Alison Girone
CV NEWS FEED // The Diocese of Tyler, Texas, is suspending the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form, or the Traditional Latin Mass, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The parish run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) in the diocese is authorized to continue to celebrate in the extraordinary form.
The Diocese’s Apostolic Administrator Bishop Joe S. Vásquez sent a letter to parishes on November 8 announcing the change.
“As many of you know, the law of the Church governing the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962 (the Mass as celebrated before the Second Vatican Council) has undergone revision,” Bishop Vásquez began.
He recalled that Pope Francis issued the motu Proprio Traditionis custodes three years ago, issuing to diocesan bishops a request related to the celebration of the Latin Mass in dioceses.
The motu Proprio “called on diocesan bishops to evaluate the place of these celebrations within the life of the local church,” Bishop Vásquez wrote, “and help the faithful unite in the celebration of the liturgy according to the liturgical books approved by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II in accordance with the Second Vatican Council.”
Bishop Vásquez, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Austin, was named as Apostolic Administrator in Tyler by Pope Francis exactly one year ago, on November 11, 2023. On the same day, the Vatican Press Office announced that Pope Francis had removed Bishop Joseph Strickland, who had been the bishop of the Diocese of Tyler since 2012, from his role as Bishop of the diocese.
In his November 8 letter, Bishop Vásquez wrote that after he was appointed Apostolic Administrator, he reached out to “the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments asking for guidance on how to implement Traditionis custodes in this diocese.”
The Dicastery recently responded, according to Bishop Vásquez.
“Following the guidance of the Holy See,” he continued, the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass “at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception will come to an end on November 30, 2024.”
St. Joseph the Worker Parish in the diocese will still be authorized to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. This parish is operated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), which retains a primary charism to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
This parish, wrote Bishop Vásquez, “is a personal parish established in 2003 to pastorally care for all those in the Diocese who celebrate according to the older liturgical forms.”
“While this transition may be difficult for some, my hope is that you will open your hearts and move forward on this path with faith and trust,” he concluded. “I pray you will experience a deepened unity with the whole Church and a greater awareness of the liturgical richness of the ordinary form of the Roman liturgy. As Apostolic Administrator, please be assured of my pastoral concern for you.”
As many as six parishes may be affected by this change.
Sheryl Collmer, a parishioner in the Diocese who typically attends the Mass celebrated in the New Rite, also called the Novus Ordo, explained that on a practical level, the change will be difficult.
“[T]he [Traditional Latin Mass] community is now challenged because they either have to crowbar themselves into the already overcrowded FSSP parish in Tyler, or drive two hours to another overcrowded FSSP parish in Dallas,” Collmer told CatholicVote in an email statement.
She said that both the Novus Ordo and Latin Mass communities are “heartbroken.”
“In Tyler, the Latin Mass community is integrated into the Catholic community as a whole; there’s no artificial division,” Collmer said. “So those who worship at the Novus Ordo Mass are brothers of the TLM. We work together in prayer and music and parish outreach; we belong to common organizations; we socialize.”
“So what happens to the Latin Mass community happens to all of us,” she added.
Collmer questioned the Vatican’s feelings towards the laity and why the change was taking place. She explained that the laity struggle when their spiritual leaders do not “feed the flock.”
“The question is: why? Why do faithful families have to be so greatly put upon, just to render worship to God?” Collmer wrote. “Why is their worship less respected than, say, the Byzantine Catholics or the Maronite Catholics, who are free to worship according to their ancient rites? And why did this new persecution come at the one-year anniversary of losing our bishop?”
Collmer argued that unity in the Church comes from a shared faith.
“Some people pray in Spanish; some people in English, some in Tagalog. That doesn’t signify disunity; it signifies individual differences in the Body,” Collmer stated. “That’s what we have in Tyler. There was no need to concuss people from their liturgy.”
