(LifeSiteNews) — A letter writing campaign has been launched to ask Pope Leo XIV to revoke the traditional Latin Mass-suppressing Traditionis Custodes, thereby permitting the continuation of many TLMs around the world.
“Write to the Holy Father: ‘Save the TLM,’” sums up the call of the Faithful Advocate, an apostolate born within the Diocese of Charlotte, where Bishop Michael Martin’s crackdown on TLMs sparked a particularly impassioned outcry, echoing those following other such suppressions prompted by Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes.
The group has invited parishes and Catholics across the country to write to the pope, “asking him to abrogate Traditionis Custodes and protect the Sacred Liturgy worldwide.”
Faithful Advocate’s website has provided sample letters for the faithful to submit to the Holy Father, either as-is or modified, which implore him to “restore the rights” of communities to “celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass within their parish churches.”
“We respectfully ask Your Holiness to consider abrogating Traditionis Custodes, since suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass risks alienating devoted Catholics, stifling spiritual growth within the universal Church, and undermining the unity it seeks to promote,” read the letters.
A sample letter for those residing in the Diocese of Charlotte and in the Archdiocese of Detroit have been provided, as well as a general letter which can be used by anyone throughout the world. The TLMs of the Archdiocese of Detroit, which were also recently targeted, have taken a particularly hard hit, since the archdiocese offered 28 locations for Traditional Latin Mass, and as of July 1, 2025, those will be reduced to four locations.
While the group aimed to have parishes collect letters by or before June 23, individual Catholics may submit letters at any time, although the faithful are encouraged to quickly voice their concerns.
Faithful Advocate is also encouraging the faithful to contact Bishop Martin weekly via letter and email to seek from Rome a renewal of TLM permissions and grant full access to this Mass, “until this issue is addressed in favor of the Faithful.”
Contact information for the nuncio and the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has also been provided.
The group’s petition initiative accords with canon law, which states, “The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.” (c. 212 §2)
Faithful Advocate has linked to a video interview with Fr. Pius Pietrzyk on the limits of bishops’ authority with regard to restrictions upon the Mass.
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has pointed out that the Traditional Latin Mass has been definitively authorized by St. Pius V’s bull Quo Primum, which states:
(I)n virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain … that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remains always valid and retains its full force …
Would anyone, however, presume to commit such an act (i.e., altering Quo Primum), he should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
