Alison Girone
CV NEWS FEED // Despite rumors to the contrary, the Vatican is not preparing a document that will further restrict the Traditional Latin Mass in dioceses, anonymous Vatican sources recently told a French Catholic magazine.
La Croix International reported on July 2 that several Vatican sources interviewed by the magazine all responded similarly to the rumors.
The rumors are “unfounded,” one source told La Croix. A senior Vatican official said that the rumors are “fantasies” and “just idle chatter.”
The Vatican sources asserted to La Croix that the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is not currently working on a document that would prohibit the Traditional Latin Mass from being celebrated in dioceses.
One source also commented that the Vatican is not going to release a clarification denying the rumors, as that would give the rumors “weight.” La Croix highlighted that “[t]he Vatican customarily never comments on such rumors.”
As CatholicVote previously reported in June, rumors have been circulating that a document completely restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass has been drafted at the Vatican.
On June 25, Vatican correspondent Diane Montagna reported that the document does exist, although it has not been published.
La Croix reported that the sources said that rumors about such a document “may have originated from a misinterpretation” of more isolated cases regarding restrictions of the Latin Mass that the Vatican is currently determining.
One such example, according to La Croix, involves the Missionaries of Divine Mercy in France, a community of priests who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. As CatholicVote reported on June 24, the Vatican forbade ordinations of priests in this community after local bishops said that the community “was ‘not being synodal.’”
According to La Croix’s July 2 report, the Vatican is currently working to decide “whether it is appropriate” for the Missionaries to have the authorization to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
On June 24, Pope Francis also had a private audience with leaders of the Latin Mass-centered apostolate the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, where he affirmed their permission to celebrate Mass according to the old rite.
The Institute stated after the audience: “On two occasions, the Pope insisted that we continue to serve the Church according to our own, proper charism, in the spirit of unity and communion which the harmony and balance of the Salesian spirituality allow.”
