ROME — Prominent figures continue to appeal to Pope Francis to relax his draconian campaign against the Traditional Latin Mass.
This week, a diverse group of artists and professionals published “An Open Letter from the Americas to Pope Francis,” in which they beg the pontiff not to “deprive the next generation of artists of this source of mystery, beauty, and contemplation of the sacred.”
“All of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, recognize that this ancient liturgy, which inspired the work of Palestrina, Bach, and Beethoven and generations of great artists, is a magnificent achievement of civilization and part of the common cultural heritage of humanity,” they state.
“It is medicine for the soul, one antidote to the gross materialism of the postmodern age,” the letter adds.
Signers include Dana Gioia, former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, actor Eduardo Verastegui, author Andrew Sullivan, religious freedom advocate Nina Shea, International Director of the Knights of Saint Francis Angela Alioto, Grammy Award winner Blanton Alspaugh, and Larry Chapp, founder of Dorothy Day Workers Farm.
The letter follows on a similar text released this month by a group of more than 40 UK cultural and political leaders petitioning the Vatican not to ban the Traditional Latin Mass following widespread and persistent rumors that further restrictions on the TLM are afoot.
The “worrying reports from Rome” that Pope Francis may completely quash the Latin Mass is “a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it,” the UK letter stated.
“Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine,” it said, “but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten.”
Making no attempt to conceal his contempt for the Latin Mass, Pope Francis has reversed actions by his predecessors Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to make the TLM more available to those who wish to attend.
In 2021, Francis released an apostolic letter titled Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of Tradition”), in which he banned the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in Catholic parishes and eliminated existing accommodations to priests who wish to use the extraordinary form of the Catholic liturgy.
On several occasions, Francis has referred to those who prefer the traditional liturgical form as “backwards.”
John Paul II, on the contrary, had urged the continued use of Latin in the Church to maintain ties with its own history and traditions.
“The Roman Church has special obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome,” he wrote, adding that “she must manifest them whenever the occasion presents itself.”
For his part, Pope Benedict stated of the TLM:
What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.