By 
Thirty-four dioceses received Vatican permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in parish churches in 2025, matching the 2024 total and remaining broadly consistent with previous years despite the election of a new pope. The United States accounted for 24 of the 34 decrees issued.
Pope Francis restricted the use of the 1962 Roman Missal with the 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. Under subsequent Vatican regulations, diocesan bishops must obtain permission from the Holy See to authorize celebrations according to that missal in parish churches.
The 2025 figure was also close to the 35 dioceses and other ecclesiastical jurisdictions that received permission in 2022, the first full year after Traditionis Custodes took effect. The number rose to 55 in 2023 before returning to 34 in each of the following two years.
The figures appear in the Summarium Decretorum for 2025, the annual summary of decrees issued by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The document shows that permission was granted during 2025 for celebrations according to the 1962 Roman Missal in parishes located in 34 dioceses around the world.
Seven of the decrees were issued during the pontificate of Francis, who died April 21, 2025, at the age of 88. The other 27 were issued after the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, indicating continuity in the Vatican’s case-by-case handling of requests during the change of pontificates.
The vast majority — 29 of the 34 published decrees — renewed existing permissions for an additional two years for communities already celebrating the liturgy according to the 1962 missal promulgated by St. John XXIII. In several cases, a single authorization covered more than one parish in the same diocese.
United States received most permissions
The U.S. decrees included permissions for Traditional Latin Mass celebrations in the dioceses of Sacramento, California; Nashville, Tennessee; Lincoln, Nebraska; Davenport, Iowa; and Cleveland, as well as the Archdiocese of Seattle.
According to the Summarium Decretorum for 2022, the Holy See that year granted permissions to 35 dioceses and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, 20 of them in the United States, making the country the leading recipient of such concessions.
The Traditional Latin Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, traces its form to the liturgy codified by St. Pius V following the Council of Trent. The reform was set out in the Roman Missal of 1570 in response to the council’s call to unify the various liturgical uses then in existence.
The missal currently used for these celebrations is based on that promulgated by St. Pius V but was revised by St. John XXIII in 1962.
One of the form’s most distinctive characteristics is that the priest generally celebrates “ad orientem” — facing liturgical east rather than the congregation — as he leads the faithful in common prayer.
The permissions granted across the two pontificates in 2025 show that the Holy See continued to consider requests individually under the restrictions established during Francis’ pontificate.
The annual Summarium Decretorum is one of the few official sources indicating how the provisions of Traditionis Custodes are applied in practice.
The decree indexes published from 2022 through 2025 also document the Holy See’s broader work regulating the liturgy. The records include approvals of translations of liturgical books, confirmations of calendars particular to dioceses and religious congregations, grants of the title of minor basilica, canonical coronations of Marian images, and recognitions of new heavenly patrons.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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No priest needs permission to say the traditional version of the Roman rite and thereby avoid the appallingly bad doctrinal expression of the Novus Ordo. The Church needs to fix its liturgical mess.
The Ordinary form of the Mass is a beautiful expression of the Church’s doctrine. Those that prefer another are well provided for as the article details.
What is the one thing that people in power have done to control outliers? Restrict access. For centuries Europe restricted the access to housing and worship for Jewish people. In the thirties, dictators used the same tactics, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini. In our time, the Arab Spring movement incited rioting to control Christians and restrict their access to places of worship. There is the current situation in Africa of Islamist killing Christians. Our own government used the alleged Covid pandemic to restrict our access to Facebook(jail), we saw FBI Twitter agents acting as censors, our schools and churches were closed, while the government allowed unrestricted access to box stores and celebrity funerals. In all of these circumstances, reasons were given…Is this story even valid considering there are 70+ million Catholics in America, and it touts the mere handful of traditional places to worship as an accomplishment?
