Vatican spokesman: ‘Traditionis custodes’ leak ‘very partial’
“It’s a contribution to a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process.”
A Vatican spokesman argued Thursday that leaked documents suggesting the world’s bishops did not favor a clampdown on the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite when they were surveyed in 2020 were “very partial and incomplete.”
At a July 3 Vatican press conference, Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, the secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, was asked to comment on a document published July 1, which was reported to be an excerpt from the Vatican’s 2021 assessment of a global survey of bishops on the use of preconciliar liturgical rubrics.
When the question was raised, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See press office, intervened, objecting that the press conference was dedicated to the presentation of the new formulary of the Mass for the Care of Creation, which will be added to the Masses for Various Needs and Occasions in the Roman Missal.
Bruni said subsequently that he wasn’t “confirming the authenticity of the texts that have been published.”
But he immediately added that “it is presumably part of one of the documents on which the decision [to publish Traditionis custodes] was based, and it’s a contribution to a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process.”
Rome-based U.S. journalist Diane Montagna published a document July 1 that she described as exposing “major cracks” in the case for Traditionis custodes, the 2021 apostolic letter issued motu proprio (of his own accord) by Pope Francis.
The apostolic letter was preceded by a survey of the global episcopate in 2020 asking about the application of Summorum Pontificum, a 2007 apostolic letter issued by Pope Benedict XVI, lifting restrictions on the celebration of Extraordinary Form Masses, also known as Traditional Latin Masses.
The survey was overseen by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, renamed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2022. One of the leaked documents said that “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire stated that making legislative changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.”
At the press conference, Bruni said: “The consultation that has been mentioned was supported by other documentation and other reserved reports, and subsequent internal consultations received by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith.”
In an accompanying letter when Traditionis custodes was promulgated, Pope Francis wrote that “the responses [to the questionnaire] reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene.”
He went on: “Regrettably, the pastoral objective of my Predecessors, who had intended ‘to do everything possible to ensure that all those who truly possessed the desire for unity would find it possible to remain in this unity or to rediscover it anew,’ has often been seriously disregarded.”
Pope Francis’ letter arguably framed the promulgation of Traditionis custodes as a reply to the request of a majority of bishops.
“Responding to your requests, I take the firm decision to abrogate all the norms, instructions, permissions and customs that precede the present motu proprio,” the Argentine pope wrote.
The leaked overall assessment appears to contradict part of the rationale for the promulgation of Traditionis custodes.
“The majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire, and who have generously and intelligently implemented Summorum Pontificum, ultimately express satisfaction with it,” the reportedly leaked assessment said.
“In places where the clergy have closely cooperated with the bishop, the situation has become completely pacified,” it added.
The overall assessment was reportedly part of a longer, yet-unpublished report conducted by the Ecclesia Dei Commission, the now-defunct fourth section of the CDF.
Controversy has swirled around the celebration of Extraordinary Form Mass ever since liturgical changes were introduced after Vatican Council II.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII approved a new typical edition — official source text — of the Missale Romanum, the book containing texts for Mass in the Roman Rite, the liturgy attended by the majority of the world’s Catholics.
It was the last typical edition of the Roman Missal published before the Council, which issued a resounding appeal for “the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy.”
A reform process launched by the Council led to the promulgation in 1969 of a new version of Mass in the Roman Rite by John XXIII’s successor, Pope Paul VI.
The new Roman Missal, superseding the 1962 version, was seen as ushering in a new era in the Church’s liturgical life. Catholics referred to the reformed liturgy as “the New Mass,” while the 1962 liturgy was termed “the Old Mass.”
The new Mass was introduced throughout the Catholic world in 1970, inaugurating a liturgical revolution that some Catholics found exhilarating and others alarming. Churches were hastily “reordered” to accommodate a change in the direction the priest faced during Mass, from ad orientem (liturgical east) to versus populum (towards the people). Local languages mostly or completely replaced Latin.
The minority of Catholics who continued to attend the Old Mass found themselves on the margins of Church life. Following an outcry by cultural luminaries, including non-Catholics, Paul VI issued an indult, permitting the use of the 1962 missal in England and Wales. The indult was extended worldwide in 1984 by Pope John Paul II.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI significantly eased restrictions on the 1962 missal with the apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum. He described the missal issued by Paul VI as “the ordinary expression of the lex orandi (rule of prayer) of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite.” But he also recognized the missal prior to the Council as “an extraordinary expression of the same lex orandi of the Church.”
In 2021, Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter Traditionis custodes, reapplying previous restrictions, and creating new ones. The new document declared that “the liturgical books promulgated by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II, in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II” were “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
In the accompanying letter to bishops, Francis said his action was necessary because concessions by his predecessors had been “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
Pope Francis had the power to issue TC. However, no man has the authority to be disingenuous. He CLEARLY left the impression that his own requested survey urged his intervention. He was not a dumb man. There's a reason this report wasn't released previously - because it doesn't support his conclusions!
If, as some commentators are saying, Francis was responding to the minority of bishops who expressed concerns about SP's implementation in their diocese, Francis could have easily addressed that by granting bishops the authority to suppress the TLM if pastoral necessity dictated - something discouraged by SP. But Francis didn't do that. He implemented a systematic suppression of the TLM in parish churches across the entire world even though his own survey showed the majority of prelates were happy with SP and warned getting rid of it would cause grave issues. Further, he specifically stripped bishops the ability to make local pastoral decisions.
I'm not sure how to avoid the conclusion that Francis was intentionally deceptive or the conclusion that Francis' intent was not a pastoral concern. It was ideological. It was the first step in the systematic elimination of the TLM.
It's amazing how many times the Church has managed to shoot itself in the foot RE: the liturgy over the past century. Paraphrasing Belloc, only a Divinely protected institution could be run this poorly and exist for longer than a few decades.
There's slow but sure signs we're starting to move beyond it, but it can't come soon enough. Maranatha!