While rumours and debates have swirled regarding the future of the traditional Mass under Leo XIV, this week also saw the Pope resume weekly audiences, visit Assisi and have his South America voyage finally confirmed.
If the Herald Dispatch is a reader’s first foray into the world of Vatican news from the past week, then a recap of the past seven days might be useful. Last weekend, Leo XIV sent a message to Cardinal Ernest Simoni, as the 97-year-old cardinal offered Mass in the former Soviet prison camp where he himself had been imprisoned for nearly two decades. “The blood of those who suffered and died among those mountains has watered that land, making it a silent witness to fidelity, courage and hope,” wrote the Pope. During his own years in the prison camp of Spaç, Simoni had said Mass from memory, offering it in secret at the risk of his life.
On Sunday, tourists and pilgrims alike – both low in number during the summer heat – rejoined the Pope in St Peter’s Square for the Angelus, after he had led the prayer from the villa at Castel Gandolfo during the previous weeks of his holiday.
But it was Cardinal Robert Sarah who stole the headlines on that day, thanks to an interview he gave to Italian outlet Il Foglio in which he made another impassioned appeal for an end to restrictions on the traditional Mass. “It is a tragedy – indeed, a true sin – that on an essential issue such as the liturgy there is a sort of war,” commented the former prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. The cardinal also lamented that the Novus Ordo is riddled with “abuses” and that consequently it “is often not celebrated as the Council would have intended and as the liturgical reform itself suggests”.
Sarah’s interventions always carry weight, given how moderately rare they are but also how measured and deliberate his tone is. In choosing his words so carefully, he does not make it easy for critics to readily ridicule his comments and ensures that his remarks carry far and wide.
Indeed, the liturgy was very much the predominant theme under discussion this week, thanks to the interview that Sarah’s successor – Cardinal Arthur Roche – gave to The Tablet, in which he rejected any possibility of Leo changing Traditionis Custodes. Debate has flared up among analysts as to whether Roche is speaking for himself and his own hopes or if he is accurately representing the intention of the Pope. Conflicting rumours have also abounded, with varying degrees of credibility, but the growing understanding among most seasoned and informed analysts is that though Leo may not want to tackle Traditionis Custodes directly, he will eventually be forced to do so, if for no other reason than to stop large numbers of Catholics attending the Society of Saint Pius X – something the Vatican does not want.
This week was one in which Vatican travel also featured prominently. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin was in Guatemala between August 2 and 4, before then heading to Mexico from August 4 to 6. Such visits are announced by the Holy See just as they begin, leaving little room for prior attention to the details of the itinerary, but the cardinal’s Mexico leg of the journey was of particular note given the increasing probability of a papal trip there in the near future.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has already officially invited Leo and he himself has noted his desire to visit “soon”. Parolin met with Sheinbaum during the visit, but details have remained sparse.
Parolin’s close colleague, Archbishop Richard Gallagher, is reportedly set to visit Russia later this month in what would be a notable trip since the Vatican’s foreign minister has not visited the nation since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
As for papal travels, news about two high-profile upcoming voyages was confirmed this week. First was the announcement of Leo’s journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to 17. With Leo himself noting as far back as Christmas time that he intended to make the voyage, it had simply been a case of receiving official confirmation.
Every papal visit is given immense scrutiny, but perhaps few will have the level of interest that Leo will encounter during his days in Argentina and Peru. The former never received a papal visit from the Argentinian Pope Francis and, as such, Leo has opined that it is almost owed a trip. As for Peru, where Leo spent many years as a missionary and bishop, the reception afforded to Leo there will be telling in that it will reveal to the global Church the legacy of the years he spent there, which have remained still largely out of wider scrutiny. Each of the three countries has seen a dramatic loss of practice of the faith in recent years, meaning that Leo will have to tap into more than just the dormant Catholic formation if his visit is to lead to any meaningful restoration in the strength of Catholicism there.
The Vatican also released details about the Pope’s briefer visit to France, which takes place from September 25 to 28. Arriving first in Paris for meetings with the president, diplomats and politicians, Leo will celebrate Vespers at the recently refurbished Notre-Dame Cathedral – an event set to be one of the highlights of the trip.
He will also spend just over a full day at the shrine of Lourdes, taking part in the nightly torchlight rosary procession, praying at the Grotto itself and meeting with the sick – a key aspect of daily life at the Marian shrine.
During his time in France, Leo will hold a private meeting with victims of clerical abuse. Indeed, this issue will be front and centre during the trip, since Lourdes is bedecked with multiple images designed by the alleged serial abuser Fr Marko Rupnik. Some of his works on the façade of the basilica have been covered for over a year and will remain so, but others have not been hidden and thus remain a very visible reminder of the abuse which Rupnik is alleged to have committed.
The inclusion of such a meeting on the Pope’s calendar will be welcomed by abuse victims, but so also would a speedier resolution in the Rupnik trial – something which seems to remain elusive.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X/Twitter @MLJHaynes.
