Debate over Latin Mass heats up after apparent leak of Vatican documents that undermine Pope Francis

ROME (AP) – The debate in the Catholic Church over the celebration of the old Latin Mass is heating up just as Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate is getting under way, with the apparent leak of Vatican documents that undermine the stated reason of his predecessor Pope Francis for restricting access to the ancient liturgy.

The documents suggest that the majority of Catholic bishops who responded to a 2020 Vatican survey about the Latin Mass had expressed general satisfaction with it, and warned that restricting it would “do more harm than good.”

The texts from the Vatican’s doctrine office were posted online Tuesday by a Vatican reporter who has followed the Latin Mass dispute, Diane Montagna. The Vatican spokesman and prefect of the doctrine office didn’t immediately respond when asked Wednesday to confirm their authenticity, or comment.

If confirmed, the documents could add pressure on Leo to try to pacify the liturgical divisions that spread, especially in the United States, during Francis’ 12-year papacy. Since the start of his pontificate, Leo has said his aim is unity and reconciliation in the church, and many conservatives and traditionalists have pointed to the Latin Mass dispute as an area that requires urgent resolution.

In one of his most controversial acts, Francis in 2021 reversed Pope Benedict XVI’s signature liturgical legacy and restricted access for ordinary Catholics to the old Latin Mass. The ancient liturgy was celebrated around the world before the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, with the priest facing the pews.

Francis said he was cracking down on the spread of the old liturgy because Benedict’s decision in 2007 to relax restrictions had become a source of division in the church. Francis said at the time he was responding to “the wishes expressed” by bishops around the world who had responded to the Vatican survey, as well as the Vatican doctrine office’s own opinion.

“The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene,” Francis wrote at the time. Benedict’s relaxation 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,” he said.

The documents posted online, however, paint a different picture. They suggest the majority of bishops who responded to the Vatican survey had a generally favorable view of Benedict’s reform and warned that suppressing or weakening it would lead traditionalist Catholics to leave the church and join schismatic groups. They warned any changes “would seriously damage the life of the church, as it would recreate the tensions that the document had helped to resolve.”

The documents include a five-page “overall assessment” of the survey findings, written by the Vatican’s doctrine office, as well as a seven-page compilation of quotes from individual bishops or bishops’ conferences.

The documents contain some negative and neutral opinions, and say some bishops considered Benedict’s reform “inappropriate, disturbing,” dangerous and worthy of suppression. But the Vatican’s own assessment said the majority of bishops who responded expressed satisfaction. It cited the rise in religious vocations in traditionalist communities and said young Catholics in particular were drawn to the “sacredness, seriousness and solemnity of the liturgy.”

It’s not clear what other evidence, anecdotes or documentation informed Francis’ decision to reverse Benedict. But from the very start, Francis was frequently critical of traditionalist Catholics, whom he accused of being navel-gazing retrogrades out of touch with the evangelizing mission of the church in the 21st century.

The new documents have comforted traditionalists who felt attacked and abandoned by Francis.

“The new revelations confirms that Pope Francis restricted the Traditional Mass at the request of only a minority of bishops, and against the advice of the dicastery in charge of the subject,” said Joseph Shaw, of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. “The majority view of the bishops, that restricting the TLM would cause more harm than good, has sadly been proved correct.”

In an email, he said Leo should address the issue “urgently.”