Only the Laity Are Able to Present the Traditional World to Pope Leo

Only the Laity Are Able to Present the Traditional World to Pope Leo; and What We Ask Is the Traditional Liturgy in Every Parish

The following two letters (no. 1307 and no. 1354) from Paix Liturgique were published on November 20, 2025 and April 9, 2026. It is well worth giving them wider diffusion, especially in light of the outrageous proposal of the abbot of Solesmes. —PAK

Cardinal Sarah in interview: I have spoken to the Pope about the Traditional Mass, he is aware, he is the Father of all.

Cardinal Sarah granted an interview to Tribune Chrétienne from his home in Rome (video, in French, at the end). In it, he had important words regarding a matter close to his heart, the Traditional Latin Mass, and the traditionalist faithful:

[Interviewer:] In Saint-Anne d'Auray, you reminded us that man is great when he is on his knees. A man is great when he is on his knees. So, we know your attachment to traditional liturgy. You recently said that you hoped that the motu proprio Traditionis custodes might be amended. Today, well, there is nothing really new. What do you expect from the new pope with regard to this motu proprio, which has been particularly painful in France, due to the sometimes very clumsy application of this motu proprio by certain bishops? Do you hope that it will be modified at least, or withdrawn?

Cardinal Sarah: A Church that Claims a Reversal of Her Liturgy is a Church with no Credibility

Cardinal Robert Sarah

Le Figaro

August 13, 2021

[Main excerpts:]

Doubt has taken hold of Western thought. Intellectuals and politicians alike describe the same impression of collapse. Faced with the breakdown of solidarity and the disintegration of identities, some turn to the Catholic Church. ...  But is the Church capable of responding to these calls? Certainly, she has already played this role of guardian and transmitter of civilization. ...

[Cardinal Sarah at the Abbey of Saint Mary of Lagrasse]

Without a sacred foundation, every bond becomes fragile and fickle. Some ask the Catholic Church to play this solid foundation role. They would like to see her assume a social function, namely to be a coherent system of values, a cultural and aesthetic matrix. But the Church has no other sacred reality to offer than her faith in Jesus, God made man. Her sole goal is to make possible the encounter of men with the person of Jesus. Moral and dogmatic teaching, as well as mystical and liturgical patrimony, are the setting and the means of this fundamental and sacred encounter. Christian civilization is born of this encounter. Beauty and culture are its fruits. ...

 

What is sacred for the Church, then, is the unbroken chain that links her with certainty to Jesus. A chain of faith without rupture or contradiction, a chain of prayer and liturgy without breakage or disavowal. Without this radical continuity, what credibility could the Church still claim? ... 

Coronavirus Crisis - URGENT APPEAL OF PASTORS FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD: to Catholics and all people of good will

APPEAL

FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD

to Catholics and all people of good will

“Veritas liberabit vos.” (“The truth will set you free.”)

John 8:32

    In this time of great crisis, we Pastors of the Catholic Church, by virtue of our mandate, consider it our sacred duty to make an Appeal to our Brothers in the Episcopate, to the Clergy, to Religious, to the holy People of God and to all men and women of good will. This Appeal has also been undersigned by intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, journalists and professionals who agree with its content, and may be undersigned by those who wish to make it their own.

    The facts have shown that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens have in many cases been violated and their fundamental freedoms, including the exercise of freedom of worship, expression and movement, have been disproportionately and unjustifiably restricted. Public health must not, and cannot, become an alibi for infringing on the rights of millions of people around the world, let alone for depriving the civil authority of its duty to act wisely for the common good. This is particularly true as growing doubts emerge from several quarters about the actual contagiousness, danger and resistance of the virus. Many authoritative voices in the world of science and medicine confirm that the media’s alarmism about Covid-19 appears to be absolutely unjustified.

    We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control.

Coronavirus: Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship on provisions for Holy Week and Easter

The Decree below is obviously applicable to the New Mass (1970 Missal).

However, many provisions are simple matters of common sense, perfectly valid and applicable to the Traditional Latin Mass.

For the record of current events:

***

DECREE

In time of Covid-19 (II)

Anno Domini MMXX - Notes for the Year: Benedict XVI Speaks Up in Defense of Priestly Celibacy - Could this be why Amazon Synod document is late?

Wasn't the final papal document (post-synodal exhortation) of the Amazon Synod supposed to be released before Christmas 2019? And yet, nothing came out. Could it be a last-minute intervention regarding one of the pet projects of the Francis pontificate, the ordinary ordination of married men in the Amazon region?

One can suspect this with the upcoming publication of a Book jointly written by Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah. A scoop revealed by Jean-Marie Guenois, of conservative French daily Le Figaro, as we note below in excerpts from the Associated Press report (book excerpts in bold):

Pope Benedict XVI breaks silence to reaffirm priest celibacy

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence to reaffirm the value of priestly celibacy, co-authoring a bombshell book at the precise moment that Pope Francis is weighing whether to allow married men to be ordained to address the Catholic priest shortage.

Benedict wrote the book, “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church,” along with his fellow conservative, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office and has been a quiet critic of Francis.

Guest article — The Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy: Reform or revolution?

