Catholics Who Prefer Latin Mass Pin Hopes on a New Pope
About 140 people came to the Sweetest Heart of Mary church in Detroit for the Traditional Latin Mass at noon the Sunday after Easter. Incense and organ music wafted through the ornate sanctuary, built by Polish Catholics in the late 19th century. It was a beautiful sunny spring afternoon, and the lilacs by the rectory were in bloom.
In the pews, however, the mood was uncertain. It had been less than three weeks since the new archbishop of Detroit, Edward Weisenburger, told priests that he planned to drastically reduce the availability of the traditional Mass in the archdiocese starting this summer, following a 2021 edict from Pope Francis that cracked down on the rite worldwide. Backlash verging on panic followed in some quarters, with one critic calling it a “bloodbath.”
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The Traditional Latin Mass was once simply Mass, celebrated the same way by Catholics around the world for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The differences are subtle but important to those attuned to their meaning.
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Pope Francis referred to the old Mass as divisive, and some of his other comments stung traditionalists: his reference to large families who have children “like rabbits,” his comments to priests to stop wearing “grandma’s lace.”
The traditional Mass represents only a sliver of Catholic life. But it is growing in popularity in many dioceses across the country, and especially with young people, including young priests. The archdiocese of Detroit now has 28 parishes and chapels offering the traditional Mass, according to Alex Begin, who maintains a newsletter for local supporters. There are about 500 venues that offer it nationally, according to another unofficial list online.
That was the context in which Archbishop Weisenburger announced on April 8 in a large private meeting with Detroit priests that he planned to reduce the availability of the traditional Mass to four or five locations starting in July.
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In the pews at churches around the archdiocese on the Sunday after Easter, the mood was of wary waiting.
“People are very scared,” said Lauren Leyva, 33, the organist at St. Edward on the Lake, about an hour north of Detroit. She attends the traditional Mass with her family, including two young children.
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Father Acervo, like several other priests around the diocese who are poised to lose the traditional Mass in July, declined to speak to a reporter. In a letter to his congregation published in the parish bulletin, he made the stakes of the next conclave clear.
“This is a really pivotal time in the church’s history,” he wrote. “We need to pray for a holy pope. A saintly pope. Not a political pope. Rather, a pope who won’t compromise the faith in order to get along with the world. A pope who will teach the faith with clarity and not ambiguity.”
The point was clear to those who had ears to hear. Francis’ critics accused him of sowing confusion, issuing conflicting and even contradictory messages about matters like the church’s teaching on marriage.
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“It’s a personal assault to have this Mass taken away from me,” said Anna Graziosi, 79, the parish council president at Assumption Grotto on Detroit’s east side. Ms. Graziosi was in the pews at a traditional Mass at 7:30 a.m. last Monday morning with about 20 other people.
Ms. Graziosi’s family immigrated to Detroit from Italy when she was 5. She grew up with the Latin Mass, before the Second Vatican Council.
For her, the novus ordo, or new order, drained not just the sanctity of the rite but also her own attention to it. Following along in the prayer book, as the old Mass required, demanded prayerful focus.
The new Mass was designed in part to involve worshipers more, but Ms. Graziosi found her mind — and faith — wandering until she sought out the Latin Mass back at her childhood parish, Assumption Grotto.
She is praying for Pope Francis’ soul this week, as she prayed for him in life. “I hope for a merciful judgment,” she said.
