Response to Cardinal Roche's text on the liturgy

Cardinal Roche’s Rearguard Action

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During the recent consistory, the meeting of cardinals in Rome, Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, handed out a two-sided piece of paper containing some reflections on the liturgy to those present: this has been make available by Diane Montagna here. The liturgy had been among the four topics originally proposed for discussion at the meeting, but the cardinals decided to focus on just two, leaving the liturgy out. Cardinal Roche’s document was accordingly handed out without being formally discussed.

Versions were available in Italian and in English. The latter was clearly translated from the former, and not flawlessly: the Italian word sintonia, which means ‘harmony’, was rendered ‘syntony’ (para 4). It is surprising that an English Cardinal should have missed this howler, and it suggests that he didn’t write the document personally.

The argument of the text is not difficult to summarise. First, it makes historical argument that the liturgy has often developed: ‘The history of the liturgy … is the history of its continuous “reforming” in a process of organic development.’

This is linked, secondly, to the authority of the Second Vatican Council, at whose request the liturgy was reformed.

Thirdly, it repeats, with illustrations from the time of Pope Pius V, the Second Vatican Council, Pope Benedict, and Pope Francis, the claim that liturgical unity is necessary for the unity of the Church.

As a contribution to the debate sparked by Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter restricting the Traditional Mass, Traditionis custodes, this represents a doubling-down rather than an attempt to engage with critics.

Gregorius Magnus 20, Winter 2026, now available

The new edition of Gregorius Magnus, the magazine of the FIUV, is now available to view online, on the ISSUU platform (optimised for mobile devices) or as a downloadable pdf.

In this issue we welcome Pope Leo, explore the Romanitas of English Catholicism, join Una Voce France in celebrating the 350th anniversary of the revelations of the Sacred Heart, explore the school in Nigeria run by the apostolate of the Fraternity of St Peter, review Jonathan Haight's The Anxious Generation, and lots more.

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FIUV Ordo 2026 available now!

The Federation's own Ordo, giving the Mass to be said every day of the year according to the Universal Calendar (1962), is now available as a pdf download here.

Hard copies are now available to buy, from the LMS online shop.

The FIUV took up the publication of this Ordo when the PCED, which used to do it, ceased to exist. It is modelled on the old PCED Ordos.

Please direct corrections to 

fiuvordocomments@mailbox.org.

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General Assembly 2025 and a new Council

The Federation's General Assembly takes place every two years and (re)elects the President and Council, following which the Council chooses the Secretary and Treasurer and can co-opt three additional Councilors.

We had a well-attended General Assembly this year, and are delighted to announce the following, to hold office from now until the General Assembly of 2027.

President: Joseph Shaw (Latin Mass Society, England and Wales)

President d’Honneur: Jacques Dhaussy (Una Voce France)

Patrick Banken (Una Voce France)

Jack Oostveen (Ecclesia Dei Delft, The Netherlands)

Vice President and Treasurer: Monika Rheinschmitt (Pro Missa Tridentina, Germany)

Secretary: Andris Amolins (Una Voce Latvia)

Councillors:

Jaime Alcalde (Magnificat, UV Chile)

David Reid (Una Voce Canada)

Fabio Marino (Una Voce Italy)

Uchenna Okezie (Una Voce Nigeria)

Donal Hanley (Una Voce Taiwan)

Rubén Peretó Rivas (Una Voce Argentina)

The following were invited to join Council meetings as non-voting consultants:

Consultants:

Pepijn Deutekom (Una Voce Netherlands)

Felipe Suarez Alanis (UV Mexico)

Catherine Jeulin (Una Voce France)

Membership of past Councils is recorded here.

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Rodolfo Vargas Rubio: Requiescat in pace

As Secretary in the FIUV General Assembly 2009

From Accion Liturgica blog (machine translation):

We have the sad news of the death of the historian Rodolfo Vargas Rubio. Many today will not know him but he was a great defender of the traditional Liturgy when in Spain it was a wasteland, with hardly any other place of celebration than the Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy, on Laforja Street, in Barcelona. Where many of us were able to attend our first Tridentine Masses.

Rodolfo Vargas was a promoter of the Roma Aeterna Association, a pioneer in the defense of the Traditional Roman Rite, and a member of the Una Voce Association [editor's note: including as Secretary]. A great Latinist and connoisseur of the liturgy, he was also highly appreciated for his sympathy and generosity.

May Our Lady and Venerable Pope Pius XII, for whom Vargas felt great devotion, intercede before God Our Lord for his eternal rest.

Requiescat in Pace

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Cardinal Burke to celebrate the TLM in St Peter's: Press Release

Press Release

The organisers of the annual Ad Petri Sedem ‘Summorum Pontificum’ Pilgrimage to Rome have announced that Raymond, Cardinal Burke, will celebrate the keynote Traditional Latin Mass of their pilgrimage at the Altar of the Throne in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, at 3pm on Saturday 25th October.

Joseph Shaw, President of the FIUV, welcomed the news. “We are grateful to Pope Leo for his pastoral response to the request for a Traditional Mass in St Peter’s. This celebration symbolises the unity with the Holy Father so desired by Catholics attached to the ancient rite of Mass.”

Background

This is the first concrete indication of the attitude of Pope Leo XIV to the Traditional Mass, the Vetus Ordo or 1962 Missal. In the latter years of Pope Francis, the official view was that this form of the Mass, while not completely prohibited, should not be ‘promoted’ or given prominence, with high-profile celebrants in important churches.

It represents a major breakthrough for the pilgrimage, which for the last two years has been denied permission to have a Mass in St Peter’s, following Pope Francis’ restrictions on the Traditional Mass in his Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes in 2021.

Up to 2022 (including the pilgrimage immediately after the publication of Traditionis Custodes) Mass in the traditional form had been celebrated for a growing  number of pilgrims by many distinguished celebrants, including Cardinal Burke himself in 2014. In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage visited St Peter’s for other prayers and devotions, but not Mass.

The Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage has in recent years has grown to more than 1,000 pilgrims, drawn from all over the world.

End

The FIUV (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce, or Una Voce International) is the federation of lay-led Una Voce or Latin Mass around the world, and is a member of the Coetus Summorum Pontificum which organises the Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage.

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