Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has granted a parish in Texas an exemption from restrictions to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) imposed by Pope Francis’ encyclical Traditionis Custodes.
The exemption, requested by Bishop Michael Sis on Feb. 6, was granted to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas.
No other such exemption by Pope Leo XIV has been reported since the start of his pontificate.
“The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments informed me in a decree of May 28, 2025, that my request has been granted for a further two years for a dispensation from article 3§2 of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, so that Mass according to the ‘Missale Romanum’ of 1962 may be celebrated in the parish church of St. Margaret of Scotland in San Angelo,” Sis, who previously served as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, said in a statement he shared with CNA.
“Just as before,” he added, “the granting of this dispensation is based upon an ongoing effort to promote the full appreciation and acceptance of the liturgical books renewed by decree of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by popes St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II.”
Sis noted further that when he submitted his request for the extension to the Vatican, he did so “with a spirit of total openness to whatever is the will of God.”
He continued: “I trust the judgment of our Holy Father Pope Leo and those who assist him in his ministry of unity through the various dicasteries of the Holy See.”
The exemption was originally announced in a June 27 social media post by the diocese’s director of vocations, Father Ryan Rojo.
I’m grateful to @Pontifex and to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments for allowing the TLM to continue to exist in our parish church, extending permission for another two years. We look forward to shepherding them to heaven with love and care. pic.twitter.com/NBKUU0TRY4
— Fr. Ryan Rojo 🇺🇸🇻🇦🇲🇽 (@FrRyanRojo) June 27, 2025
“I’m grateful to @Pontifex and to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments for allowing the TLM to continue to exist in our parish church, extending permission for another two years,” Rojo wrote in the June 27 post.
St. Margaret’s pastor, Father Freddy Perez, told CNA: “Now that we have the permission, the attitude is one of relief; I saw a lot of relief this past weekend.” Although the Vatican’s approval was dated May 28, Perez said he did not receive notification of the approval from his bishop until last week.
Perez revealed that the letter from the Vatican praised St. Margaret’s for the steps it took to follow the Holy Father’s motu proprio. The Vatican “commended our efforts and our ‘pastoral concern to instill a clear appreciation for the Church as unique, lex orandi,’” Perez told CNA, adding: “That’s a direct quote from the letter we were sent.”
Though the pastor noted some negativity from parishioners about having to ask permission to celebrate the TLM, his approach is to explain that “this is where the Church is right now, and is where we have to be obedient.”
Beyond the two-year extension, Perez said, “my hopes are just to continue to bring a positive experience of the liturgy to all of my people, to try to bring them into the Gospel, into the teachings of the Church, as we’re taught, and to try to teach them that the Mass gets us ready for heaven.”
Though the parish experienced uncertainty over whether it would be allowed to continue celebrating the TLM, Perez said the advice of Auxiliary Bishop Mario Avilés helped guide him. “The advice he gave me was very simple,” the pastor recalled. “He said: ‘Just be obedient, son.”
“And I think just putting my eyes on the Lord has satisfied everything that I wouldn’t be able to do through my own spirit of protest or my spirit of just being angry about not getting my way, by conforming my will to the will of Our Lord,” Perez reflected. “We’re in this world temporarily, and at the end of the day, we are asked to be faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy mother Church.”
According to Perez, St. Margaret’s has been offering the TLM for just over five years, currently on Sunday afternoons and Thursday mornings.
The TLM community, he said, consists mostly of young families as well as curious people who are interested in experiencing the liturgy. The small parish consists of about 200 families, he said, noting that attendance at the TLM is usually on the larger side for the parish, with about 140 to 200 people each week.
News of St. Margaret’s exemption comes after the Archdiocese of Detroit announced earlier this month that non-parish churches in the archdiocese will be allowed to continue celebrating the TLM despite an earlier statement saying that most of the TLM celebrated in the area would be suspended.
