Will Leo XIV Remove Restrictions on The Traditional Mass? A Cardinal Has Asked Him to Do So. This Is What He Said

(ZENIT News / Rome, June 30, 2025) – During the 60th anniversary of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, Cardinal Raymond Burke commented on June 14 on Pope Leo XIV’s position on the future of the Traditional Mass.

The U.S. Cardinal said: «I hope that Leo XIV will put an end to the current persecution of the faithful of the Church who wish to worship God according to the most ancient use of the Roman Rite, a persecution from within the Church. I had occasion to express this to the Holy Father. I hope that, as soon as possible, he will take up the study of this question and try to restore the situation as it was after Summorum Pontificum and even develop what Pope Benedict XVI legislated so wisely and lovingly for the Church.»

Cardinal Burke regularly celebrates the Traditional Mass and annually offers Ordinations with the Traditional Rite for Priestly Fraternities that follow it. Pope Francis imposed strict measures against following the old Rite in the 2021 document Traditionis Custodes, which the Bishops implemented in their dioceses. The Cardinal called the Traditionis Custodes document «a severe and revolutionary action of the Holy Father.» He commented earlier that year: «Because of the confusion about Traditionis Custodes — the document itself is problematic from the standpoint of Canon Law and also the theological reality of the Sacred Liturgy — some Bishops, therefore, believe that they should severely restrict the possibilities for offering Mass according to the Usus Antiquior.»

Following the Second Vatican Council, important reforms were introduced into the Liturgy, culminating in the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae by Pope Paul VI in 1969. This new Mass, celebrated in the vernacular, replaced the Traditional Latin Mass, although the older Rite was not prohibited. In 1984, Pope John Paul II issued Quattuor Abhinc Annos, easing the restrictions, and in 1988 Ecclesia Dei allowed the wider use of the ancient form. Pope Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum in 2007, affirming that the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated and allowing any priest to celebrate it privately or publicly without the Bishop’s permission.

Pope Francis’s Traditionis Custodes revoked Summorum Pontificum and reaffirmed the authority of Bishops to regulate the Latin Mass. Later Vatican directives toughened the restrictions, requiring Vatican approval for new communities to celebrate the Latin Mass and halting its celebration in parish churches.

Pope Leo has not officially lifted the restrictions imposed by his Predecessor, although he does signal a more tolerant attitude toward the Old Rite. This is true, if one interprets his address to the Eastern Catholic Bishops on May 14: «The Church needs you. The contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense! We have a great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the whole human person, that sing of the beauty of salvation and awaken a sense of wonder at how the Majesty of God embraces our human frailty.»

Observers have seen this benevolent reference to the Eastern Liturgy as an indication of restoring older expressions in the Roman Rite as well.

There are reports of his service as Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, where he oversaw the application of Summorum Pontificum in his diocese, and there is no record of him restricting the Traditional Latin Mass.