I remember the Latin Mass before the reforms of Vatican II. I use the word “reforms” specifically for the reason that the reforms embraced the mass being celebrated WITH and FOR the people. To have the priests back facing the congregation as he conducts the Mass says to me “you are not important. The priest is the only one allowed to participate “. I understand that some people want the Latin Mass restored. I just hope it doesn’t set us back to the days of pre-Vatican II where the people could not truly participate in the Mass. Latin might be the universal language of the church. But it is not something that most people would embrace as it harkens back to the days of old where the priest spoke in Latin and the majority of the congregation could not understand a word of it. The reforms of Vatican II have helped many of us understand the celebration of the Mass and feel included with it. Breaking down the barriers of not being allowed to”close” to God. That was reserved for the priests. I would argue that the people that have been encouraged to develop a relationship with Jesus – have had their faith transformed. I know I have. Please don’t shutter us back to the days of Latin, the priest celebrating the Mass with his back to the people. The swing away from face to face confessions back to the days when we would be hidden from the priest as though we were shameful and not worthy of Christ’s love and mercy. I shudder at the thought of going backwards to a time of fear and alienation.
Thank you Marianne. You express my feelings more eloquently than I can. May the Peace of Christ be with you!
Holy mysticism is missing in today’s mass. Rush, rush rush.
I agree totally!
Marrion you have it all wrong. The priest, like a good General marching into war, leads the people to God. He faces God. Generals who stop in the middle of the road and turn around to face the soldiers stop the march to God, and set their men up for slaughter. And that’s exactly what happened in the church when the priests stop leading their flock to God! The Flock got slaughtered over 80% do not believe in the Real Presence, and Priests dropped from 100,000 to 35,0000, nuns dried up, attendance from 75% to 10% to near zero. We were slaughtered by the Novus Ordo. It is a Man oriented faith, no longer the God Oriented Faith.
This is how Vatican II changed the Mass:
The Various Prayers Exorcised in the 1960’s:
• The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar: Removed is Psalm 42 and the various prayers said by the priest and the servers expressing their own unworthiness to enter the sanctuary and calling on God for mercy.
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• The Confiteor: The Confiteor (i.e., “I Confess”) has been completely reworded and watered down. No longer do we call on St. Michael the Archangel, St. John the Baptist, or the holy Apostles Saints Peter and Paul as our witnesses.
• The Introit: The introit is entirely optional in the Novus Ordo and rarely ever said.
• The readings:
THE LAST GOSPEL IS GONE FROM THE READINGS. The entire system of readings was radically deleted and replaced with a 3-year lectionary that often displaces the common of saints for readings from the temporal cycle AND REMOVES KEY VERSES THAT MODERN CHURCHMEN HAVE FOUND CONTROVERSIAL.
•
• ONE KEY EXAMPLE is 1 Corinthians 11:27 where St. Paul admonishes against unworthy Communions. This verse was repeated three times in the one-year cycle of readings at the Tridentine Mass, including on Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi – in addition to any Thursday Votive Masses in Honor of the Blessed Sacrament. In the Novus Ordo it is found not once. As a result, while there are still readings in the Novus Ordo, they are not the same as the Tridentine Mass for the vast majority of days.[3]
•
• THE OFFERTORY: THE OFFERTORY WAS COMPLETELY AND ENTIRELY DELETED AND REPLACED IN THE NOVUS ORDO BY TWO JEWISH MEAL BLESSINGS.
• The THEOLOGY OF THE OFFERTORY IN THE TRIDENTINE MASS IS ENTIRELY MISSING from the Novus Ordo in a radical departure from how the Mass has always been said.
•
• The Canon: The Roman Canon is the most sacred part of the Liturgy and has only been changed over time extremely gradually. Already in the very early Church the Canon was virtually set, and only small changes were made in the subsequent centuries, like the addition of Diesque nostros in tua pace disponas (“And mayst thou dispose our days in thy peace”) by Pope St. Gregory the Great, who reigned 590 – 604 AD. It has remained largely untouched since then.
The Novus Ordo permits several different Canons, which is a radical innovation.
According to The Ottaviani Intervention by Cardinal Ottaviani in his critique of Vatican II, concerning these other canons: “In the Eucharistic Prayers, moreover, the repeated petitions to God that He accept the Sacrifice have also been suppressed; thus, there is no longer any clear distinction between Divine and human sacrifice.”
