Overview
Since Paul VI promulgated a reformed Roman Missal after the Second Vatican Council, Catholics who wish to worship with the earlier books — the 1962 Missal, commonly called the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), the usus antiquior or, between 2007 and 2021, the "extraordinary form" — have depended on a sequence of papal and curial texts. Each text set different conditions, and disputes in traditionalist media often turn on how these documents relate to one another. This explainer sets out the record in order, using the Holy See's own texts wherever possible, then notes where the record is argued over. For the wider community concerned, see the Latin Mass movement; for current developments, see Leo XIV and the Latin Mass.
1984: the indult Quattuor abhinc annos
On 3 October 1984 the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a circular letter to the presidents of episcopal conferences, known from its opening words as Quattuor abhinc annos ("four years ago"). It reported that bishops' replies to an earlier consultation had suggested that the question of priests and faithful attached to the so-called "Tridentine" rite was almost completely solved, but that because the question persisted the Pope was granting an indult (Adoremus; EWTN Library). Diocesan bishops could permit the 1962 Missal under conditions: petitioners had to make clear that they did not question the legitimacy and doctrinal soundness of the 1970 Missal; celebrations were for the requesting groups only, in places chosen by the bishop and not in parish churches except in extraordinary cases; the 1962 Missal was to be used in Latin without mixing in texts or rites from the newer Missal; and bishops were to report to the Congregation on the permissions granted. A 1991 letter on the subject, reproduced by the EWTN Library, records that a commission of cardinals that reviewed the indult in December 1986 unanimously agreed its conditions were too restrictive and should be relaxed.
1988: Ecclesia Dei
On 30 June 1988 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, conferred episcopal ordination without papal mandate. On 2 July John Paul II issued the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, which called the ordinations unlawful, described them as disobedience amounting to schism, and stated that Lefebvre and the four priests he consecrated as bishops — Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta — had incurred excommunication. It created a Pontifical Commission to help clergy, seminarians, religious communities and lay people linked to the Society to come into full communion while keeping their spiritual and liturgical traditions, and in §6(c) asked for a "wide and generous application" of the directives already issued on the 1962 Missal. The communities later erected through that Commission are covered in Ecclesia Dei communities. In January 2019 Francis suppressed the Commission and assigned its tasks to a section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (vatican.va).
2007: Summorum Pontificum
Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (7 July 2007, in force from 14 September 2007) permitted the 1962 Missal as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, allowed priests to celebrate Mass without a congregation using either Missal without special permission, and directed pastors to receive requests from stable groups of faithful, with recourse to the bishop and then to the Ecclesia Dei Commission. In his letter to bishops Benedict wrote that the 1962 Missal had never been juridically abrogated and so had in principle always remained permitted; that the Missal of Paul VI remained the normal form; and that the two editions should be understood as a twofold use of one and the same rite. He described the purpose as inner reconciliation in the Church, said the norms did not lessen bishops' authority, and asked bishops to report on their experience three years after the law took effect.
2011: Universae Ecclesiae
The Commission's instruction Universae Ecclesiae, dated 30 April 2011 and approved by Benedict at an audience on 8 April, applied the motu proprio. Its provisions on the coetus fidelium (nn. 15–19) allowed a stable group to be drawn from one parish or from several, made the diocesan bishop responsible for ensuring the older form for those who request it, asked shrines to offer it to pilgrim groups when a suitable priest was available, and stated that those requesting it must not support or belong to groups that dispute the validity or legitimacy of the ordinary form or the Pope's authority as supreme pastor. Disputes were reserved to the Commission.
2021: Traditionis custodes
On 16 July 2021 Francis issued Traditionis custodes. Article 1 states that the liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II in conformity with the decrees of Vatican II "are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite." The diocesan bishop is competent to authorise use of the 1962 Missal in his diocese. Where groups already exist, the bishop must ascertain that they do not deny the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform, designate places of celebration that are not parish churches, refrain from erecting new personal parishes, appoint a priest delegate, and not authorise new groups. Priests ordained after the document must ask the bishop, who is to consult the Apostolic See; priests already celebrating with the 1962 Missal must request permission to continue. Societies erected by the Ecclesia Dei Commission came under the dicastery for consecrated life, and earlier norms, instructions, permissions and customs not in conformity with the new text were abrogated.
In his accompanying letter Francis wrote that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had consulted bishops in 2020 and that the responses troubled him and persuaded him of the need to intervene. For later reporting on that consultation, see the 2025 survey story. In his 2022 apostolic letter Desiderio desideravi, Francis restated the Article 1 principle.
2021–2023: implementing texts
The Congregation for Divine Worship's Responsa ad dubia (dated 4 December 2021 and published on 18 December) narrowed the rules. Bishops may permit only the 1952 Rituale Romanum, not the Pontificale Romanum, and only in canonically erected personal parishes that use the 1962 Missal. A parish church may be used only when it is impossible to use another church, oratory or chapel; such a Mass is not to appear in the parish schedule or coincide with parish activities, and the permission ends when another venue becomes available. The Congregation's approval for priests ordained after July 2021 is described as a necessary authorisation, not a consultative opinion. The text presents the aim as re-establishing a single and identical prayer throughout the Roman Rite and says there is no intention to marginalise the faithful attached to the earlier form.
A rescript dated 20 February 2023, published by the Holy See Press Office the next day after an audience with Cardinal Arthur Roche, reserved two dispensations to the Apostolic See under canon 87 §1: the use of a parish church or the erection of a personal parish for the 1962 Missal, and permission for priests ordained after the motu proprio to use it. Bishops who had already granted either were obliged to inform the Dicastery. The rescript also confirmed the Responsa, to which Francis had assented on 18 November 2021.
One condition that has not changed
Across forty years of changing permissions one requirement recurs. Quattuor abhinc annos (1984) required petitioners not to question the legitimacy of the 1970 Missal; Universae Ecclesiae (2011) required them not to support groups disputing the validity or legitimacy of the ordinary form; Traditionis custodes (2021) requires bishops to verify that groups do not deny the validity and legitimacy of the reform. What has changed is how widely the older books may be used and who decides — the local bishop, the parish priest, or Rome.
Where the record is argued over
The record contains two papal framings. Benedict XVI described the two Missals as two uses of one rite and the older Missal as never abrogated; Francis's Article 1 describes the reformed books as the unique expression of the Roman Rite's lex orandi, and Traditionis custodes abrogated earlier norms and permissions not in conformity with it. How the two framings relate is the subject of continuing argument.
The practical question since 2025 has been whether Pope Leo XIV would alter Francis's framework. In a July 2026 interview with The Tablet, Cardinal Roche was widely reported as saying that Leo "is not going to change Traditionis Custodes" (OnePeterFive; Rorate Caeli). The commentary site Catholic Unscripted replied that the interview, as published, did not establish whether the cardinal was announcing a papal decision or giving his own expectation (Catholic Unscripted). Leo's own letter to Cardinal Roche, dated 29 June 2026 and released on 14 August, stressed "fidelity to the approved texts and instructions" (Catholic World Report); America connected it with the Tablet interview a month later.
Status
In the reporting reviewed for this explainer (through August 2026), no papal act amending Traditionis custodes, the 2021 Responsa or the 2023 rescript had been reported. Those texts therefore remain the governing law on the use of the 1962 liturgical books.