they go?
It’s for that reason - among others - that Leo is widely believed to be considering now whether and how to amend or revisit the 2021 restrictions on the preconciliar liturgy established by Pope Francis in Traditionis custodes.
On the pope’s private audience list in recent weeks have been several figures who could be seen to be weighing in on the question, including a set of scholars with a forthcoming book on the phenomenon of traditionalist Catholics in the West, along with a number of clerics who have served in liturgical leadership positions in the Church.
And while the number of Catholics who regularly attend preconciliar liturgies is statistically small in the entire context of the Church, it seems to be growing among young Catholics, and garnering attention and interest across the Catholic West.
And, from many perspectives, the restrictions of Francis’ Traditionis custodes have done little to quell the phenomenon — Francis’ apparent aim — and can be instead correlated, at least, to a rise in its popularity.
In light of that, as the SSPX controversy plays out, it’s sure to raise questions about whether Pope Leo plans address do about situation created by Traditionis.
If he does, he has several options.
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The stated aim of Traditionis custodes is to regulate the use of the preconciliar liturgical rubrics as part of a “constant search for ecclesial communion.” But at least in the West, it is not clear that aim has been accomplished by the motu proprio: instead, there is evidence of a growing discord between adherents of the traditional liturgy and their bishops, with parish priests aiming to serve those communities most often placed in the middle: sympathetic to the communities these been serving pastorally, while desiring to encourage obedience to the local Church.
It’s possible that Leo could simply reconsider the wisdom of the motu proprio in the months to come, rescinding it entirely while urging bishops to emphasize the post-conciliar liturgical texts as the “unique expression of the Roman rite,” even while returning to the established status quo of Summorum pontificum, Benedict XVI’s broad set of permissions for the use of the liturgical texts he referred to as the Extraordinary Form.
But that seems unlikely. Rescinding Traditionis in favor of its immediate predecessor would be taken as a bold repudiation of the motu proprio’s legislator, Pope Francis, and thus a move outside the style of unity and conciliation that Leo has adopted.
It is also possible that Leo could leave Traditionis intact, while instructing the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship to be generous in granting permissions for priests to offer the Extraordinary Form, for parish churches to be used for its celebration, and for the creation of new personal parishes dedicated to the observance of the preconciliar liturgical rites. There is some indication that Leo’s diplomats have already indicated this approach, at least as a temporary measure, in several countries.
But a Vatican call for a “new perspective” on liturgical inclusions suggests that Leo’s plans may well be broader than a simply “generous” interpretation of Traditionis, and that his diplomats’ urging for that approach to episcopal conferences is meant only as a kind of temporary measure.
Some Catholics have suggested the possibility of establishing a personal ordinariate, or a series of them, for Catholics and clergy inclined toward traditionalist liturgical expression — as perhaps a nod to the strong network of communities which have formed among adherents of the preconciliar liturgies.
This seems also an unlikely possibility in a Leonine papacy.
On the one hand, Leo’s time in the Diocese of Chiclayo gave him experience building unity among overlapping groups of secular clergy, given that his diocese was well-populated with priests of the personal prelature Opus Dei, and the laity who associate themselves with the prelature. That could give him a sense of the possibilities for a distinct structure with a unique pastoral mission, and the degree to which that could exist without sectarianism.
On the other hand, the aim of Traditionis seems to be fostering unity among Catholics, and the notion of an entirely parallel ecclesial structure for traditionalist Catholic is not likely in Rome to be perceived as a path to the desired ecclesial unity, in communion with local diocesan bishops and other local Catholics. In fact, a personal ordinariate would likely be seen as encouraging the kind of insularity Traditionis was meant to combat, and which it, ironically, has facilitated in some communities.
Further, the ordinariates established for the Anglican patrimony have faced chronic issues around the pragmatic realities of finances and personnel management, and that experience has likely set a distaste in the Apostolic See for the prospect of establishing similar canonical structures.
But a more likely possibility is a modification of Traditionis which actually encourages the formation of personal parishes oriented toward Catholics with a disposition toward the Extraordinary Form, and some guidelines for how best to implement them into dioceses.
The advantage of such a structure would likely be seen as the potential for a close relationship between traditionalist communities and their diocesan bishop — that rather than attending the liturgies of religious institutes, or nearing-schism institutions like the SSPX, Catholics of a liturgically traditionalist bent would remain incorporated in a community wholly part of the diocese in which it was located, and operating under the direct pastoral care, and oversight, of the diocesan bishop.
Along with encouragement to that end could come instructions about the way in which diocesan priests could be vetted, trained, and assigned to such parishes, and guidance for Catholics on maintaining relationships with both a personal parish, and with other Catholics in their territories.
And because personal parishes are not territorial — circumscribed only to the territory of a diocese itself — guidance on establishing them might also include some guidance on the celebration of the Extraordinary Form in several places across a diocese, accommodating Catholics across an entire region under one parochial structure.
A modification of Traditionis which encourages personal parishes might be seen in Rome to allow in the Leonine papacy a “fresh perspective” which “generously” provides for both pastoral care and parochial structure for traditionalist communities, while giving bishops a greater facility for oversight and discernment than was possible afforded under the terms of Summorum pontificum.
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Of course, it remains in the hands of the SSPX itself to determine what choices its own leadership might make this summer, and how Pope Leo might respond.
Some ecclesiastical figures have even suggested that the society might well renounce its current plans, and seek a kind of corporate recognition in the Church, perhaps as a personal prelature — “if, like every Catholic, it acknowledges Church doctrine in its entirety, including the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, which can only be authentically declared binding by the bishops in unity with and under the pope.”
That seems highly unlikely. But as the society’s leadership moves closer to the prospect of a declared excommunication, thousands of Catholics in its orbit will be looking for a place of welcome and accompaniment in the communion of the Church.
By at least a few signs, Leo seems inclined to give it to them. The question of how remains.