The archdiocese reported that permissions given to parish church priests to carry out the TLM would expire and they could not be renewed, but Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said he would recognize at least four non-parish locations in the archdiocese where the TLM could still be celebrated.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a champion of the traditional liturgy, has said he asked Pope Leo to remove measures restricting the celebration of TLM, stating at a conference in London recently: “It is my hope that he will, as soon as is reasonably possible, take up the study of this question.”
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Though I attend primarily the Novo Ordo Mass (and the TLM only occasionally, i.e., when the opportunity arises), I would dare to say that what we as a Church need is a prompt reversal of all restrictions to the TLM. This is part and parcel of any serious and true work for the UNITY of the Church based on the motto of Unity in Diversity.
Thank you. That’s true. The Church does have unity in diversity. How many rites and liturgies do we have? Quite a few.
Agreed.It is appalling that the Latin Mass is at all discouraged, let alone forbidden.
Thank you St. Margaret of Scotland for your intercession. 🙏 🏴
“[T]he granting of this dispensation is based upon an ongoing effort to promote the full appreciation and acceptance of the liturgical books renewed by decree of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by popes St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II.” This is exactly why the SSPX remains the only viable solution. The whole point of Traditionis Custodes is to force Catholics the accept something that is false, namely that the Mass of Pope Paul VI has been good for the faithful and that it constitutes a reform and renewal of the liturgy.
Catherine,
I agree. Have you read Diane Montagna’s reporting about the survey upon which Traditionis Custodes based its claims? Diane presents evidence to the contrary. See today’s Extra, Extra News and Views, first article in the list.
That two year extension should be the limit. After two years, strictly novus ordo. It’s well past time for the Church to decommission the preconciliar Mass. TLM Protestants can defect to the SSPX, as one commenter above has said. You either obey or you don’t.
The Church also needs to celebrate the novus ordo much better than it does. I daresay the implementation of the novus ordo has been inept. Correct the abuses, improve the quality, celebrate the novus ordo properly, and then decomission the TLM once and for all.
“TLM Protestants can defect to the SSPX.”
Thank you Robert for clearly stating the ideological agenda of the bully, Franciscus.
“Have all these changes served the renewal and vivification of faith? The opposite is the case. Vocations to the priesthood, as well as conversions, have greatly decreased, and the attendance of Catholics at Mass has greatly fallen off. The New Ordo Missae and most especially the reform of the liturgy of feasts and of the whole liturgical year, is so colorless, inorganic, and artificial, that it will not be able to last long.” – Dietrich Von Hildebrand, The Devastated Vineyard (1973) p. 73. Hildebrand could not have predicted people like you, who are blind to all evidence of the drastic failure of the Novus Ordo. But already, the trends that have continued unabated to the present day were clearly visible only a few years after the imposition of the new Mass.
“It’s well past time for the Church to decommission the preconciliar Mass.”
Why, exactly?
Two years is a long time. Plenty of time for these people to prepare for the inevitable.
I’m really puzzled why it should be of any concern to folks who don’t attend the TLM in the first place?
Not to pick on anyone in particular but our society seems to encourage “Karens” and not just in homeowner associations. Surely we each have enough to be concerned about in our own lives and parishes?
Let’s hope and pray that some Midwestern pragmatism seeps its way back into Rome.
Saving souls.
If I were to attend a Spanish-language Mass in any of the THOUSANDS of parishes throughout the USA or attend Mass in any of the hundreds of non-English speaking countries across the globe, I WOULD UNDERSTAND NOT ONE WORD OF WHAT’S BEING SAID! Now, that’s real unity for you.
I wonder how many of the TLM people actually understand what is being said! During pre Vatican II masses many devout would be saying the rosary!
Mass for care of the climate in. TLM out. Pacamama must be pleased.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/praying-world-halts-climate-change-theres-now-catholic-mass-that-2025-07-03/
For those seeking Sacred Tradition and the peace of Christ, find a reverent Mass: https://reverentcatholicmass.com/map
Us traddies should strive mightily to avoid ‘sterile polemic’, but we must never let go of the fundamental truth: the Novus Ordo is a disastrous mistake, and the Church cannot recover till she recovers her authentic liturgy.