Senior American journalist and Vatican correspondent Diane Montagna reported July 1 that she has obtained the Vatican’s overall assessment of bishops’ responses to a 2020 questionnaire, the results of which were cited as the basis for Pope Francis’ 2021 apostolic letter, Traditionis Custodes, significantly restricting the Traditional Latin Mass.
According to Montagna, the Vatican assessment indicates that the foundations for Traditionis Custodes had “major cracks.” She said the majority of bishops responding to the questionnaire reported satisfaction with the current Latin Mass situation and said that making changes to it “would cause more harm than good.”
Montagna posted PDFs of the alleged Vatican assessment and her article about it to her Substack. Montagna’s X post announcing her report has been viewed 1 million times since she posted it July 1. The publication comes just before Pope Leo begins his summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo July 6, which suspends his usual schedule of papal activities and meetings.
Promulgated in 2021, Traditionis Custodes reversed widespread ability for priests to celebrate the Latin Mass granted in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum. The change came after Pope Francis asked the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF, now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) to conduct a questionnaire for bishops about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum in their dioceses.
The CDF received the responses between spring 2020 and January 2021, and the responses were compiled and analyzed in a 224-page final report, according to Montagna. The five-page overall assessment Montagna said that she obtained is a part of the report.
“While I have not seen the report in its entirety, I am reliably informed that the 224-page final report, dated February 2021, is comprised of two main parts,” Montagna wrote in the Substack. “The First Part offers a detailed analysis of the survey results and findings continent by continent, and country by country, and includes charts and graphs illustrating data and trends.
“The Second Part, titled ‘Summary’ [Sintesi], is briefer and includes an introduction, a summary on each continent, an Overall Assessment [Giudizio Complessivo] of the survey results, and a collection of quotations drawn from the responses received from the dioceses and arranged thematically. This collection was meant to provide Pope Francis with a representative sampling of the bishops’ responses.”
Montagna also posted a PDF to her Substack of the collection of response quotations.
Nicole Winfield, writing for the Associated Press, reported that a Vatican spokesman did not immediately reply when asked July 2 for comment or to confirm Montagna’s documents’ authenticity.
In a July 2021 letter to bishops explaining his reasons for promulgating Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis said that the questionnaire’s “responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene.”
Montagna’s July 1 report alleges that the CDF’s overall assessment indicated that the general responses of the bishops communicated a positive situation overall. Some observed on social media that perhaps even a few negative aspects were sufficient to concern Pope Francis to act, out of genuine concern. One account also noted Pope Francis never said the majority of bishops requested him to act, but that he recognized “a situation that preoccupies and saddens me….”
“The majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire,” Montagna’s English translation of the alleged CDF assessment reads, “and who have generously and intelligently implemented the MP Summorum Pontificum, ultimately express satisfaction with it—especially those who have also had the possibility to establish a personal parish where all the sacraments are celebrated in the Forma extraordinaria and where a stable, celebrating, and pastorally active community is formed. In places where the clergy have closely cooperated with the bishop, the situation has become completely pacified.”
The assessment later reports that the majority of bishops also communicated “that making legislative changes to the MP Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good. Any change—whether by suppressing or weakening the MP Summorum Pontificum—would seriously damage the life of the Church, as it would recreate the tensions that the document had helped to resolve.”
It then cites the archbishop of Milan warning that denying Summorum Pontificum’s provisions would lead to “new waves of dissent and resentment” from those who support the Latin Mass.
“Therefore,” the alleged CDF assessment states, “it is better to continue along the path already undertaken, without causing further upheaval.”
The report also notes that bishops observed an increase in vocations stemming from former Ecclesia Dei institutes in English-, Spanish-, French-, and Portuguese-speaking regions and that many seminarians are opting for Ecclesia Dei seminaries rather than diocesan ones. Several bishops expressed regret at this choice, according to the report.
According to the report, bishops also “constant[ly]” highlighted that young people are especially drawn to the Traditional Mass, as well as converts, who “are drawn by the sacredness, seriousness, and solemnity of the liturgy. What strikes them most, also amid a society that is excessively noisy and verbose, is the rediscovery of silence within sacred actions, the restrained and essential words, preaching that is faithful to the Church’s doctrine, the beauty of liturgical chant, and the dignity of the celebration: a seamless whole that is deeply attractive.”
The collection of quotes Montagna published included positive and negative comments from bishops about the attitude of the faithful about the traditional rite, about isolation and community of those who attend it, and on whether having the rite available is a matter of pastoral necessity.
For example, a bishop from the Diocese of Steubenville reportedly said that “some people who support the [Extraordinary Form] do so with ideological assumptions. This is true of certain members of any group; however, they are not representative of the broader communities of faithful who attend the EF.”
The quote collection includes comments from a bishop from the archdiocese of Messina-Lipari-S. Lucia della Mela, Italy, who remarked: “At times, the form has been applied not for the good of souls, but to cater to the personal preferences of the priest.”
Winfield, writing for the Associated Press, observed that the document had “some negative and neutral opinions,” but that the majority expressed satisfaction.
“It’s not clear,” Winfield wrote, “what other evidence, anecdotes or documentation informed Francis’ decision to reverse Benedict.”
The overall assessment concludes by noting some bishops suggested that it may it be good to offer in seminaries sessions studying both the English and Latin forms of the Roman Rite, “in order to make known its immense richness at the service of the celebration of the entire and unique Christian mystery throughout the Church, and to foster peaceful conditions for the celebration of this liturgy in local churches, with priests suitably formed for its celebration.”
Montagna wrote in her Substack that “the Vatican’s overall assessment reveals is that the ‘gaps’, ‘divergences’, and ‘disagreements’ stem more from a level of nescience, prejudice and resistance of a minority of bishops to Summorum Pontificum than from any problems originating from adherents to the traditional Roman liturgy.”