Episode 3294: Traditionis Custodes vs. Quo Primum - The Battle for the Mass

November 15, 2025

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Book Recommendation of the Day
St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621): On the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
• This treatise offers a thorough, tradition-grounded defense of the Catholic understanding of the Mass as a true sacrifice, the nature of that sacrifice, and the liturgical ceremonies of the Roman rite.
• It is highly relevant for this podcast theme, since it addresses the theology, continuity, and liturgical form of the Mass from a saint-theologian’s perspective.
In the summer of 2021, Pope Francis released an encyclical-level decree titled Traditionis Custodes, a document that most modern Catholics barely noticed and even fewer understood. And this, in itself, reveals the heart of the crisis: we live in an age where the average Catholic has not been formed in the Church’s liturgical history, its doctrinal continuity, or the immutable authority granted by Christ to His Church. Because of this lack of formation, many Catholics did not realize just how radical even revolutionary Traditionis Custodes truly was.

For the first time in history, a pope attempted to restrict a liturgical rite that had been guaranteed “in perpetuity” by his predecessors; a rite that spans nearly two millennia; a rite sanctified by saints, martyrs, doctors, and councils. And yet the decree was presented to the world with an attitude eerily reminiscent of a state ideology not the mind of the Church. The message was unmistakable:
“This is the new reality. What came before does not matter. Do not question it. Do not appeal to tradition. Do not reference doctrine. Simply comply.”
In other words: shut up and submit.
This is not the voice of the Good Shepherd, who leads His flock with clarity and continuity. It is the tone of a revolution of a regime that asserts authority it does not possess while disregarding the perennial teaching that preceded it. When a Church document functions more like a decree from a political politburo where the past is rewritten, dissent is silenced, and obedience is demanded at the expense of truth we must ask: What spirit is truly speaking?

