Translate

Monday, September 29, 2025

A MODEST PROPOSAL TO POPE LEO FOR SUPPRESSING CUSTODIS TRADITIONIS AND REFINING SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM…

 



Dear Pope Leo,

Thank you for listening to those who have come to discover the Ancient Rites of the Church due to the generosity and magnanimity of Pope Benedict XVI. 

I recommend that you simply discard Custodis Traditionis and reinstate Summorum Pontificum.

It might be a good idea to revisit why the late, great Pope Benedict XVI referred to the two forms of the one Roman Rite as the Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form. 

The Ordinary Form is the normal form of the Mass and all Latin Rite priests should respect the Ordinary Form as the normal form of the Mass for parishes. Remind them, though, to read the black and do the red and stop turning the Normal Mass into a sideshow of personality idiosyncrasies. 

Emphasize that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass is precisely that, out of the ordinary. If it is to be added to a parish’s Mass schedule, it should not replace any of the Ordinary Form Masses. It should be at a separate time. 

Emphasize too, that the faithful who request the Extraordinary Form for the other sacraments, like Baptism and Holy Matrimony and also for Requiems should be granted their request. 

Remind bishops to be engaged with those who celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and not to look down on them or to be aloof from them. Make sure priests respect those who want the normal form of the Mass to remain precisely that, the normal form and to respect those who desire the Extraordinary Form. 

Remind bishops and priests not to be rigid but flexible but within the context of the Canon Laws of the Church.

Finally, allow kneeling at an altar railing for Holy Communion at the Normal Mass as well as ad orientem. This will show the continuity between the two Masses, one normal and one out of the normal usage. 

Thank you for taking all this into consideration. I remember you at every Mass I celebrate. 

Sincerely  your in Christ,

Fr. Allan J. McDonald

Diocese of Savannah


8 comments:

TJM said...

Nicely written, Father McDonald. I think many bishops who are hostile to the TLM have a deep-seated inferiority complex because they do not know the official language of the Latin Rite and are envious of younger priests who do. Just a thought!

big benny said...

Well if Leo is anything like Francis you might just get a phone call out of the blue!

big benny said...

From the new guidelines for masses in the basilica…

On the feast day of a saint whose relics are in the Basilica, one of the Masses can be celebrated at the altar dedicated to that saint.

Mark Thomas said...

In regard to the "Latin Mass issue, Pope Leo XIV declared"

"There is another issue, which is also another hot-button issue, which I have already received a number of requests and letters [about]: The question about, people always say ‘the Latin Mass.’

"It’s obviously very complicated. I do know that part of that issue, unfortunately, has become – again, part of a process of polarization..."

"Again, we’ve become polarized, so that instead of being able to say, well, if we celebrate the Vatican II liturgy in a proper way, do you really find that much difference between this experience and that experience?"

"But that is an issue that I think also, maybe with synodality, we have to sit down and talk about. It’s become the kind of issue that’s so polarized that people aren’t willing to listen to one another,..."

=======

Based upon the above from His Holiness, I question whether he would approach the "Latin Mass question" in such, if you will, "simple" (Father McDonald's word..."simply" to be exact) fashion, as Father delineated.

(Again, I did not call attention to the word "simple/simply" as a putdown.)

Pax.

Mark Thomas

TJM said...

Father McDonald, an ironic title for this parish which just terminated its TLM: Divine Mercy:

https://sthughofcluny.org/2025/09/traditional-mass-ended-at-st-cecilia-brooklyn.html

Now the English and Spanish language Masses will continue, but not the one that unifies both language groups. Basta!

Nick said...

My understanding is that the ICKSP is being given care of a parish in the diocese, which sounds like (?) an overall positive--rather than a weekly TLM that can be shut down at the whims of Traitors of Tradition, there will be a full schedule of Masses and sacramental life.

Nick

big benny said...

TJM, nice theory but it’s said at V2 the bishops advocating most for the tension of Latin were the ones with least command of it.

Paul Rowan said...

Tension or Retention?