Parishioners protest Latin Mass suppression in Detroit

Parishioners of all ages have gathered outside Detroit's Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament to protest that the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) remains at the heart of parish worship.

On Sunday, 17 August, Catholics gathered outside the cathedral in prayerful petition for the TLM after its suppression by Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, reports LifeSiteNews. The small protest reflects wider tensions across the US over the TLM.

Joseph VanAssche, one of the protest organisers, told the US media: “We want our archbishop to know that there are many faithful Catholics that still want the ‘Mass of the Ages’."

Families from other local parishes in the Midwestern city, such as St Stephen's, which was recently stripped of its TLM liturgies, also came to join the protest and to pray the Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and sing ancient hymns such as Da Pacem Domine and Salve Regina.

VanAssche, a father of eight, said he refused to abandon his home parish despite being told by Archbishop Weisenburger to attend TLM at the remaining four designated sites where it is permitted.

He explained: “Just like many other families, I want my eight kids … to have access to all the beauty the Church has to give. As for my family, we won’t abandon our home parish or priest."

The archbishop's decree, published on 12 June 2025, slashed the number of churches permitted to celebrate the TLM, reducing the number from 28, as recorded in 2022, to just four, along with restricting outdoor public celebrations.

Archbishop Weisenburger has followed directives from Pope Francis’s Traditionis Custodes (2021), which insists the Novus Ordo must become the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite". The archbishop also banned the ad orientem posture in the Novus Ordo, mandating freestanding altars, before reportedly removing his decree from public view soon after its release.

Only St Anne’s in Livonia, a western suburb of Detroit, and administered by the Society of Saint Pius X, continues to offer the TLM in a locality that is close to the cathedral.

In a parallel upheaval, Archbishop Weisenburger dismissed three conservative academic figures from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in July 2025.

On 23 July, Dr Ralph Martin, 82, and Dr Eduardo Echeverria, 74, had their positions terminated after decades of service – Martin since 2002, Echeverria since 2003 – without explanation, though it has been reported that their theological positions, particularly their criticisms of Pope Francis, likely played a part.

Martin told OSV News: “Archbishop Weisenburger told me … he was terminating my position… he didn’t think it would be helpful to give any specifics but mentioned something about having concerns about my theological perspectives."

Similarly, Echeverria commented that “no reason had been provided to him for his termination”.

On 25 July, Professor Edward N. Peters, a canon lawyer at the seminary, announced via X that his contract had also been terminated that week.

Traditionis Custodes, promulgated by Pope Francis in July 2021, restricts the celebration of the TLM and seeks to foster unity by making post-Vatican II liturgies normative. In the US context, responses to the papal decree have varied. Some dioceses have pursued extensions or continued provision of the TLM; other dioceses, such as Detroit, have imposed sweeping restrictions.

Located in the northern central region of the US, the Archdiocese of Detroit is the administrative body that oversees all Roman Catholic parishes, schools and communities in southeast Michigan, notes the archdiocese website. The Detroit Archdiocese is also the seat of the Ecclesiastical Province of Detroit, which includes the six dioceses of Michigan.

The diocese predates even the state of Michigan, which did not join the union until 1837. At that time, the boundaries of the diocese were changed to fit into Michigan’s newly-established borders.

Ste. Anne de Detroit Church was the first church built by settlers in 1701. The church served as the diocese's first cathedral from 1833 to 1848. In 1937, Detroit was elevated to an archdiocese. In the following decades the region’s population grew steadily, which required the expansion of many parishes.

Today, the Archdiocese of Detroit comprises the six counties of southeast Michigan: Lapeer, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne.

In his comments, VanAssche described how the suppression of the TLM does't just hurt parishioners in Detroit.

“All the priests who are now forbidden from the TLM are hurt just as much, so I don’t feel right leaving," he said. "They have a huge cross to carry with this restriction. I feel we also need to help these priests carry their cross by not abandoning the churches they are at.”

The protest organiser concluded: “Our hope is that through our prayers, God’s grace will help Archbishop Weisenburger see it from our point of view, the ones trying to raise the future of the Church, future priests and religious sisters, and allow for more Masses in the Extraordinary Form."

Photo: Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament (credit: Creative Commons / Wikipedia).

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