This episode will examine why Traditionis Custodes struck at the very heart of Quo Primum, why countless faithful sensed a rupture long before they could articulate it, and how the modern Church’s behavior resembles the tactics of ideological systems that prize control over continuity. We will explore how authority has been weaponized, how history has been ignored, and how the faithful are being asked to choose between obeying a moment and obeying the unbroken tradition of 2,000 years.
Most importantly, we will ask the question every serious Catholic must face today:
Can the Church contradict what She has always taught, or does the Deposit of Faith stand firm even when shepherds do not?
Traditionis Custodes vs. Quo Primum: The Battle for the Mass”
Welcome to Episode 7 of our Council of Confusion series.
In our last episode, we explored Pope St. Pius V’s apostolic constitution Quo Primum Tempore the great bulwark of Catholic worship that safeguarded the Roman Rite “now and forever.”
Today, we face the question many Catholics have been afraid to ask:
If Quo Primum declared the Traditional Latin Mass to be perpetual and untouchable, how could Pope Francis or any modern pope claim the authority to restrict or suppress it?
The 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes “Guardians of the Tradition” declared that the so-called Novus Ordo is now “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
But history, theology, and reason tell us otherwise.
This is more than a policy disagreement. It is a crisis of continuity a battle over whether the Church still believes in her own Tradition.
SEGMENT 1 — QUO PRIMUM: THE PERPETUAL DECREE
Pope St. Pius V, following the Council of Trent, declared in Quo Primum (1570):
“We grant and concede in perpetuity that this Missal is to be followed absolutely… Nothing is to be added, omitted, or changed in it.”
He concluded with a solemn anathema:
“Should anyone presume to tamper with this, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
For four centuries, popes guarded this decree faithfully.
They refined minor rubrics, but they never changed the rite’s substance.
Quo Primum was more than administrative it was a doctrinal defense of the faith.
Because the Mass expresses the faith (lex orandi, lex credendi), to preserve the Mass is to preserve Catholic doctrine itself.
That’s why the saints from St. Francis of Assisi to St. Thérèse of Lisieux all prayed the same Mass.
To change it substantially would mean changing what the Church believes.
SEGMENT 2 — TRADITIONIS CUSTODES: THE MODERN REVERSAL
In July 2021, Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes, reversing Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum (2007), which had affirmed that the Traditional Latin Mass had never been abrogated and remained a living expression of the Church’s prayer.
Francis’s decree claimed:
“The liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II… are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
With that single sentence, 450 years of continuity were swept aside.
Priests were forbidden to offer the old Mass without special permission.
Communities that had preserved the faith for decades were treated as intruders.
Seminaries that formed men in the ancient rite were told to cease.
Ironically, the document titled Traditionis Custodes “Guardians of the Tradition” did the opposite: it imprisoned the very tradition it claimed to guard.
SEGMENT 3 — A CONTRADICTION IN AUTHORITY
How can a pope, claiming the authority of Peter, contradict a sainted predecessor who bound all future popes “in perpetuity”?
There are two key truths to remember:
1. The Pope is the Guardian of Tradition, not its Master
Pope Pius IX declared:
“I am Tradition. I am nothing but a guardian of what I have received.”
The papacy was instituted to hand on, not recreate, the deposit of faith.
A pope cannot abolish what his predecessors canonized for all time.
2. The Principle of Non-Contradiction
The Church cannot teach one thing in 1570 and its opposite in 2021 and remain consistent.
If Quo Primum binds forever, then Traditionis Custodes cannot nullify it without contradicting the very indefectibility of the Church.
To say the Novus Ordo is “the only expression” of the Roman Rite is not only historically false it is theologically impossible.
The Roman Rite existed for over a millennium before 1969.
The Novus Ordo, fabricated by committee, may be a rite, but it cannot be the Roman Rite in continuity with the Mass of St. Gregory, St. Pius V, and St. Pius X.
SEGMENT 4 — THE THEOLOGICAL CORE: INDEFECTIBILITY AND TRADITION
The doctrine of indefectibility teaches that the Church, in her essence, cannot defect from truth or abandon what is essential to the Faith.
But individual popes and prelates can err, especially in matters of prudence or discipline that harm faith and worship.
The Traditional Mass is part of the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church sanctified by centuries of uninterrupted use.
To suppress it is to deny the principle of indefectibility, as if the Church could contradict her own sanctified worship.
St. Vincent of Lérins gave the rule:
“Hold fast to what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”
The Traditional Mass fulfills that rule perfectly.
The Novus Ordo, with its Protestantized prayers and anthropocentric focus, does not.
Thus, Catholics who adhere to the Mass of Ages are not rebels they are simply remaining faithful to what the Church has always taught and always prayed.
SEGMENT 5 — THE FRUITS OF EACH “REFORM”
Our Lord said, “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Compare the fruits of Quo Primum and those of Traditionis Custodes:
Quo Primum (1570) Traditionis Custodes (2021)
United Christendom under one universal rite. Divided the Church into camps of suspicion and persecution.
Produced centuries of saints, martyrs, and missionaries. Produced confusion, irreverence, and empty pews.
Safeguarded doctrine through sacred worship. Weakened doctrine through desacralized worship.
Reaffirmed papal duty to preserve Tradition. Asserted papal power to erase it.
The contrast is undeniable.

