VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — Debates over the liturgy should ultimately be understood through the lens of unity, not individual preference, said Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
“When we go to church, we don’t go to church to worship simply as an individual but as a family. We go together as the congregation which is called by God,” Cardinal Roche told OSV News March 17 in his office at the Vatican. “This sense of congregation goes back as far as Old Testament times. The Church to which we belong is not a building but ‘living stones’ built upon Christ.”
Text on liturgy given to cardinals
The cardinal’s comments came in the wake of recent discussions surrounding a text he prepared on the liturgy that was distributed to cardinals during Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory in January.
The document, which was circulated among members of the College of Cardinals but not formally debated during the Jan. 7-8 meeting, offered a theological and historical defense of post–Vatican II liturgical reform and reaffirmed the restrictions on the preconciliar Latin Mass established by Pope Francis’ 2021 “motu proprio” “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”).
After initial reports from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale and American journalist Diane Montagna, who published the full version of the text, National Catholic Reporter said the text was distributed to the cardinals but never formally discussed. After a copy of the text was published online, criticism poured in from traditionalist Catholics who oppose restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Second Vatican Council Latin Mass.
‘Accurate historical presentation’
While not directly responding to specific criticisms of the document, Cardinal Roche reiterated the principles that informed it and framed the issue with the Catholic Church’s broader understanding of worship and the liturgy. The document, he said, presented “an accurate historical presentation of the development of the liturgy throughout the ages.”
In his wide-ranging interview with OSV News, Cardinal Roche framed current liturgical debates within the earliest history of the Church, pointing to St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians as evidence that tensions surrounding worship are not new.
Eucharist not a human invention
In addressing divisions among early Christians, he explained, St. Paul reminded them that the Eucharist was not a human invention but something handed down from Christ himself and placed into the hands of the Apostles.
“‘What I gave you to celebrate, I received from Jesus himself,’” the cardinal said, paraphrasing the apostle’s teaching.
Cardinal Roche said the fundamental issue has always been fidelity to what has been received rather than adapting the liturgy to personal or small community preferences. St. Paul’s correction, he explained, underscored that the Mass is not subject to individual control but belongs to the whole Church.
That same principle, he added, remains essential today as Catholics navigate differing approaches to liturgical practice.
‘Traditionis Custodes’
Regarding continued debates about “Traditionis Custodes,” Cardinal Roche told OSV News that the document was rooted in concerns about how the older form of the Mass was being used within the Church.
While earlier permissions granted during the pontificates of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were a pastoral accommodation, the cardinal said the situation had shifted. “What the Holy Father began to realize is that the concession granted to those who found the new rite difficult was being promoted against the reform of the liturgy from the Second Vatican Council,” the cardinal said. “And that promotion … is a promotion ultimately against the unity of the church.”
A concession to celebrate old form of Mass
“Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI — before Pope Francis — also gave this concession to celebrate the old form of the Mass for those who could not adjust to the new form of the Mass,” the cardinal explained.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Roche noted that Catholics can still celebrate the preconciliar Latin Mass “by papal authority.”
“So I ask myself: Why is all this so intense (debate) going on? Why all this noise, the battering of drums and the blowing of trumpets? What else is going on when they have been given the concession of this Mass? What is the problem? Something else is clearly afoot,” he said.
Appeal of Latin Mass to a growing number
Asked about the appeal that a growing number of Catholics feel toward the Latin Mass, Cardinal Roche noted that for some, the attraction is shaped in part by the cultural context of modern life and the constant “noise” of contemporary society.
“When people go into a church that’s quiet, they find that quite attractive. (The noise is) cut off,” he explained. “I think that’s part of the attraction for a lot of people — also the music and the reverence, which is also a challenge to the Novus Ordo; that also should be equally attractive every Sunday. Pitching one rite against the other is to lose a sense of the material you are handling. This is not a game. There needs to be give and take on both sides here.”
Addressing concerns about liturgical abuses, the cardinal said that such problems are not unique to the post–Vatican II Mass, but have existed throughout the church’s history.
Liturgical abuses due to ‘lack of formation’
“There have always been abuses and always caused by lack of formation or a deep misunderstanding. At the time of Paul — St. Paul in Corinth — there were abuses,” he said.
Nevertheless, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments warned against reducing the liturgy to personal preference or control.
“Once you think that the liturgy is something that you can control and organize according to your own preferences, then you’re taking God out of this equation,” he said.
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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