The future of US Catholicism and the return to the Council of Trent

 

The future of US Catholicism and the return to the Council of Trent

Massimo Faggioli

The SSPX's unauthorized July 1 ordinations have triggered schism and canonical consequences. But a separate, unfolding drama concerns the overlap between the SSPX and traditionalist voices still inside the Church. Cardinal Arthur Roche has confirmed Pope Leo XIV will not reverse Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 ruling restricting the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass — even as prominent US bishops publicly push back, pressing Rome to loosen its restrictions. Behind the retro-Catholic slogans lies a small but far from marginal movement: only 2% of US Catholics attend the Latin Mass weekly, yet its influence on Church direction far outweighs its numbers. The fight is also playing out through new-media pressure on Rome, a pattern that runs parallel — chronologically, at least — to the rise of political-religious messianism in American public life. The real question isn't whether Vatican II was a catastrophe, but whether American Catholic traditionalism understands its own tradition — one that starts not with a frozen past, but with the daring reforms of the Council of Trent.

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Live Zoom Panel: Analyzing the Impact and Reception of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ 

by America Staff August 4, 2026

Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of "Magnifica Humanitas" at the Vatican's Synod Hall May 25, 2026, the first encyclical of his papacy, which focuses on the rise of artificial intelligence. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)

Join America Media’s team of experts for an exclusive, subscriber-only event to examine the core issues, public response to and overall impact of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, ‘Magnifica Humanitas,’ nearly three months after its publishing.

Colleen Dulle will moderate a conversation with Fr. Sam Sawyer, S.J. and Fr. Thomas J. Massaro, S.J. about the document itself and its fundamental aspects, such as advancing Catholic social teaching and navigating the age of A.I., in addition to the conversations that have taken place as a result of the document’s publishing. 

At the end of the moderated discussion, there will be time for audience questions. Attendees will have the ability to submit questions in real time via the Zoom Q&A function.

We hope you can join us!

Date and Time:

• Wednesday, August 19th at 6:30pm ET 

Panelists:

• Fr. Sam Sawyer, S.J., America’s Editor in Chief and President
• Colleen Dulle, Vatican Correspondent and host of America’s “Inside the Vatican” podcast
• Fr. Thomas J. Massaro, S.J., Professor of Moral Theology and Laurence J. McGinley Chair in Religion and Society at Fordham University

Important:

Click here to register for the Zoom webinar. 

Click here to subscribe to America for only $6.99 to get access to this webinar, additional events of this nature and more in the future from the best team in Catholic journalism. 

Posted inFaith and Reason

Thomas Merton: Monk. Mystic. Existentialist?

by James Cecil August 4, 2026

Trappist Father Thomas Merton in an undated photo/“The Scream,” by Edvard Munch (1893) Credit: CNS photo/Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University/Wikimedia Illustration: America Media

…underlying all life is the ground of doubt and self-questioning which sooner or later must bring us face to face with the ultimate meaning of our life. This self-questioning can never be without a certain existential “dread”—a sense of insecurity, of “lostness,” of exile, of sin…. It is the profound awareness that one is capable of ultimate bad faith with himself and with others: that one is living a lie. 

How might Pope Leo change the conversation on women’s leadership in the Church?

‘They Don’t Want to Say Yes’

How might Pope Leo change the conversation on women’s leadership in the Church?

Phyllis Zagano

July 28, 2026

Pope Leo XIV

Women in the Church

Religion

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

Pope Leo XIV presents young women with gifts as he leads a meeting with young people and catechumens in Monaco (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media).

The Vatican recently released two important documents concerning the status of women in Church leadership. First, a letter by the president of Pope Francis’s Second Commission on women deacons came out on December 4, 2025, reporting its members’ divided-but-negative opinion regarding ordaining women to the diaconate. Then, Study Group 5’s Final Report, released on March 5, 2026, explored nonordained leadership roles for women. These questions are hardly settled. We can expect continued synodal discussion on the place and status of women in the Church, leading up to the Ecclesial Assembly scheduled to convene in Rome in October 2028. 

The liturgy wars are back. Spoiler: They never left.

 

The liturgy wars are back. Spoiler: They never left.

As prominent prelates clash over the traditional Latin Mass, Pope Leo XIV's response may reveal his deepest instincts about authority, unity and tradition.

•  

  Claire Giangravé
•  

  Religion News Service  ncr

Is Pope Leo a Democratic Socialist?

 

Opinion

Is Pope Leo a Democratic Socialist?

• Thomas Reese
• Religion News Service   ncr

Synodality requires engagement with LGBTQ Catholics — and not just the 'right' ones

 

August 5, 2026

Synodality requires engagement with LGBTQ Catholics — and not just the 'right' ones

Maxwell Kuzma  ncr

Posted inShort Take

How Catholics can resist Trump’s deportation campaign against Haitians

by MT Dávila August 3, 2026

A woman sings at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park, Md., on July 28, 2026, during a Mass of solidarity with the Haitian community and those impacted by changes to U.S. immigration policy and Temporary Protected Status. Credit: OSV News photo/Mihoko Owada, Catholic Standard

Christians and other people of faith are confronting a government campaign to deport migrants to their countries of origin (or, more violently, to third countries). Hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti and Syria this month lost their Temporary Protected Status and their right to work. 

Many Haitian and other T.P.S. recipients have not lived in their nation of birth in over a decade. A large number have children who are U.S. citizens and have shaped families that are part of the fabric of this country. Their hard work contributes to industries across the nation. The current moment challenges us to understand the lives migrants have built in the United States as well as the harm that may come to them if they are returned to countries still plagued by violence and instability.