The Tridentine Mass elevates; the Novus Ordo adapts.
One leads souls to Calvary; the other often leads them to complacency.
SEGMENT 6 — THE FAITHFUL REPSONSE
So how should faithful Catholics respond?
With fidelity, charity, and resolve.
Fidelity — by continuing to attend and promote the Traditional Latin Mass, wherever it is found, in obedience to what the Church has always taught.
Charity — by praying for our bishops and the pope, even as we respectfully resist policies that harm the Faith.
Resolve — by forming our families in the Tradition that sanctified our ancestors.
As Archbishop Lefebvre said:
“We are not against Rome; we are for Rome for the Rome of all time, not of the modernist experiment.”
Our attachment to the Mass is not nostalgia. It is love for Christ as He has always been adored by His Church.
CLOSING REFLECTION
When Pope Francis invoked the title Traditionis Custodes, perhaps he did not realize the irony for the true custodians of Tradition are not bureaucrats in Rome, but the faithful who keep the faith and the Mass alive in their hearts, homes, and chapels.
Quo Primum was not a relic — it was a covenant.
And that covenant endures, because the Mass is eternal.
Epistle: 2 Timothy 4:1–8 (Douay-Rheims)
St. Paul, knowing his martyrdom is near, exhorts Timothy:
“I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ… Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine… For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine… But watch… do the work of an evangelist… I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.”
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Gospel: Matthew 5:13–19 (Douay-Rheims)
Our Lord teaches:
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before men… Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets… Not one jot or tittle shall pass… But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
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Reflection on the Epistle
“In Season and Out of Season”
St. Paul’s final words are not sentimental—they are a command. He gives Timothy, and through him the entire Church, a solemn apostolic mandate:
1. Preach the Word — Always
Paul does not say:
“Preach when it is popular,”
or
“Preach when it won’t offend.”
He says:
“In season and out of season.”
This is the spirit of Tradition.
This is the backbone of the saints.
This is the courage of the martyrs.
In an age when many Catholics—even clergy—hesitate to defend doctrine, Paul’s words strike like a warning bell:
There will come a time when men will not endure sound doctrine.
We are living in such a time.
The Church faces confusion, doctrinal ambiguity, and outright error from voices—sometimes even high-ranking ones—who should be guardians of truth, not agents of confusion.
St. Paul’s words remind us:
• Doctrine does not change.
• The Deposit of Faith cannot evolve into its opposite.
• Truth must be preached even when it is unwelcome.
2. “I have fought the good fight.”
These are the words of a soldier, not a diplomat.
Paul sees his life as:
• A battlefield
• A race
• A mission
And at the end, he hands down not a “new vision,” not a “pastoral reinterpretation,” but a faith kept whole.
The “crown of justice” is promised not to innovators, not to those who dilute or compromise, but to those who persevere in fidelity.
This is a message for us today:
Hold fast. Do not abandon Tradition. Keep the faith.
Reflection on the Gospel
“Salt and Light in a Darkening World”
Christ tells His disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.”
Salt preserves.
Salt protects from corruption.
Salt gives flavor.
But Our Lord warns:
“If the salt loses its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out.”
Salt losing its savor is symbolic of Catholics who compromise the Faith.
It is symbolic of clergy who fear the world more than God.
It is symbolic of those who replace doctrine with ambiguity, reverence with casualness, and Tradition with novelty.
“You are the light of the world.”
A light is meant to be seen.
A Catholic cannot be hidden.
Christ commands:
“Let your light shine.”
This means:
• Contend for the faith
• Defend truth boldly
• Live visibly Catholic lives
• Witness to Tradition without embarrassment
In a world that mocks virtue, the Catholic must be unmistakably Catholic—not “spiritual but not religious,” not dissolved into cultural trends, not silent when truth demands a voice.
Christ affirms the Law and the Prophets
Against modern relativism, Jesus declares:
“Not one jot or tittle shall pass.”
He defends the permanence of divine law.
He teaches us that the Gospel is not an abolition of the Old Law but its perfection.
In a time when some propose changing moral law to meet “pastoral needs,” Our Lord speaks clearly:
God’s law is not ours to modify.
Saint of the Day: St. Albert the Great
“The Light of Reason Enlightened by Faith”
St. Albert the Great (1200–1280):
• Dominican friar
• Bishop of Regensburg
• Master of St. Thomas Aquinas
• Doctor of the Church
He is the patron saint of:
• Scientists
• Philosophers
• Those seeking truth through reason
He studied every science known in the medieval world and united it harmoniously with Catholic doctrine. His life teaches us:
1. Reason and faith are friends, never enemies.
2. Truth—scientific, philosophical, or theological—must always lead us to God.
3. Humility is the foundation of sanctity.
St. Albert defended the Faith in universities and in the public square with clarity and charity—but never with compromise.
At a time when the Church faces confusion, when some misuse science to undermine faith or promote agendas contrary to Catholic teaching, St. Albert stands as a model:
Seek truth, defend truth, and never fear where truth leads—for all truth comes from God.
Conclusionary Prayer
Let us close with prayer.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
O Lord Jesus Christ,
You who commanded us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world,
grant us the courage to stand firm in the truth,
to proclaim Your teaching in season and out of season,
and to persevere with the steadfastness of St. Paul.
Through the intercession of
St. Albert the Great,
guide our minds into all truth,
strengthen our hearts in fidelity,
and preserve us from the corruption of the world.
Grant that we may fight the good fight,
finish the course,
and keep the faith,
so that at the end of our earthly pilgrimage
we may receive the crown of justice You have promised.
O Mary, Seat of Wisdom,
keep us faithful to Tradition
and lead us always to Your Son.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.