Reeling from two blows to liturgical traditionalists in July and December 2021, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) attained a degree of respite last month.

Belonging to the largest of the communities within the Church whose purpose and charism entail the celebration of the sacraments in the Tridentine Roman rites, FSSP leaders Fr Benoît Paul-Joseph and Fr Vincent Ribeton were pleased when Pope Francis himself assured them that their priests were dispensed from his contentious motu proprio Traditiones Custodes. After an unscheduled, “cordial”, one-hour meeting with the Pontiff, the three were photographed jovially together; Francis appeared particularly amiable and disarming. 

One would be forgiven, then, for thinking that this was a cause for encouragement and jubilation for communities who celebrate the sacraments in the Tridentine form. Among priests in the FSSP and the comparably-sized Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), however, some remain “disheartened and anxious” (as the FSSP’s statement last July declared). 

Why should that be? In large part, owing to what seems to be enabling the dispensation in this instance. Francis and others in the Curia had reportedly indicated that, rather than their aforementioned charism being protected by the Fraternity’s constitution, it was its foundation documents that protected their ministry. 

To demystify this: constitutions can be altered at will upon an edict by the Vatican. It is the FSSP’s 1988 erecting decree that is now acting as its impregnable shield; to alter it would require uprooting the entire community’s structure and purpose, which has little precedent. It plainly states: “The members of the Fraternity… are conceded the use of the liturgical books in force in 1962.” (The 1962 missal, the latest edition before its formal abrogation, serves as the effective handbook of the Tridentine liturgy in contemporary use.) 

Despite the smiles, cordiality, and Francis’s statement that the FSSP’s identity should be “preserved, protected, and encouraged”, no one can ignore that the directional push by the Roman authorities in recent months has been towards further prohibition of the traditional liturgy. The Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship, Archbishop Arthur Roche, appeared all-but to reveal Rome’s hand; he implied it was the current pontificate’s long-term vision for the Church. In a letter last year to the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, he described the FSSP’s dispensation as an “exceptional concession”, and something which problematically encouraged “liturgy at variance with Conciliar reform”. 

Archbishop Roche has repeatedly reiterated in interviews that term: “concession”; this is why some priests at the FSSP are understandably nervous, even if their fears may be unfounded. Should the Vatican ever decide to return the Tridentine liturgy to its abrogated status after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, then the FSSP would likely face full suppression akin to that which the Jesuits experienced in the eighteenth century. 

Another community saw a similar formal suppression by Rome: the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The community out of which the FSSP appeared, its leader and founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was declared excommunicate by Pope John Paul II in 1988. The resulting controversy led to the foundation of the Ecclesia Dei institutes—to which the FSSP (founded by SSPX refugees) and ICKSP belong—in a document of the same name. Yet the SSPX’s continued existence could reveal to us why Rome will be hesitant, even in the long run, to pursue such a route for the FSSP. 

Both before and after Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum (which opened up and encouraged greater possibilities for the celebration of the Tridentine rites), the SSPX neither ceased operations nor stopped growing. In fact, like the FSSP, which stated after a census in 2019 that its parishes were seeing “prolific growth”, the SSPX has grown by over 500% since 1982. 

Archbishop Roche and Pope Francis seem suspicious of parishes that use the 1962 Missal, believing it creates an “opposing” ecclesiology within the Church. Such rapid growth will explain their alarm, and also why there has been a cull of announcements of the times of Tridentine masses and their demanded omission from parish newsletters. This can only be interpreted as an attempt to constrain the Tridentine liturgy’s growing popularity. 

There may be those who genuinely believe that the Tridentine liturgy has no place in the Church after Vatican II. Pope John Paul II’s Ecclesia Dei in 1988, however, seemed to suggest that the foundation of the new communities was aimed at encouraging priests to dissociate themselves from Archbishop Lefebvre’s movement. Meanwhile, Pope Francis has confusingly stated his view in Traditiones Custodes that the Novus Ordo is the “unique lex orandi of the Roman rite”. 

A suppression of the FSSP is very unlikely, as it would likely throw fuel on the fire regarding the SSPX’s growth and resolve. It might cause more harm than good, especially now that—after Summorum Pontificum—the Tridentine liturgy’s popularity has seen worldwide resurgence. For the FSSP to be encroached upon could actually cause the outcome the Roman authorities were attempting to avoid by its initiation in the first place: fostering, rather than assuaging, apparent schismatic sentiment. 

Traditionalists may have some reason to be concerned. If lex orandi, lex credendi (“the law of what’s prayed is the law of what’s believed”) stands, as affirmed by the Catechism, then this could be interpreted as a strange insinuation that the post-conciliar Church no longer believes what the Church historically practised and taught as dogma; something, essentially, which cannot be. 

This is especially true if the Tridentine rite, which only a matter of decades ago was the conventional Mass of the Latin Church, contains that “opposing” conception of the Church “at variance” with the beliefs of the ecclesial authorities. Furthermore, Pope Pius V legally protected the Tridentine Mass by the 1570 bull Quo Primum (which has never been revoked), and Benedict XVI’s much more recent idea of the ‘hermeneutic of continuity’ was effectively cast aside by last year’s motu proprio. 

Recent developments reveal that, from June, a sweeping reform of the Curia will come into effect. They do not spare Archbishop Roche’s own congregation, and new dicasteries will be set up, many in some form of continuity with their predecessor departments. This changes the landscape for traditionalists. Despite the Pope’s closure of the Pontifical Congregation Ecclesia Dei in 2019— aimed at protecting the Ecclesia Dei institutes’ rights and ministry—the coming reforms may bring something of a return to normality, and see the institutes afforded formal bureaucratic protection once again. A possible backtrack and attempt at reconciliation, perhaps, but an extended olive branch which Ecclesia Dei leaders will appreciate. 

Nevertheless, diocesan priests and communities that do not explicitly and formally possess the charism for the Tridentine liturgy (such as the Oratorians), now have no protection from incursions by bishops into the liturgical life of their parishes. The Dominicans have their own historic rite, and so are in a different position. The ICKSP may be on shakier ground, depending on the intricacies of its own foundation documents. In any case, bishops are sometimes not aware of the pope’s encouraging deliberations, and have enacted restrictions anyway. Francis may not see the Tridentine liturgy as alien to the Church, but ambiguities and mixed statements from some in the hierarchy have left this open to misunderstanding. 

While the SSPX (who have been granted partial sacramental recognition by the current pontificate) militantly reject conciliar reform outright and remain in the background, such a standoff is likely to continue into the future. The FSSP is firmly protected by its decree of erection; the Tridentine sacramental rites elsewhere may stand on shaky ground, but it is certainly not sand. For the time being, that ground is unlikely to give. 

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