The Church cannot declare war on Latin Mass devotees, Cardinal Robert Sarah says
Cardinal Robert Sarah criticized Pope Francis' 2021 restriction of the Traditional Latin Mass, calling it unsensible and disrespectful. He praised Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 decision to allow wider access to the Latin Mass, noting its positive impact on the ordinary form. Sarah argued that a centuries‑old rite should never be artificially restricted by decree, as it would hinder faith preservation. He stressed that the Church cannot declare war on devoted Latin Mass attendees, emphasizing pastoral sensitivity.
29 days ago
Cardinal Robert Sarah has called for an end to what he described as ideological restrictions on Catholics who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass. He praised Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 liberalization of access to the older liturgy and criticized Pope Francis’ 2021 restrictions as neither sensible nor respectful.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Giornale on Aug. 27, Sarah said the Church “cannot declare war” on people who devoutly attend one form of the Mass rather than another.
He characterized efforts to limit the Traditional Latin Mass as harmful, destructive, insufficiently pastoral, and driven by ideology. Sarah argued that access to liturgical forms with centuries of history should not be curtailed through administrative decrees.
Sarah praised Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, issued in 2007, which authorized priests to celebrate the older Roman liturgy and described it as never having been formally abrogated. Benedict distinguished it as the “extraordinary form,” while identifying the post-conciliar liturgy as the “ordinary form.”
According to Sarah, Benedict’s approach allowed Catholics to discern over time which liturgical form best supported their faith. He described the decision as humble and respectful of the faithful’s preferences.
Sarah sharply criticized Francis’ Traditionis Custodes, issued in 2021, which revoked the broad permissions established by Benedict and placed significant limits on celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass. He said the decision nullified Benedict’s policy while the pope emeritus was still alive and did not treat Benedict with sufficient respect.
Sarah said the wider availability of the older liturgy had positively influenced celebrations of the newer form of the Mass. He argued that exposure to the Traditional Latin Mass had helped some priests celebrate the ordinary form more reverently and had drawn attention to serious liturgical abuses.
He emphasized, however, that abuses should not be confused with the ordinary form itself. His argument was that the two forms should not be treated as mutually exclusive or as grounds for conflict within the Church.
The older Roman liturgy was used worldwide until the Second Vatican Council, after which it was largely replaced, although some priests continued celebrating it.
The article also describes Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s founding of the Society of St. Pius X to preserve the traditional liturgy and oppose aspects of the council’s reforms. The society and its bishops have faced repeated disciplinary measures from the Holy See, including a declaration of schism and episcopal excommunications in 2026.
Sarah said that a liturgical rite that failed to support the faith would eventually disappear naturally. Conversely, he argued, a rite that preserves and strengthens faith should not be artificially restricted because doing so could hinder the faith’s preservation and spread.
Investigate Church’s authority to regulate the Traditional Latin Mass
The Church possesses authority to regulate the Traditional Latin Mass because regulation of the liturgy belongs to the Church’s hierarchical authority—not to individual priests, lay groups, or private associations. The principal question is therefore not whether the Church may regulate it, but how that authority is exercised and what limits apply.
The liturgy belongs to the whole Church. Apostolic Tradition is transmitted through preaching, institutions, worship, inspired writings, and the bishops who succeed the Apostles. Consequently, no particular community possesses the Roman liturgy as private property.
The Second Vatican Council states:
“Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.”
It explicitly adds that no person, “even if he be a priest,” may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on personal authority.
Pius XII expressed the same principle before the Council: the Roman Pontiff alone has the right to recognize, establish, introduce, approve, or modify practices concerning divine worship, while bishops have the duty to ensure faithful observance of liturgical law. He also warned that private regulation of liturgical practices can affect ecclesial unity, discipline, and even the integrity of the faith expressed in worship.
Canon 838 of the 1983 Code provides the governing legal framework:
Thus, liturgical authority is hierarchical and distributed, not arbitrary:
The bishop’s authority is real, but it is not independent of the Pope’s authority. Traditionis custodes describes bishops in communion with Rome as guardians of the tradition and governors of their particular Churches, while also placing their regulation of the 1962 Missal under the guidelines of the Apostolic See.
In Summorum Pontificum (2007), Benedict XVI exercised papal authority by permitting broader use of the 1962 Roman Missal. He stated that the Missal promulgated by Paul VI was the ordinary expression of the Roman Rite, while the Missal of 1962 was an extraordinary expression of the same lex orandi—the Church’s “rule of prayer.”
He further declared that the 1962 Missal had “never been abrogated” and permitted its use under the conditions established by that document.
This means that, during Benedict’s pontificate, the older form was not merely tolerated informally. It was recognized and regulated by papal law. The permission was ecclesial and juridical, not a right derived from the personal preference of a priest or group.
Benedict’s policy also had a pastoral purpose: earlier permissions had been granted to care for Catholics attached to the older liturgical forms and to facilitate ecclesial communion.
In 2021, Pope Francis promulgated Traditionis custodes, changing the discipline established by Summorum Pontificum. It established that the liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II are “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
It also assigned the diocesan bishop exclusive competence to authorize use of the 1962 Missal in his diocese, according to the guidelines of the Apostolic See.
The practical effect was a substantial restriction:
The subsequent Responsa ad dubia clarified that authorization from the Holy See was necessary, not merely consultative, for such priests.
Therefore, Traditionis custodes did not deny the bishop’s authority; it redefined its exercise by making it more explicitly subordinate to universal papal regulation.
No. The Church’s liturgical books are not the patrimony of a particular group. The 2021 decree implementing canon 838 states that liturgical books express the prayer and faith of the whole Church and “are not the patrimony of an individual or a particular group of the faithful.”
This principle applies in both directions:
The Church may permit, restrict, or modify access to a liturgical form for reasons of ecclesial unity, pastoral governance, and fidelity to the Church’s current liturgical discipline.
No. Antiquity gives the older Missal historical and spiritual importance, but it does not remove it from the Church’s jurisdiction. Summorum Pontificum itself recognized the older Missal’s venerable status while simultaneously regulating its use through papal legislation.
Catholic tradition is not identical with preserving every historical disciplinary form unchanged. Paul VI emphasized the permanence of the Church’s deposit of faith and the living development of the Church, including the principle that the lex orandi and lex credendi belong together.
The essential faith expressed in the Mass must remain intact, but the Church has authority to regulate liturgical rites, books, ceremonies, and permissions. A change in liturgical discipline is not automatically a change in doctrine.
The Church’s authority is not a license for individual improvisation or abuse. The same principles that authorize the Pope and bishop to regulate the liturgy also bind them to act through the Church’s law and their proper competence.
Accordingly:
The sources supplied here establish the principles of authority and the 2021 discipline, but they do not provide a complete analysis of every possible canonical appeal, administrative recourse, exemption, or later modification of Traditionis custodes.
The Church clearly has authority to regulate the Traditional Latin Mass. That authority rests on Vatican II, canon 838, and the longstanding teaching that liturgical regulation belongs to the Apostolic See and, within its competence, to diocesan bishops. Benedict XVI broadened permission for the 1962 Missal in 2007; Francis substantially revised that discipline in 2021. The older Mass remains historically venerable, but no liturgical form is beyond the governing authority of the Church.