Pope Francis has confirmed that members of the Fraternity of St. Peter may continue to celebrate the Mass, sacraments and Liturgy of the Hours using the pre-Vatican II texts and forms, the fraternity said.

While the church’s prayer should not be a battlefield, Archbishop Roche says it is understandable that people are passionate about it.

The new policy instructs priests who currently celebrate a form of the Mass, sometimes called the Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass, which was supplanted with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, to request permission from the archbishop if they wish to continue using the extraordinary form.

Do the new restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass increase our unity? Or do they sacrifice unity for uniformity?

Recent edicts and explanations of edicts out of Rome have ignited a familiarly unpleasant conflict in the U.S. church. And yet, though this will infuriate a vocal minority of my fellow Catholics, I just don’t get the brouhaha over the traditional Latin Mass.

A new document from the Vatican congregation that oversees Mass and the sacraments offers responses to questions some bishops have asked about restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II liturgical rite.