Short answer
No. Pope Francis's Traditionis Custodes (2021) abrogated earlier norms that conflict with it, which replaced the regime of Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum (2007). Priests no longer have the general freedom Summorum Pontificum gave them to celebrate the 1962 Missal; the diocesan bishop now decides.
Updated October 19, 2026
In Summorum Pontificum (7 July 2007), Pope Benedict XVI declared that the 1962 Roman Missal, "never abrogated", could be used "as an extraordinary form of the Church's Liturgy". Any Latin-rite priest could use it in Masses without a congregation, needing "no permission from the Apostolic See or from his own Ordinary", and parish priests were asked to accept requests from stable groups of the faithful. In practice it made the older Mass widely available for fourteen years.
On 16 July 2021 Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes. Its article 8 states: "Previous norms, instructions, permissions, and customs that do not conform to the provisions of the present Motu Proprio are abrogated." Under the new law the use of the 1962 Missal depends on the diocesan bishop's authorisation (art. 2), and newly ordained priests need permission granted after consulting the Apostolic See (art. 4). Traditionis Custodes calls the reformed books "the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite".
Some bishops and commentators have asked for a return to Benedict XVI's approach; in October 2026, for example, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said the Church had more unity under Summorum Pontificum. But as of October 2026 the law has not changed, and Cardinal Arthur Roche said in an interview that month that Pope Leo XIV "is not going to go back to Summorum Pontificum."
PreliminarySociety of Saint Pius X (SSPX)
The short answer: Misleading. Benedict’s own letter names reconciliation as a reason for the decree, though he denied it was mainly about the SSPX.
About: LifeSiteNewsArthur Roche
Diane Montagna disputes Cardinal Roche’s claim, as she reports it, that the traditional Mass is readily available. Diocesan records support her on reduced access; the law itself sits between the two accounts.
About: Diane MontagnaArthur Roche
PreliminaryLiturgy law: from the 1984 indult to Traditionis custodes
The short answer: Mostly right: the points hold, but the aim he cites is in Francis’s accompanying letter, not the motu proprio itself.
About: Return to TraditionAthanasius Schneider
Liturgy law: from the 1984 indult to Traditionis custodesLeo XIV and the Latin MassThe Latin Mass movement