A Priest Life ((((,,)))): War on the ancient rite, it was not the bishops who started it

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

War on the ancient rite, it was not the bishops who started it

The will of the episcopate, invoked by Francis to "do away" with the Latin Mass, appears quite different according to the documents examined in The Liturgy Is Not a Spectacle . No one wanted a war, explains co-author Msgr. Bux; on the contrary, the Church needs liturgical peace.

It was not the world episcopate that asked to "cage" the Mass in the ancient rite, as Pope Francis instead claimed, declaring that the motu proprio Traditionis Custodeswas the response to a specific request from the bishops consulted on the matter. A scoop by journalist Diane Montagnainstead shows, with documents in hand, a very different reality on that consultation: no one asked for the total abolition of Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum (which had opened those doors then abruptly closed by Francis), nor even the total disappearance of the ancient liturgy (the explicit objective of Traditionis Custodes ). Also shedding light on the documentation are Msgr. Nicola Bux and Saverio Gaeta, co-authors of the volume The liturgy is not a spectacle. The questionnaire to the bishops on the ancient rite, a weapon of destruction of the Mass…