Rorate is happy to make available an English translation of a lecture given in Vienna by Wolfram Schrems on April 2, 2017, at the launch of the German edition of Peter Kwasniewski's Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis. Schrems is a theologian, philosopher, catechist and pro-life activist and a signatory of the Filial Correction. The text below is a thoroughly revised version of the original presentation (a video of which may be found here). The author would like to thank Mr. Stuart Chessman of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny for the translation into English.

The Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy: Reform or Revolution? 

Wolfram Schrems

Vienna, April 2, 2017

Reverend Fathers, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Dearest Friends,

Guest Op-Ed: Remaining faithful to Christ

By Veronica A. Arntz

Highlights from Cardinal Sarah and Fr. Thomas Weinandy

This past week, there were two announcements about pieces of literature that left the liberals quaking (and complaining loudly). The first is a preface, written by Cardinal Robert Sarah, for a new book on Communion, who called for a return to receiving Communion on the tongue while kneeling, rather than in the hands while standing. While many readers of this blog already follow this request, we should rejoice at this call for greater reverence.

The second is an address, which was given by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, whose open letter to Pope Francis critiquing Amoris Laetita caused him to lose his position at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This address, given at the University of Notre Dame in Australia, questioned whether the current papacy is properly following the four marks of the Church.

Looking at highlights from these two addresses will be a good reminder for us that Christ is the Head of His Church, and all of us within the Church owe Him our complete and utter obedience: as St. Paul writes in the letter to the Colossians, “He is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (Col 1:18, RSV2CE).

Francis v. Sarah

Responses and comments -- or not -- by a pope are rarely accidental.  When four cardinals asked Pope Francis to clarify the pro-divorce language in Amoris Laetitia the questions have been ignored for so long that half of the cardinals have since died. The remaining two still look forward to an answer.

Yet when Francis has a mission, anything (or anyone) standing in its way gets dealt with by the most humble, charitable and non-judgmental pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

The most recent example is Magnum Principium, his motu proprio to toss translations of the novus ordo into the hands of bishops conferences instead of under the authority of the Apostolic See. Apparently "and with your spirit" is too difficult for the average Catholic to comprehend, and "in order that the renewal of the whole liturgical life might continue" translations of the novus ordo will vary country to country, without concern someone at the Vatican could veto "and also with you" as an English translation of "et cum spiritu tuo". Back to the 1970s goeth the novus ordo.

A common calendar and lectionary for the Novus Ordo and TLM?

A committee already tried, and failed: 

Cardinal Sarah's La Nef article marking the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum has awakened the debate over the possibility (and desirability) of a "common rite" derived from the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo. (Dr. Joseph Shaw has responded to the cardinal's proposals on this blog.) One of Cardinal Sarah's main proposals is that of common calendar and lectionary for the TLM and the NOM. The proposal does not come out of the blue; versions of it have been floated by some proponents of the reform of the reform since the 1990's. Furthermore, from 1991 to 2007 the use of the Novus Ordo lectionary was theoretically permitted in celebrations of the 1962 Missal, and was actually imposed on such celebrations in a handful of dioceses.

Right after the article came out, the Claretian liturgist Fr. Matías Augé -- an old liberal but very well-informed -- noted on his blog that a common calendar and lectionary was already attempted in the previous pontificate:

A reply to Cardinal Sarah on 'liturgical reconciliation'

It seems that the most trad-friendly Prelates of the Church actually want the Traditional Mass to disappear. Thus, Cardinal Burke said in 2011:

It seems to me that is what he [Pope Benedict] has in mind is that this mutual enrichment would seem to naturally produce a new form of the Roman rite – the 'reform of the reform,' if we may – all of which I would welcome and look forward to its advent.

Cardinal Sarah has now said the same thing.

It is a priority that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can examine through prayer and study, how to return to a common reformed rite always with this goal of a reconciliation inside the Church.

Cardinal Sarah's concrete suggestions point to an intermediate state, in which the two 'Forms' have converged somewhat. I have addressed these suggestions in a post on the Catholic Herald blog here. Notably, the Novus Ordo Lectionary cannot be simply be inserted into the Vetus Ordo Missal, because it reflects a liturgical vision which is completely different from that of the ancient Mass: which is why all the other changes were made at the same time. A compromise between these two two understandings of what the liturgy is for and how it should work will not produce a perfect synthesis, but a muddle.

IMPORTANT: Congregation for Divine Worship membership overhauled. Cardinals Burke, Pell, Ranjith out, Piero Marini in. (Updated)

Today's Vatican Bollettino announced the appointment of 27 prelates as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), a major overhaul that obviously has a direct impact on the policies and overall directions of the CDW. In the CDW, as with all other Roman dicasteries, all "matters of major importance" and all "questions involving general principles" are reserved to the "extraordinary plenary" meeting (usually held once a year) to which all members are summoned (see Pastor Bonus). Furthermore, all members who happen to reside in Rome also take part in the more frequent "ordinary plenary" meetings. Membership in a Curial dicastery is retained until a member is removed from such membership, or turns 80. As such, Archbishop Piero Marini, who is now 74, will remain a member of the CDW either until he is removed / replaced or until he reaches his 80th birthday on January 13, 2022.

