The Vatican granted permission to celebrate the traditional Mass in just 55 parish churches across 33 dioceses last year, in exemptions permitted by the Dicastery for Divine Worship to the restrictions outlined by Traditionis Custodes.
A full list of decrees promulgated by the Dicastery for Divine Worship (DDW) in 2025 reveal the extent of the new permissions granted for the celebration of the traditional Mass in parish churches, along with those churches granted renewal of existing permissions.
Between January 16 and December 12 of last year, a total of 55 parish church in 33 dioceses were given permission to host celebrations of the old rite. The majority of these were renewals for the standard renewal time of two years.
Seven were granted permission while Pope Francis was alive, and the remainder took place after May 27 in the early days of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. One church in the Archdiocese of Glasgow, which was awarded permission under Pope Francis, later had that revoked under Pope Leo XIV in favour of an alternative church in the archdiocese.
Under the terms of Traditionis Custodes as released in July 2021, bishops were informed that parish churches were prohibited from hosting celebrations of the traditional Mass. Instead, the bishop was to designate “one or more locations” in the diocese where Catholics could attend the traditional Mass.
The erection of new personal parishes was also banned by the motu proprio and any exemptions to either aspect were reserved to the DDW.
Six months after Traditionis Custodes was released, DDW prefect Cardinal Arthur Roche expanded the restrictions and issued a Responsa ad dubia on December 18, 2021. The cardinal did grant some limited usage of a parish church for the celebration of the traditional Mass but only when “it is not possible to find a church, oratory or chapel which is available to accommodate the faithful.”
Roche’s explanation of this slight easing included his rationale behind the general ban on using parish churches for the old rite: “The exclusion of the parish church is intended to affirm that the celebration of the Eucharist according to the previous rite, being a concession limited to these groups, is not part of the ordinary life of the parish community.”
The figure of 55 parish churches given permission for the old rite in 2025 is not the full total of the number of parishes globally where the traditional Mass is celebrated. Rather, it is just the figure of those churches where permission was granted anew or handed a renewal of such permission. Other such locations do indeed exist officially but were not due for renewal in 2025.
In 2024, a similar figure of around 52 parish churches in 33 dioceses were granted permission: either for new celebrations or, more commonly, for a renewal of existing Masses for two years.
However, a careful examination of the statistics shows that itemising the DDW’s permission list does not lead to a full overview of the provision of the traditional Mass. There are a number of parish churches which publicly and officially offer the traditional Mass, but which are not included in the DDW’s decrees in recent years.
Nor do the statistics also take into account the personal parishes, shrine churches, or churches within a multi-church parish, which are run by traditional orders such as the Fraternity of Saint Peter or the Institute of Christ the King.
While the 2025 figures are unable to present a global view of the proliferation of the traditional Mass, they do point to the continued status of the old rite in the Church following Traditionis Custodes. Despite much anticipation upon Leo XIV’s arrival, the document remains in force with bishops choosing either to cease existing celebrations or seek permission for new venues.
Under the terms of Roche’s December 2021 Responsa it remains technically even illegal to list celebrations of the traditional Mass in the “parish Mass schedule” and any such celebrations of the old rite “should not be held at the same time as the pastoral activities of the parish community.”
As the five-year anniversary of the restrictions passed this July, opposition to the document remains strong even among those who are not devotees or attendees of the traditional Mass. Many bishops have also quietly noted that when the Vatican conducted its survey, upon which the restrictions were based, they had expressed satisfaction with the current provision of the old rite. Such bishops have noted their bewilderment at the Vatican’s restrictions and commented that their favourable assessment of the pre-Traditionis Custodes provision of the old rite was ignored.
A number of cardinals have made renewed appeals for Pope Leo to return to the arrangement of Summorum Pontificum, with such calls gaining increasing prominence as the restrictions remain in place. So far, Leo has remained largely silent on the issue of the traditional liturgy.
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 @MLJHaynes.