Father Cassian Folsom, O.S.B also said: “This is a radical change in the Roman liturgy. Why aren’t more people aware of the enormity of this change? Perhaps since the canon used to be said silently, its contents and merits were known to priests, to be sure, but not to most of the laity. Hence when the Eucharistic Prayer began to be said aloud in the vernacular, with four to choose from — and the Roman canon chosen rarely, if ever — the average layman did not realize that 1600 years of tradition had suddenly vanished like a lost civilization, leaving few traces behind, and those of interest only to archaeologists and tourists.”
• The Communion: The prayers for Holy Communion have changed as well.
It was Martin Luther who desired that the priest and the people’s Communion should be united rather than the priest receive and then the people receive after another set of prayers are offered. And sadly, his error confusing the sacerdotal office of the priest and that of the people assisting at the Sacrifice has been codified in the Novus Ordo. This change, along with the allowance of Communion in the hand and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, has led to widespread apostasy and blasphemy. Yet sadly, in the Novus Ordo the words of St. Paul against unworthy Communions are no longer repeated. And the people are as sheep without a shepherd to guide them.
• THE LAST GOSPEL: REMOVED FROM THE MISSAL, THE LAST GOSPEL IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE NOVUS ORDO. Taken usually from the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John, it is said at nearly every Tridentine Mass. In the Novus Ordo, the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel is recited only once in the entire year.
• The Leonine Prayers: Gone are the Leonine Prayers, which are needed more than ever for the Consecration of Russia.
For a detailed section-by-section comparison of the Novus Ordo and the Tridentine Mass, please click here.[4]
Consequently, the fight for the Tridentine Mass is about far more than just the sacred language of Latin.”
https://fatima.org/news-views/catholic-apologetics-160/
To avoid death by these punishments from God heatwave wildfires floods tornadoes lightnings hailstorm strong earthquakes more mag 7 earthquake tsunami volcano meteor in Italy in Europe in North and South America Pope Leo and non-Muslims to convert to islam immediately September 16,2026 and to avoid hell if the end of the world September 2026 Return of Jesus Imam Mahdi Antichrist lies in Islam.
More of the horrors of VII: the priest turning his back to the East to face the people, and the Destruction of the Beautiful Altars to be replaced by tables.
—THE PRIEST TURNING HIS BACK TO THE EAST AND NOW FACING THE AUDIENCE INSTEAD OF THE EAST, A VERY 60’S SHIFT TO ME, ME, ME FROM THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS TO GOD
• TRIDENTINE MASS: Ad orientem (“toward the east”) — priest and congregation face the same direction (TRADITIONALLY EAST, TOWARD THE RISING SUN AS A SYMBOL OF CHRIST). THE PRIEST HAS HIS BACK TO THE PEOPLE.
• NOVU ORDO MASS: Versus populum (“toward the people”) — PRIEST FACES THE CONGREGATION directly.
The physical distinction describes The theological framing — that versus populum shifts emphasis FROM THE SACRIFICE OFFERED TO GOD TOWARD A HUMAN-CENTERED, COMMUNAL GATHERING. A VERY 60’S SHIFT TO focusing on “ME, ME, ME,” INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON GOD.
—THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BEAUTIFUL ALTARS:
historical accounts describe the phenomenon as a “WIDESPREAD ABANDONMENT” AND A “VERITABLE ORGY OF ALTAR SMASHING,” with critics noting that “tens of thousands” of beautiful sanctuaries were altered or destroyed worldwide.
• Scope: The destruction affected “countless” churches and cathedrals, ranging from small rural parishes to major urban centers, with the U.S. and Europe being particularly significant sites of this “iconoclasm.”
•
• Terminology: THIS MASS DESTRUCTION OF BEAUTIFUL HIGH ALTARS AND REPLACEMENT WITH FREESTANDING “BUTCHER BLOCK” OR WOODEN TABLES is often pejoratively referred to as “Wreckovation” or “altar-bashing.”