California archbishop calls for making Traditional Latin Mass more accessible in wake of SSPX schism

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco recently weighed in on the illicit episcopal consecrations that the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) carried out July 1, emphasizing the need to increase access to the Traditional Latin Mass to support Catholics with an attachment to this liturgy in the wake of the schism. 

The archbishop said in a July 10 X post that the consecration of four SSPX bishops “manifests a growing lack of trust that has been simmering for a very long time.” 

The SSPX carried out the consecrations in Switzerland after months of controversy surrounding the plan. The Vatican warned doing so would constitute a schismatic act, because it lacked papal approval. The situation mirrored the SSPX episcopal consecrations that took place in 1988, when SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordained four new bishops without Pope St. John Paul II’s approval. In the years since, the SSPX has continued to raise theological concerns regarding documents from Vatican II, while maintaining a status of canonical irregularity as referenced by Pope Benedict XVI and celebrating the TLM. 

After the July 1 consecrations, the Vatican declared that SSPX priests and lay people who formally adhere to the SSPX are in schism. A number of diocesan bishops across the U.S. have since instructed the local faithful not to attend SSPX parishes. 

Archbishop Cordileone said in his X post, “Let us pray that an ardent effort toward sincere and honest dialogue will soon start up, and that easier access to the Traditional form of the Mass will be available to our people, so they will not feel as if they are constrained to seek spiritual nourishment outside of the family in union with Rome.”

Archbishop Cordileone had also expressed support earlier that day for expanding access to the TLM, in reply to an article in the National Catholic Register regarding TLM access. 

“We need more access to the traditional Latin Mass for the faithful but also more reverent Novus Ordo Masses inspired by the tradition,” Archbishop Cordileone stated. 

Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic letter in 2007 called Summorum Pontificum expanding access to the TLM. In an accompanying letter to bishops, he explained that the TLM and the Novus Ordo “can be mutually enriching,” emphasizing that the two editions of the Roman Missal do not contradict one another. He also cited being motivated to issue Summorum Pontificum out of desire for internal reconciliation after the 1988 SSPX situation. 

In 2021, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter called Traditionis Custodes that heavily restricted the celebration of the TLM, saying that the decision comes after consulting the then-Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the pursuit of ecclesial communion.

The National Catholic Register article that Archbishop Cordileone replied to on X focuses on comments made by Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, regarding Traditionis Custodes and TLM restrictions. 

Archbishop Gänswein, who is now apostolic nuncio to the Baltic States, told Nico Spuntoni of Il Giornale, an Italian daily, that he saw Pope Benedict XVI experience “pain in his heart” from reading Traditionis Custodes, according to the National Catholic Register. 

Archbishop Gänswein said Pope Francis “made a mistake without realizing it” when issuing Traditionis Custodes. 

The archbishop told Spuntoni in the interview, conducted just days after the SSPX ordinations, that he believes this is the opportune moment “to lift those restrictions and move beyond the setback represented by that text.”

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