Cardinal Gracias of India says he opposes banning the traditional Latin Mass

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop emeritus of Bombay, India, said he is not in favor of banning the Mass in the traditional Latin rite, provided those who follow it do not reject the Second Vatican Council. Gracias, a member of Pope Francis's Council of Cardinals, spoke in an interview published November 2 by AdVaticanum.

Gracias said he had authorized the Tridentine Mass in three parishes of his archdiocese because some of the faithful found the older rite better suited to prayer. He had met lay Catholics who "sincerely felt they could pray better with that rite," he said, and he saw no reason to prevent it as long as it did not mean denying Vatican II. He said he values the current approach of greater openness to that form of celebration.

Three conditions for the traditional Mass

The cardinal said three things must be preserved: the reform that came out of the Second Vatican Council, the legitimate desire for continuity with the Church's liturgical tradition, and genuine active participation by the faithful.

Agreement and disagreement among cardinals

Gracias's position overlaps in part with that of Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the prelates best known for his defense of the traditional Mass. Burke has also said that Catholics attached to the older liturgy should make clear to both Pope Leo XIV and their bishops that they love that form of worship without rejecting the Council.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider takes a different view. He holds that because Vatican II was a pastoral council that proclaimed no dogma, its texts can be corrected and the faithful cannot be required to give total and unconditional assent to their contents.

Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage blocked

The interview came a little over a week after pilgrims taking part in the 2026 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage were blocked: they were refused permission to celebrate Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, barred from processing into the church and from praying there. Photographs widely shared on social media showed Catholic pilgrims being physically stopped in St. Peter's Square as they tried to enter.

The Vatican Secretariat of State had also denied Schneider permission to celebrate the pilgrimage's pontifical Mass in the basilica, even though the organizers had asked Pope Leo XIV for explicit authorization several months in advance. A source close to the organizers said the Secretariat of State sent a letter saying that, at least for this year, permission for the pontifical Mass at St. Peter's would not be granted. The reasons are not known, and the same source called the situation "very strange."

The same source said that so-called LGBT Catholics find it easier to get a special Mass at St. Peter's than the faithful attached to the Church's liturgical tradition.