Cardinal Roche: ‘Nothing wrong’ with Latin Mass but Church needed to ‘move away’ from it

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — After vigorously implementing Pope Francis restrictions on the traditional Mass, Cardinal Arthur Roche has said there is “nothing wrong” with the Latin Mass but that the Church wished to “move away from what had become an overly elaborate form of celebrating the Mass.”

Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (DDW) since May 2021, Cardinal Arthur Roche has overseen the radical restrictions imposed on the traditional Latin Mass by Pope Francis since July of that year.

Roche was already known as an opponent of the traditional Mass upon his promotion from secretary to prefect of the DDW.

Speaking to the Catholic Herald recently, the 75-year-old Roche fielded a question about the numbers of young Catholics flocking to the Latin Mass while having to deal with his restrictions on it.

“Of course, it is good that people want to be part of the Church, and there is no reason why they cannot,” he said.

“There is nothing wrong with attending the Mass celebrated with the 1962 missal,” added Roche. “That has been accepted since the time of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict, and now Pope Francis.”

He continued, arguing that Francis’ restrictions in Traditionis Custodes showed that the Latin Mass “is not the norm.”

“For very good reasons, the Church, through conciliar legislation, decided to move away from what had become an overly elaborate form of celebrating the Mass,” stated Roche.

The English cardinal commented on the numbers of devotees of the traditional Mass as being “in reality, quite small, but some of the groups are quite clamorous. They are more noticeable because they make their voices heard.”

READ: Cardinal Burke: Pope Francis’ Latin Mass restrictions have had ‘exactly the opposite effect’

Roche repeated a much cited – and equally often rebuffed – argument made by critics against the Latin Mass, stating that the new Mass, or Novus Ordo Missae, exposes Catholics to more readings from Scripture over the course of its three-year lectionary cycle. “There is a much lower percentage of scriptural readings in the 1962 missal than there are in the newer missal,” he argued.

Notably, Roche appeared confused about why individuals are annoyed by others offering the Latin Mass, commenting that “what interests me is why people get hot under the collar about others celebrating the Tridentine Mass. I think this has been a mistake. Bishop Wheeler, of the Diocese of Leeds, insisted that a Holy Mass be celebrated in Latin according to the Novus Ordo at least once every Sunday in every deanery. That showed considerable wisdom.”

In his own view, Roche said that “the celebration of the Eucharist, in whichever missal you are using, should be very noble and marked by noble simplicity.”

He also appeared to jokingly rebuff the concerns of devotees of the traditional Mass by quipping that he says Mass in Latin most days in the Vatican:

I often hear people say, “Cardinal Roche is against the Latin Mass.” Well, if they only knew that most days I celebrate Mass in Latin because it is the common language for all of us here. It is the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin. I was trained as an altar boy until the age of 20, serving the Tridentine Form.

‘Hot under the collar’

Roche’s apparent confusion at people’s frustration with priests offering the Latin Mass comes in direct opposition to his own record on the matter. Along with the Pope’s restrictions on the ancient liturgy, Roche has issued his own restrictions with papal backing, and has been widely documented as rigorously enforcing restrictions on the Latin Mass in dioceses across the world to the detriment of often thriving congregations.

The latest figures show that in 2022, Roche’s office permitted just 60 parishes worldwide to host the traditional Mass, as he has emerged as the most ardent enforcer of a crackdown against the ancient liturgy.

READ: Vatican allowed fewer than 60 parish churches worldwide to offer Latin Mass in 2022

Indeed, former Vatican doctrine prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller revealed last summer that “a senior representative of Roche’s Dicastery for Divine Worship” was dismayed when he heard of the huge numbers of young pilgrims on the traditional Mass pilgrimage to Chartres. Müller said the official “objected that this was by no means a cause for joy, because Holy Mass was celebrated according to the old Extraordinary Latin rite.”

Roche was also believed to be one of the leading architects of a document containing fresh restrictions on the Latin Mass last year, though following an outpouring of public demonstration from Catholics and non-Catholics – along with direct lobbying of the Pope by a Russian Orthodox man – the document never emerged.

While Roche and his Vatican office have persistently rolled back permission for the Latin Mass, the cardinal previously described devotees of the old rite as more Protestant than Catholic for their adherence to the Latin Mass.

“The theology of the Church has changed,” necessitating a change in liturgy, argued Roche in a public radio broadcast in 2023.

READ: Cardinal Sarah: Plans to ‘abolish’ Latin Mass would be ‘diabolical’

In early 2022, Roche repeated his prior sentiments, calling the remaining provisions of the Latin Mass “a pastoral concession,” and that the growth of the Latin Mass “couldn’t be tolerated because the [Second Vatican] Council had changed the way in which we’re going forward. That’s just a simple matter.”

His comments on the liturgy have been robustly criticized by scholars and journalists, with Roche accused of being ignorant of ecclesial history and liturgy or “shamelessly twisting the truth about the Latin Mass.”

Meanwhile, canon lawyers have argued that some of Roche’s actions violate the Church’s Canon Law and his restrictions have been criticized by his brothers among the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Raymond Burke has described Roche’s Responsa ad dubia as “confused” and “contradictory,” stating that “what the congregation [DDW] pretends is not only contrary to the good order of the Church, but contrary to reason.”