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Ronald Reagan was 73 years old when he ran for re-election in 1984. In a debate against his Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, Mr. Reagan appeared visibly tired and confused, leading to speculation that he was too old to be an effective president. When queried about that possibility at a second debate two weeks later, a famous quip silenced his critics and effectively ended Mr. Mondale’s chances for an upset.
In a recent letter publicly released today, Pope Leo XIV said that anyone involved in preparing liturgies, especially priests, must show “respect” for the liturgical rites of the Second Vatican Council.
The letter, addressed to Cardinal Arthur Roche, the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office and dated June 29, is the latest in a series of strong signals Pope Leo has sent indicating he does not plan to reverse Pope Francis’ restrictions on the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass.
“In order to promote the dignified celebration of the sacred mysteries, we must emphasize the need for fidelity to the approved texts and instructions,” the pope wrote. He added that in his recent series of catecheses on Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “I have called attention to the respect that all those called to prepare the celebration of the divine mysteries, and priests in particular, must show toward the rites promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II.”
The pope sent the letter on the occasion of a liturgical formation conference that Cardinal Roche’s dicastery is hosting Aug. 14-19 at Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Ore.
In the letter, the pope sent his greetings to the conference and reflected on liturgical formation, drawing exclusively from Pope Francis’ and his own writings. In particular, he cited at length the 2022 letter “Desiderio Desideravi,” in which Francis wrote about liturgical unity and defended his restrictions on the pre-Vatican II Mass one year after imposing them.
Quoting Francis, Pope Leo wrote that liturgical formation is not only for experts, but for “all the People of God” and that priests are called to be “mystagogues, that is, to take the faithful by the hand and accompany them in their knowledge of the holy mysteries.” Every Sunday Mass, Leo wrote, is a practical opportunity for liturgical formation.
He underscored the importance of lay participation in the Mass—a key focus of Vatican II’s liturgical reforms—as a primary way for people to be “formed both for the liturgy and by the liturgy” and particularly in the “ars celebrandi”—the art of celebrating the liturgy—that, he writes, “is expressed not only by the celebrant of the liturgy, but also by the entire assembly.”
He concluded with the explicit call for respect for the post-Vatican II liturgical rites promulgated by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II.
The letter was sent to Cardinal Roche exactly one month before an interview with the cardinal was published in The Tablet, in which the cardinal said, “Pope Leo is not going to change ‘Traditionis Custodes’”—Francis’ apostolic letter restricting the pre-Vatican II Mass—“and he’s not going back to ‘Summorum Pontificum’”—Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter making the pre-Vatican II Mass more widely available.
Pope Leo’s letter to the cardinal is the latest in a series of moves he has made this summer to affirm the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In addition to the series of Wednesday catecheses on the documents of Vatican II alluded to in his letter, Pope Leo also sent a message this week to the 70th-anniversary assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a coalition of orders of women religious who largely embraced Vatican II’s reforms, asking them to share their expertise in synodality, which is widely seen as a further implementation of Vatican II’s ecclesiology.
The letter also comes after the high-profile excommunication of the Society of St. Pius X, which was founded after the council in defiance of its reforms and exclusively celebrates the pre-Vatican II liturgy. The excommunication sparked a flurry of discussions in the Catholic media of whether Pope Leo could roll back Francis’ restrictions on the old rite.
Ryan P. Burge opens his new book, The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us, with a story that may feel all too familiar: The small Baptist congregation where he was serving as pastor was aging rapidly, and he began to ask himself when they were going to have to close. More hauntingly, he began to ask where he would go when they did—or if he would even return to church.
