The leak could be strategic: For years, only the very negative feedback from the French Bishops' Conference on the survey by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the “Old Mass” was known - completely in line with Francis. Now that a new pope is in office, who has repeatedly revived traditions abandoned by his predecessor - from the Corpus Christi procession and the handing over of the pallia to new archbishops to the traditional vacation spot - a new picture is being painted.
Francis had justified his restriction of the “Old Mass” with the results of the survey he commissioned. If the official summary of the results now published by Vatican journalist Diane Montagna is genuine, he has emphasized the negative in a one-sided way: most bishops do not seem to have found fault with Benedict's liberalization. Even the German Bishops' Conference, which is not suspected of traditionalism, is said to have spoken out in favor of maintaining the coexistence of the ordinary (post-conciliar) and extraordinary (pre-conciliar) forms. The leak at a favorable time could therefore now either prepare or attempt to promote a new change to the liturgical status quo by Pope Leo XIV, depending on its origin.
Would it be so bad to correct Francis' reform, for example by going back to the rules of Benedict XVI? Almost exactly four years ago, the motu proprio Traditionis custodes was published, with which Francis turned the friends of the Old Mass against him. After these four years, the effects are becoming apparent: The hope expressed by the Pope at the time that conflicts would be pacified has not been fulfilled. The fronts have hardened - not least due to the detailed and petty implementation regulations from the liturgical dicastery: Rome has even regulated whether Old Masses may appear in parish newsletters. And the fact that a ban from parish churches does not reduce divisions should have been recognized from the outset.
Today it is clear: Traditionis custodes has failed, and not the pastorally clever solution of Summorum Pontificum - and in view of the feedback from back then, this could have been known beforehand. Fear of liturgical variants is unfounded. What divides is not diversity, but exclusion. In fact, the one Roman rite propagated by Francis already has many different forms: the old variants of the Milanese and Mozarabic rites stand alongside the new, inculturated forms of Mass in the Congo, Australia and Mexico. Liturgical diversity enriches the church. Old and new liturgy can mutually enrich each other. The leak could now be the impetus for Pope Leo XIV, who is open to tradition, to make a new attempt at liturgical peace. [source]
