Although Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) are a small minority within the universal church, they constitute something of a vanguard. Their members are wildly overrepresented in certain fields, conservative politics being one of them. William F. Buckley Jr. and Evelyn Waugh were critics of the post-Vatican II liturgy. Pat Buchanan was a devotee of the Latin Mass. A recent Polish prime minister had a son go into one of the traditional orders. There’s a huge generational shift happening in the Catholic Church, where younger clergy and families tend to be more traditional and conservative.
Dealing with this vanguard has caused problems for two papacies in a row, arguably three. Benedict XVI broadly welcomed the traditional movement and tried to normalize its presence in the universal church in 2007. Pope Francis perceived it as a locus of dissent and populist resistance to his reforming tendencies, and imposed restrictions on it. The incredible reversal in just two papacies itself proved divisive and agitating. So there’s been a great deal of speculation about Pope Leo’s views on the TLM. Having been an Augustinian in Peru, he’s been insulated from this movement which is highly concentrated in America and France.
Today, we got a hint of his views. In a letter to the French bishops sent by the pope’s secretary of state, Cardinal Parolin, he writes:
Finally, dear brothers, you intend to address the delicate theme of the Liturgy, to which the Holy Father is particularly attentive, in the context of the growth of communities attached to the Vetus Ordo. It is troubling that a painful wound continues to open in the Church concerning the celebration of the Mass, the very sacrament of unity. To heal it, a fresh regard from each person toward the other, with a greater understanding of the other’s sensibility, is surely needed — a regard that could allow brothers enriched by their diversity to welcome one another mutually, in charity and in the unity of faith. May the Holy Spirit suggest to you concrete solutions that would generously include those sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo, while respecting the orientations set forth by the Second Vatican Council regarding the Liturgy.
Well, that’s not at all the kind of alarm that Pope Francis expressed. We may yet see liturgical peace again in the Latin Rite.