Vatican report reveals most bishops did not want Pope Francis’ Latin Mass crackdown

[Stone]

Vatican report reveals most bishops did not want Pope Francis’ Latin Mass crackdown
Most bishops who responded to a Vatican questionnaire about restricting the Latin Mass said reversing Pope Benedict XVI’s liberation

 of the traditional rite ‘would cause more harm than good.’



Pilgrimage on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Summorum Pontificum, Pontifical Mass in Vetus Ordo Mass in Latin, Holy Mass at the Saint Peter's Chair
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Jul 1, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Journalist Diane Montagna revealed in a July 1 report that the Vatican’s overall assessment of the consultation of bishops, which was believed to have prompted Pope Francis to implement the 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, stated that the majority of bishops were satisfied with the implementation of Summorum Pontificum and believed that making changes to Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio would do “more harm than good.”

“The majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire stated that making legislative changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good,” the report said.

The report notably contradicts Pope Francis’ claim in his letter accompanying Traditionis Custodes, which stated that the bishops’ assessment found the implementation of Pope Benedict’s motu proprio to be a key source of division in the Church.

“An opportunity offered by … Benedict XVI, intended to recover the unity of an ecclesial body with diverse liturgical sensibilities, was 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,” the late Argentine pontiff wrote.

But, according to the report, the Vatican’s overall assessment shows that while the bishops had concerns about division caused by attendees of the Tridentine Mass rejecting the Second Vatican Council and other disagreements, the majority of the “gaps,” “divergences,” and “disagreements” that Francis cited actually stem from the resistance by a minority of bishops to Summorum Pontificum.

“The majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire, and who have generously and intelligently implemented Summorum Pontificum, ultimately express satisfaction with it,” the report stated. “In places where the clergy have closely cooperated with the bishop, the (divisions) has become completely pacified,” the report continued.

Traditionis Custodes, which has led to the suppression of numerous Latin Masses around the world, has been denounced by clergy and scholars as a repudiation of the perennial practice of the Catholic Church and even of solemn Church teaching.

Cardinal Raymond Burke has affirmed that the traditional liturgy is not something that can be excluded from the “valid expression of the lex orandi.”

“It is a question of an objective reality of divine grace which cannot be changed by a mere act of the will of even the highest ecclesiastical authority,” the cardinal wrote in 2021.

Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has also implored priests to resist Traditionis Custodes and its accompanying Responsa ad dubia “regardless of threats or penalties,” since obedience to these documents would undermine the very mission of the holy Catholic Church.

Kwasniewski has made the point that “the traditional liturgical worship of the Church, her lex orandi (law of prayer),” is a “fundamental” “expression of her lex credendi, (law of belief), one that cannot be contradicted or abolished or heavily rewritten without rejecting the Spirit-led continuity of the Catholic Church as a whole.”

‘The traditional Mass belongs to the most intimate part of the common good in the Church. Restricting it, pushing it into ghettos, and ultimately planning its demise can have no legitimacy. This law is not a law of the Church because, as St. Thomas [Aquinas] says, a law against the common good is no valid law,’” he said in a speech at the 2021 Catholic Identity Conference.

Recently, a letter-writing campaign was launched by the Faithful Advocate, inviting parishes and Catholics across the country to write to Pope Leo XIV, “asking him to abrogate Traditionis Custodes and protect the Sacred Liturgy worldwide.”

[Stone]

Interesting perspective here: 

Vatican documents: TLM was tolerated to neutralise resistance to new religion
While many are focusing on the rupture between the Bishops' survey and Traditionis Custodes, 

they are missing the deeper point revealed in Diane Montagna's documents.