Do most young French priests celebrate the Traditional Mass? What the IFOP survey measured

The source is Le sacerdoce aujourd’hui, a survey of priests carried out by IFOP for the Observatoire français du catholicisme (OFC), in partnership with RCF–Radio Notre-Dame and the weekly Famille chrétienne (RCF). IFOP’s report is signed by Jérôme Fourquet and Mathilde Tchounikine; IFOP’s website lists Fourquet as a department director at Ifop Opinion (IFOP), while Rorate describes the firm as “headed by” him. The questionnaire was self-administered online between 16 and 30 October 2025, and IFOP gives a sample of 766 priests (IFOP results). RCF reports that 15% of the 5,000 priests approached replied. FSSPX.News, the news service of the Society of Saint Pius X, reported that those 5,000 were approached “hors Tradition”, which appears to mean outside the traditionalist communities, though the report does not say which communities were left out (FSSPX.News); IFOP’s published material does not say how they were selected. The results were made public in early November 2025 (Aleteia), so the fieldwork predates the papal visit by about eleven months. The liturgy question asked priests according to which ritual they celebrate Mass and offered five answers, with results broken down by age (slide 16 of IFOP’s results).

IFOP’s age chart (slide 16) shows what the 55% is made of. Among respondents aged 25–34, 45% celebrate Mass according to the ordinary form of the Roman rite, in French, exclusively. The remaining 55% is the sum of four other answers:

• 46% chose a single combined option: preferably the ordinary form, sometimes or often in Latin and/or ad orientem (facing east), and sometimes the extraordinary form;
• 6% celebrate in the extraordinary form exclusively;
• 3% celebrate in the ordinary form and sometimes in the extraordinary form, in agreement with the bishop;
• none chose the option of preferring the extraordinary form while sometimes using the ordinary form.

Among priests aged 75 and over, 98% celebrate only the ordinary form in French; their 2% is made up of two answers involving the extraordinary form, at 1% each. Across all 766 respondents, 73% celebrate only the ordinary form in French, 20% chose the combined option, 4% the ordinary form with occasional use of the extraordinary form, 2% the extraordinary form exclusively and 1% the extraordinary form by preference (IFOP). None of IFOP’s five answers uses the wording Rorate gives. That wording matches the legend of the chart reproduced in Rorate’s post, which merges the four answers into one line (priests celebrating sometimes or often in Latin and/or according to the extraordinary form); Le Figaro’s summary uses a similar pairing. The Mass of Paul VI may itself be celebrated in Latin: the Council directed that the use of Latin be preserved in the Latin rites (Sacrosanctum Concilium 36 §1) and that the faithful be able to say or sing in Latin the parts of the Ordinary that belong to them (SC 54). Use of the 1962 Missal is separately regulated: a priest ordained after 16 July 2021 needs authorisation (Traditionis custodes art. 4) that, since the rescript of 20 February 2023, is reserved to the Apostolic See.