The PrayTell blog has helpfully provided a list of the new members:

Cardinals:

Rainer Maria Woelki, Cologne, Germany;

John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Abuja, Nigeria;

Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State;

Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Québec, Canada;

Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;

John Atcherley Dew, Wellington, New Zealand;

Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, Valladolid, Spain;

Arlindo Gomes Furtado, Santiago de Cabo Verde, Capo Verde;

Gianfranco Ravasi, Pontifical Council for Culture;

Beniamino Stella, Congregation for Clergy;

Archbishops:

Dominic Jala, Shillong, India;

Domenico Sorrentino, Assisi‑Nocera Umbra‑Gualdo Tadino, Italy;

Denis James Hart, Melbourne, Australia;

Piero Marini, President of pontifical committee for Eucharistic congresses;

Bernard‑Nicolas Aubertin, Tours, France;

Romulo G. Valles, Davao, Philippines;

Lorenzo Voltolini Esti, Portoviejo, Ecuador;

Bishops:

Arthur Joseph Serratelli, Paterson, NJ, USA;

Alan Stephen Hopes, East Anglia, Great Britain;

Claudio Maniago, Castellaneta, Italy;

Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, Oslo, Norway;

Miguel Ángel D’Annibale, Rio Gallegos, Argentina;

José Manuel Garcia Cordeiro, Bragança‑Miranda, Portugal;

Charles Morerod, Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, Switzerland;

Jean‑Pierre Kwambamba Masi, auxiliary of Kinshasa, Congo;

Benny Mario Travas, Multan, Pakistan;

John Bosco Chang Shin‑Ho, auxiliary of Daegu, Korea.

PrayTell reports that up to now, Cardinals Burke and Pell had remained members of CDW. With the new wave of appointments they have lost their membership. [UPDATE Oct. 29, 2016: According to Catholic Culture, other conservative Cardinals who had been members of the CDW up to now, but are now removed, are Bagnasco, Ouellet, Scola and Ranjith. Cardinal Piacenza was also removed according to PrayTell.]

Dear Fathers: An Advent challenge for you

A note and call to action for our priestly readers (and for our lay readers, send this post to your local parish priests):

We often hear from diocesan priests who either pray a private traditional Latin Mass but whose public Masses are Novus Ordo, or priests who say one TLM a week, with the rest of their Masses being the Novus Ordo. What they tell us is that they either have no room in their schedule to add the TLM, or that one TLM a week is all they can do, due to the ignorance of their Novus Ordo parishioners which would not support any or additional traditional Masses. 

Looking at this situation dispassionately (and without the blue hairs complaining vociferously in our ears, as we know you dear Fathers deal with), it all seems to boil down to fear of the unknown: Your parishioners don't know what they're missing, your schedule is already full even if the pews aren't and you don't know how to introduce them to the traditional Mass. 

Bold idea and challenge for priests: Whether you have a weekly TLM already or not, choose your highest attended Novus Ordo Sunday Mass and, the first week of Advent, make it a TLM.

This would preferably be a Sung Mass. If you can't pull together polyphony or chant, your typical choir will work. And if they can't pull off a full Missa Cantata, a "four-hymn sandwich" Low Mass will do. If you don't have servers trained in the TLM, just ask the nearest parish that offers it. They will surely part with two servers for one Sunday to spread tradition. And don't worry about the fine details. If you're missing certain things, most won't notice anyway.

Guest Op-Ed: Discovering the Lord in the Silence of the Liturgy

By Veronica A. Arntz

Reflections on Cardinal Robert Sarah’s Interview

Yet again, Cardinal Robert Sarah has blessed the faithful with another interview, available in English from Catholic World Report, about the beauty, sacrality, and perennial importance of the sacred liturgy. The faithful would do wise to listen carefully to what Sarah has said concerning the liturgy, for it cannot be emphasized enough that we must change our current liturgical praxis, putting properly celebrated liturgy back into the center of our Christian life, if we wish to see any other mission within the Church succeed.

As a Church, we talk about the New Evangelization, social justice endeavors, and attempts at peace—but these initiatives never seem to get very far. While all of these activities depend solely on God’s grace, it is safe to say that the sacred liturgy is necessary to receive God’s grace, which will assist us in bringing the Gospel to others. Thus, above all else, we should be attentive to Cardinal Sarah’s words—as they are an echo of our previous pontiff, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s own thought on the liturgy—so that we can reflect on our own experience of the liturgy and the way that we celebrate it today. Specifically, I would like to highlight three key points from Cardinal Sarah’s interview: the centrality of Christ, the importance of silence, and the role of the faithful in the liturgy.

“The Sacrifice of Praise and the Ecstatic Orientation of Man” — Dr. Kwasniewski's Lecture at Silverstream Priory

This conference was delivered to local clergy and religious at Silverstream Priory on Thursday, July 28, 2016. The text is reproduced below in full (for those who prefer it, here is an audio link). Among other topics, Dr. Kwasniewski addresses the importance and necessity of ad orientem worship.

The Sacrifice of Praise and the Ecstatic Orientation of Man

Peter Kwasniewski