Vatican City, Jul 3, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).
A Vatican spokesman has played down the significance of recently leaked Vatican documents that appear to cast doubt on Pope Francis’ rationale for restricting the Latin Mass, calling the documents “partial and incomplete.”
The documents appear to show that bishops had a more favorable outlook on the Traditional Latin Mass than Pope Francis suggested when he issued controversial restrictions on its celebration in 2021.
Vatican journalist Diane Montagna published two excerpts from an internal Vatican report on the global consultation of bishops in a Substack newsletter July 1. The publication of the texts has sparked renewed controversy over Francis’ decision to restrict the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass at a time when some liturgical traditionalists are voicing hopes that Pope Leo will reverse or moderate his predecessor’s action.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said July 3 the leaked information “presumably concerns part of one of the documents on which the decision [to restrict the Latin Mass] is based.”
Answering a question from CNA during a press conference on another topic, Bruni called published reports “a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process.” At the same time, he refused to confirm the documents’ authenticity.
The spokesman added that “other documentation, other reports, also the result of further consultations” were also taken into consideration with regard to restrictions on the Latin Mass.
An official at the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the department responsible for the application of Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’ July 2021 decree restricting the Mass, told CNA on July 3 that the dicastery “has nothing further to add” to Bruni’s response.
The leaked texts, which summarize consultation results and selected quotations from bishops, have been hailed by critics of Traditionis Custodes as evidence that Pope Francis was misleading when stating his reasons for placing strict restrictions on the celebration of the Latin Mass.
Francis’ decree revoked the permissions granted by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 decree Summorum Pontificum.
“The claim that a majority of bishops around the world wanted restrictions on the ancient Mass [Traditional Latin Mass] was always dubious, but this document shows for all to see that it is completely false,” Joseph Shaw, president of the Latin Mass federation Una Voce International, wrote in a newsletter on July 2.
Shaw said the leaked documents show “only the views of the minority of bishops who really disliked the TLM were being acted upon. The majority view was ignored.”
Traditionis Custodes placed significant restrictions on the celebration of the Mass according to missals from before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In the decree, Pope Francis said he had taken into consideration “the wishes expressed by the episcopate” and “the opinion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Pope Francis explained in a letter accompanying the decree that in 2020 he had asked the now-Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to carry out a survey of bishops around the world about the results of the implementation of the 2007 norms on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
“The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene,” Francis wrote in the letter. He added that the intention of his predecessors, to foster unity among Catholics with diverse liturgical sensibilities, “has often been seriously disregarded” and the opportunity “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.”
According to one of the leaked documents, a five-page “overall assessment” that according to Montagna was part of a never-published report more than 200 pages long on the results of the 2020 questionnaire, the consultation found “the majority of bishops who responded … and who have generously and intelligently implemented the MP [motu proprio] Summorum Pontificum, ultimately express satisfaction with it.” But “some bishops state that the MP Summorum Pontificum has failed in its aim of fostering reconciliation and therefore request its suppression.”
The leaked assessment said some bishops stated they would prefer to return to the pre-2007 rules for the Traditional Latin Mass, when its celebration required permission from the local bishop, “in order to have greater control and management of the situation.”
“However,” the text continued, “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire state that making legislative changes to the MP Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.”
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Ofcourse the Franciscan-Vatican-spokepeople would like to find a place to hide to keep quiet. That’s exactly what happens when Truth is revealed to previously have been made a lie. Liars will squirm, worm, and slither within their swamp, where it remains perpetually dark. God have mercy.
Vatican Press Office secretary Bruni speaks for Cdl Arthur Roche, prefect Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. That assures it was run by the Cardinal, who has full knowledge of Traditionis Custodes because it was issued from his office likely written at least in part perhaps with assistance from Cdl Victor Fernandez prefect DDF. A typical snow job to protect themselves and the originator Pope Francis.
Can we reasonably presume this brief write off was not brought to Pope Leo’s attention? He’s the one who has ultimate say on how to deal with, not simply the authenticity of Diane Montagna’s collage of excerpts – rather with the crux of the matter. How does Pope Leo wish to address this in context of Cdl Burke’s request? Sadly, the entire snow job write off scenario apparently answers the question.
meiron, you said it best so all I can do is repeat what you’ve written, “Ofcourse the Franciscan-Vatican-spokepeople would like to find a place to hide to keep quiet. That’s exactly what happens when Truth is revealed to previously have been made a lie. Liars will squirm, worm, and slither within their swamp, where it remains perpetually dark. God have mercy.”
