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Vatican Continues to Grant Permissions for Traditional Latin Mass Amid Papal Transition
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In Short: The Holy See has maintained its approach to granting permissions for the Traditional Latin Mass, issuing decrees to 34 dioceses in 2025, similar to the previous year.
Under subsequent Vatican regulations, diocesan bishops must obtain permission from the Holy See to authorize celebrations according to the 1962 missal in parish churches. This year, the Holy See granted permissions to 35 dioceses and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, with 20 in the United States, making it the leading recipient of such concessions.
The vast majority of the 34 published decrees renewed existing permissions for an additional two years for communities already celebrating the liturgy according to the 1962 missal promulgated by St. John XXIII. This continuity in handling requests during the change of pontificates indicates a steady approach to the Traditional Latin Mass.
According to the Summarium Decretorum for 2022, the Holy See granted permissions to 35 dioceses and ecclesiastical jurisdictions in that year, 20 of them in the United States. The permissions granted across the two pontificates in 2025 show that the Holy See continued to consider requests individually under the restrictions established during Pope Francis’ pontificate.
The Traditional Latin Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, traces its form to the liturgy codified by St. Pius V following the Council of Trent. The decree indexes published from 2022 through 2025 also document the Holy See’s broader work regulating the liturgy, reflecting a consistent approach to the traditional liturgy.
Meanwhile, in New York, Archbishop Ronald Hicks offered an invitation-only Memorial Vigil Mass on the evening of September 10 at 5:00 p.m. to commemorate 9/11. The event was attended by former President Joe Biden, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mayor Mamdani also quietly attended the 10:15 Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral the preceding Sunday, September 6, where 'the archbishop and the mayor shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at both the beginning and end of Mass,' according to aleteia.org.
What's still developing
- Masses were held by bishops around all three locations to commemorate 9/11, including a vigil Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on Sept. 10, and a Red, White & Blue Mass at the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Siena in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11 that began at 8:46 a.m.
- Prior to the Mass with the military archbishop, the national shrine tolled its largest bell, the Mary Bell, 25 times at 9:37 a.m.
- Earlier this year, Mamdani’s choice to skip Archbishop Hicks’ February installation Mass — breaking with long-standing tradition — drew criticism ; he met privately with Archbishop Hicks days later, and the following month attended St.
Sources
- Ewtnnewslink