Cardinal Mueller on the New TLM Restrictions

By Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, The Catholic Thing, July 19, 2021

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller was made Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope Benedict XVI and served from 2012 until 2017. Pope Francis named him a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in June of 2021.

The pope’s intention with his motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, is to secure or restore the unity of the Church. The proposed means for this is the total unification of the Roman Rite in the form of the Missal of Paul VI (including its subsequent variations). Therefore, the celebration of Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, as introduced by Pope Benedict XVI with Summorum pontificum (2007) on the basis of the Missal that existed from Pius V (1570) to John XXIII (1962), has been drastically restricted. The clear intent is to condemn the Extraordinary Form to extinction in the long run. …