In fairness to Pope Leo perhaps he had no choice, assuming he was consulted except to agree to the Press Office secretary’s dismissive explanation. He may on his own time frame an address to the matter more favorably toward the TLM. An indication may be the recent announcement that the Rupnik case judges have been selected.
If that were the case, why didn’t Hagen-Leo just tell his Vatican flacks to stand down and be silent? Instead, it is Hagen-Leo who is silent while his flacks deploy clouds of Bergoglian blather to cover their posteriors as they “squirm, worm, and slither within their swamp.”
Indeed, when a pope, or one who purports to be, is discovered in the act of dissembling, it is not merely a personal failing, or a private stumble in the moral dark. No, it is a cataclysm. I fear for the fledgling soul, barely past the threshold of belief, such a revelation is often a crushing blow. How can one trust in the divine, when its earthly shepherd proves himself a charlatan? The tender shoots of nascent faith, so carefully nurtured, are not merely bruised; they are torn from the very soil of conviction. The young believer, once perhaps drawn by the promise of steadfastness and truth, is left with a gaping wound where his faith once resided, a wound that festers with cynicism and doubt.
Nor are the faithful veterans immune, those seasoned followers who have weathered many a storm of doubt and celebrated countless triumphs of the spirit. For them, the lie from a leader is not a sudden, fatal strike, but rather a slow, insidious erosion. It is akin to a crack appearing in the very foundation of a grand cathedral they have long revered. Each falsehood, each twisting of the truth, however small, drips like acid upon the stone of their enduring faith, weakening its integrity, making them question the very edifice they have spent decades defending. The bedrock of their conviction, once seemingly unshakeable, begins to crumble, and with it, the quiet confidence that once sustained them. For if the very stewards of truth cannot be trusted, then what truth remains? It is a question that gnaws at the soul, a bitter fruit born of betrayal.
So let it be known, and let it be stated with the utmost clarity: the lie, from the mouth of a pope, is not a minor transgression. It is a betrayal of the highest order, an act that not only defiles the speaker but, far more grievously, wounds the very heart of the faithful, both old and new. It is a deed that, far from building the Kingdom, actively dismantles it, brick by painstaking brick.
Brilliant and even poetic analysis, Michael B. Thank you.
Alas , we find that a pope is merely a man after all. It’s like pulling back the curtain and finding the true wizard of Oz. Is it relief or disappointment? Are we so uncomfortable because he looks too much like us?
If Pope Leo XIV allows the war against the Vetus Ordo Mass to continue, then that would reveal a lot of very bad things about his turn as Pontiff.
“Matteo Bruni…said…the leaked information ‘presumably concerns part of one of the documents on which the decision [to restrict the Latin Mass] is based.’”
So we are led to believe that there were other documents—presumably with more compelling reasons to restrict the Latin Mass—which we are not privy to. Sure! So where are these other documents!?
Oh what a tangled web we weave– when first we begin to deceive!!
The irony of the whole matter is that the very people who decry the Church becoming more democratic are now
complaining that it not more so! 🤭
Oh what a tangled weave they will continue to weave; as we speak, The True Church Of Jesus The Christ is illuminating the darkness of the counterfeit magisterium, which cannot overcome The Way, The Truth, and The Light (Life) of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Incarnate, Our Savior, Jesus The Christ, although it will continue to do some serious damage , if this counterfeit magisterium is not charitably anathema for The Salvation of Souls. Division is not of The Holy Ghost, nor is the counterfeit magisterium of The Holy Ghost, as it serves to accommodate those who deny The Sanctity and Dignity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and The Sanctity and Dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Without the use of The Charitable Anathema, Instituted by Christ for The Salvation of Souls, this counterfeit magisterium will continue to deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, and is thus anti Filioque and anti Pope.
“You cannot be My Disciples if you do not Abide In My Word.” – The Charitable Anathema of Jesus The Christ.