ROME — San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has thrown his support behind a petition for mercy on the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) launched by a group of prominent UK personages.
As Breitbart News reported, a group of more than 40 UK cultural and political bigwigs published an open letter Wednesday petitioning the Vatican not to ban the Traditional Latin Mass following widespread and persistent rumors that the Vatican intends to do just that.
“The widely diverse coalition of signers of the petition to Pope Francis,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote on X, “demonstrates that, even beyond its spiritual value, the Traditional Latin Mass is a cultural treasure that has inspired artistic creativity of every kind & in every age, building what we know as Western Civilization.”
“I thank them for making their voices heard,” he said.
The letter — signed by such figures as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tom Holland, Julian Fellowes, Bianca Jagger, Kiri Te Kanawa, Paul Smith, Susan Hampshire, Lady Getty, Princess Michael of Kent, Imogen Cooper, and numerous members of the House of Lords — underscored the historic, spiritual, and cultural importance of the TLM, begging the Vatican “to reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
The letter styles itself as an updated version of the “Agatha Christie letter,” an appeal made to Pope Paul VI in 1971 in defense of the Latin Mass. That letter was also signed by Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, including Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, and Yehudi Menuhin.
This new appeal, like its predecessor, is “entirely ecumenical and non-political,” the text states.
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 letter reads.
“Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine,” it continues, “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 disdain for the Latin Mass, Pope Francis has reversed actions by his predecessors Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to make the Latin Mass more available to those who wish to attend.
In 2021, Francis issued 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 want 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, however, 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.
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