Background
Update — October 7, 2026
- France (25–28 September). At Vespers with clergy and religious in Notre-Dame on 25 September, Leo asked that the liturgy be celebrated with dignity, including where small communities gather, and urged his listeners to place communion with the Successor of Peter and with the Church above personal preferences (some English reports render it "sensibilities") for the sake of unity (vatican.va; Vatican News; InfoVaticana). LifeSiteNews suggested the passage could be read as referring to the SSPX and the traditional Latin Mass, and an UnHerd column argued that Leo regards the old rite as a personal preference rather than a source of renewal; both are interpretations of the homily. Coverage of the 28 September return-flight press conference reported questions on abuse, artificial intelligence, war and other subjects rather than the liturgy (vatican.va; America). See the timeline entry.
- Rome pilgrimage. The Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage's pontifical Mass is scheduled for St. Mary Major on 24 October rather than St. Peter's; Integrity Magazine described this as Leo granting permission for a Latin Mass at the basilica (InfoVaticana; Integrity Magazine).
- The law. No new Holy See act on Traditionis custodes had been reported between September and 7 October in the sources reviewed. Leo's Wednesday catecheses on the Council's documents continued, reaching Gaudium et spes on 7 October (vatican.va).
Overview
Pope Leo XIV, elected in May 2025, inherited the framework that Francis built around the pre-1970 Mass: Traditionis custodes (2021), the 2021 Responsa ad dubia and the 2023 rescript reserving key dispensations to Rome (see liturgy law). Whether he would keep, relax or replace that framework has been debated heavily in traditionalist media, as the reaction to Cardinal Arthur Roche's July 2026 interview showed. This page records what Leo has said and done, what officials have said on his behalf, and how the debate has been reported, through early October 2026.
September 2025: first published remarks
In September 2025 the blog Rorate Caeli published, and later updated with a fuller excerpt, remarks in which Leo spoke about the traditional Latin Mass. LifeSiteNews summarised one strand of those remarks under a headline saying the Pope had suggested Catholics participated in the Latin Mass less "consciously". The remarks are not quoted here because the original text could not be checked directly for this entry.
Reports of a more generous approach
The commentary site Catholic Unscripted has written that in 2025 the bishops of England and Wales were informed through the apostolic nuncio that Leo wished to grant generous exemptions from Traditionis custodes, and that he intended to ask Cardinal Roche to administer the law generously (Catholic Unscripted). The site presented this as reported information. In November 2025 Catholic News Service reported the apostolic nuncio to Great Britain as saying that Leo did not intend to overturn Francis's restrictions but would grant two-year dispensations to bishops who asked for them (Catholic News Service); no Holy See document setting out such a policy was found in the sources reviewed.
Other signals, October 2025 – September 2026
- October 2025. Leo personally allowed Cardinal Raymond Burke to celebrate Mass in the older form at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica on 25 October for the annual Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage (Catholic News Service).
- March 2026. In a message signed on his behalf by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and sent to the French bishops' spring assembly in Lourdes, Leo asked them to seek concrete solutions to include Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass generously while preserving communion (Crux; America). The Catholic Herald read it as a signal of openness rather than a change in the law (Catholic Herald).
- September 2026. InfoVaticana reported that a Secretariat of State letter had declined permission "this year" for the Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage's pontifical Mass in St. Peter's, which it said would be held at St. Mary Major on 24 October (InfoVaticana). During his visit to France (25–28 September), Leo pressed for unity and dialogue with French traditionalists, according to Religion News Service (RNS).
5 March 2026: audience with Latin Mass researchers
On 5 March 2026 Leo received the sociologists Stephen Cranney, a data scientist and sociology lecturer at The Catholic University of America, and Stephen Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary's University, London, in a private audience. The Holy See confirmed the audience but gave no account of the conversation (OSV News; America). The two are writing Trads: Latin Mass Catholics in the United States for Oxford University Press, drawing on survey data, ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews; OSV News first reported a November 2026 publication date and later gave December. Cranney later told OSV News that they had discussed their research with the Pope, without giving details (OSV News).
