Timeline: European traditionalism

During a 25–28 September visit to France that took him to Paris, Lourdes and Metz, Leo XIV pressed for unity and dialogue with France's traditionalist Catholics, many of them attached to the older Latin liturgy, Religion News Service reported. The Vatican estimated about 800,000 people at his open-air Mass in Paris, according to Al Jazeera.

Guillaume de Thieulloy closed Riposte catholique in late March 2026 (reports give 24 or 25 March), saying in a statement on Le Salon Beige that he had failed to find the right balance in reporting on abuse in the Church. In May 2026 Après la Ciase reported that a collective acting independently of him had relaunched the title at a new address; Breizh-info later reported a further relaunch by a former contributor.

In a message signed on his behalf by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and sent to the French bishops' spring plenary assembly in Lourdes, Leo XIV asked them to seek concrete solutions to include Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass generously while preserving communion. The Catholic Herald read it as a signal of openness rather than a formal change in the law.

Blogger took Messa in Latino offline citing an unspecified violation of its hate-speech policy, a day after the blog published an interview with Fr. Nicola Bux on the 2020 Vatican survey of bishops that preceded Traditionis custodes. The blog was restored on 23 July 2025; Google gave no explanation for either step.

Il Post and Euronews reported on messages about Benedict XVI flown over Italian beaches promoting the claim that Francis was an antipope. Euronews described the claim as a conspiracy theory. See benevacantism.

A papal decree dismissed Alessandro Minutella, a priest of Palermo, from the clerical state, according to a later diocesan decree. The same decree records that he had incurred excommunication on 18 August 2018; the Archdiocese of Palermo had cited heresy and schism. He continues to lead a movement that rejects Francis and Leo XIV.

Corrispondenza Romana published, in Italian and English, Roberto de Mattei's article 'The Viganò Case: The Archbishop and His Double', alleging that many letters signed by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò had been written by one or more other people. Viganò responded that the allegation was completely false.

During the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, five statues displayed at the Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Traspontina were taken early on 21 October 2019 and thrown into the Tiber; traditionalist and conservative critics had objected to them as idolatrous. On 25 October Pope Francis, speaking as bishop of Rome, asked pardon of those offended by their removal, and in November Austrian activist Alexander Tschugguel said he was one of those responsible.

Italian journalist Marco Tosatti told the Associated Press that he had helped Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò write, rewrite and edit his 11-page testimony against Pope Francis during a three-hour session at Tosatti's home on 22 August 2018, and that he persuaded Viganò to cut claims that could not be documented.

A 25-page letter to Pope Francis concerning Amoris laetitia, delivered on 11 August 2017 with 40 signatures from clergy and lay scholars including historian Roberto de Mattei, was made public after receiving no reply. The list later grew to 62 names; Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of St Pius X was then the only bishop among them.

Historian Roberto de Mattei, then vice-president of Italy's National Research Council (CNR), described the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami as a divine punishment in a Radio Maria broadcast. An online petition called for his resignation from the CNR, as reported by Global Voices; the Catholic daily Avvenire recorded an editor's public disagreement with him.

Riposte catholique, a French Catholic news and commentary site directed by Guillaume de Thieulloy and launched with journalist Daniel Hamiche, went online on 1 January 2010, according to its own 'À propos' page.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of Saint Pius X, died in Martigny, Switzerland, on 25 March 1991, aged 85, and was buried in a crypt beneath the Society's seminary at Écône. Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, his co-consecrator in 1988, died the following month.