Coverage differed in emphasis. LifeSiteNews headlined that Leo had met professors "who found Latin Mass Catholics are more orthodox, not 'schismatic'", while the National Catholic Reporter placed the meeting within what it described as Leo's broad listening style through unexpected meetings. The research is discussed in Young Catholics and the Latin Mass.
July 2026: the fifth anniversary
The fifth anniversary of Traditionis custodes on 16 July 2026 brought retrospective coverage, including an America report on traditionalist Catholics' reflections and a five-year report by OSV News. Angelus News ran its anniversary piece under the headline "SSPX excommunications add new twist to traditional Latin Mass debate" (see SSPX consecrations 2026).
29 July 2026: Cardinal Roche in The Tablet
In an interview with Maggie Fergusson published by the British Catholic weekly The Tablet on 29 July 2026, Cardinal Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was widely reported as saying that Leo would neither change Traditionis custodes nor return to Summorum Pontificum. OnePeterFive quoted him in its headline as saying "Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis Custodes"; Rorate Caeli rendered his words as "Leo will not change Traditionis or go back to Summorum"; and LifeSiteNews reported that Leo would not restore the freedoms extended under Benedict XVI. The quotations here follow those outlets' reports of the interview.
Reactions in traditionalist media fell into three broad groups:
- Criticism of the cardinal. Diane Montagna titled her response "More Extraordinary Gaslighting: Cardinal Roche on the Traditional Latin Mass Yet Again"; Integrity Magazine headlined that a "'zip it' strategy" had failed; and InfoVaticana accused Roche of campaigning to bring Leo round to his own position.
- Questions about his authority to speak for the Pope. Catholic Unscripted argued that a prefect announcing a papal decision is different from a prefect stating his expectation, and that the interview did not make clear which this was; Per Mariam asked whether he should be believed; and Ad Vaticanum reported Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone questioning the future of Traditionis custodes.
- Reading the interview alongside Leo's letter. The Italian site Silere non possum headlined that Leo would not return to Summorum Pontificum, and New Oxford Review discussed the Pope's June letter to Roche in relation to the interview.
14 August 2026: Leo's letter on liturgical formation
On 14 August the Holy See published a letter from Leo to Cardinal Roche, dated 29 June 2026, for a liturgical formation conference that Roche's dicastery hosted at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon from 14 to 19 August (Catholic World Report). The letter calls for "fidelity to the approved texts and instructions." According to America and InfoVaticana, it also asks for respect for the rites promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II, echoing Leo's catecheses on the Second Vatican Council's liturgy constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium; America noted that it draws at length on Francis's Desiderio desideravi. Aleteia and the Catholic Herald summarised its emphasis on liturgical formation and on adherence to approved texts. America pointed out that the letter was sent exactly a month before the Tablet interview appeared. The National Catholic Reporter described the Latin Mass debate as erupting again when Leo returned from his summer break.
Official record so far
- Leo personally permitted a traditional Mass in St. Peter's in October 2025, according to Catholic News Service; no comparable permission for 2026 had been reported as of early October.
- The Holy See confirmed the 5 March 2026 audience with Cranney and Bullivant but did not describe its content.
- The 29 June 2026 letter is the principal papal text on liturgy in the period covered; it does not, in the coverage reviewed, announce any change to the law on the 1962 Missal.
- Cardinal Roche's July 2026 statements were made in a press interview, not in a decree or other juridical act.
- No papal act amending Traditionis custodes, the Responsa or the 2023 rescript had been reported in the sources reviewed.
What to watch
- Publication of Trads by Oxford University Press, listed for late 2026.
- Any papal or dicastery act touching Traditionis custodes, including how the dispensations reserved to Rome in 2023 are handled.
- Further remarks by Leo himself, and whether they confirm Cardinal Roche's account or the reports of a more generous approach.