Archbishop Aguer: Persecution will not be able to stop growing Latin Mass movement

Contrary to what the previous pope sought, the suppression of the Latin Mass contributed to a growing interest in tradition and orthodoxy.

(LifeSiteNews) — The forever remembered Pope Benedict XVI — who will quite possibly be declared a Doctor of the Church one day — sought in Summorum Pontificum, his 2007 motu proprio on the two uses of the one Roman Rite in its ordinary and extraordinary forms, to liberalize the celebration of the Mass commonly called “traditional,” “Tridentine,” “of Saint Pius V,” or “of the ages.” He did so with the aim of contributing to liturgical peace and out of the respect owed to an ancient and venerable custom.

Thus, any priest could celebrate the Latin Mass without needing special permission or risking ideologically-motivated reprisals from certain bishops. In his letter to the world’s bishops that accompanied the motu proprio, the Pontiff emphasized that “what was sacred for previous generations remains sacred and great for us as well, and cannot all of a sudden be entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.” God alone knows how much the German Pope suffered when, 14 years later, on July 16, 2021, his successor in the papacy revoked that legislation with a stroke of his pen and imposed draconian restrictions on the Vetus Ordo.

Something of that suffering has been revealed in recent days by his faithful personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein. Traditionis Custodes, issued five years ago, far from closed wounds — it only deepened them. Contrary to what its promoter sought, the document contributed to a growing interest in tradition and orthodoxy, especially among the young.

Today a good deal of conversions occur among those who prefer the usus antiquior. To a significant degree, the transmission of the faith no longer passes from parents to children, but from young people to young people. I recall here what I have said on so many occasions:

I was ordained a priest in 1972 according to the Novus Ordo, and I have never celebrated the extraordinary form. Without a doubt the Mystery continues to captivate hearts. In a world of fluid relationships, drowning in emptiness and dehumanization — a world that arrogantly claims to live post-truth, post-humanism, and post-Christianity — Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6), reasserts all his rights.

He shows that through Him, looking toward the Father, and in the Holy Spirit, human existence finds its full meaning, with a view toward a better Future. The Apostle Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians thus resonates with renewed vigor: rooted and built up in Christ, established in the faith you were taught (Col 2:7). It is a matter of not allowing oneself to be enslaved by the emptiness of a deceptive philosophy inspired by purely human traditions and the elements of the world rather than by Christ (cf.

Col 2:8). So it is not persecution or the extreme measures of progressivism that will be able to stop this growing movement — which, as we have seen, goes far beyond mere fashion. For the fashion over the past 60 years has been to make of the Novus Ordo — even contrary to what Sacrosanctum Concilium mandated — a free-for-all of liturgical devastation.

The four Eucharistic Prayers of the reformed missal seem to have been displaced by “Eucharistic Prayer Zero” — that is, whatever the celebrant feels like doing in the moment. That and other doctrinal, moral, and disciplinary collapses emptied the seminaries and convents, triggered massive desertions from the clergy and religious life, and unleashed a hemorrhage in the Church. Various evangelical denominations grew because they were nourished by scandalized Catholics.

The ranks of unbelievers swelled as well, as did those who claim no affiliation with any religion. In Argentina, for example, over the past six decades the proportion of Catholics fell from 90 percent to 57 — with a continued downward trend. This is where modernism has brought us, along with the Rahnerian “anthropological turn”: liberation theology, and its local Argentine variant, theology of the people.

As can be observed, it is a pattern that repeats itself in different variations across many countries. A people without sound theology ends up not knowing God — and the social consequences of this are dramatic. Something striking to me: little is preached in the Church today about eternal life, the four last things, and the glorious coming of Our Lord.

Meanwhile, certain tech magnates speak of the Antichrist and organize gatherings with businessmen and the powerful to protect themselves from him. The “Silicon Valley apocalypse” maintains that the earth is no longer a safe place — that not even Mars, where they seek to relocate, will be safe, since they fear that even there an uncontrolled, vengeful artificial intelligence will eventually arrive. Who would have imagined just a few years ago that we would witness this?

Without a doubt, it is no easy matter to heal so many ills of the ecclesial body — ills aggravated during the second decade of this century and well into the third. The time has come for greatness, for doctrinal solidity, for the consequent restoration of discipline — without favoritism or ideologically skewed perspectives. We repeatedly hear about reading the signs of the times and knowing how to listen.

Would that today we might hear the voice of the Lord and not harden our hearts (cf. Ps 95:7-8). I am 83 years old and I live in a priests’ home — something like a nursing home for clergy.

I move very little and almost never leave my room, except to go to the chapel. I know that very soon the Lord will call me to His presence — He whom I sought to love and serve in the best way I could, even with my sins and limitations. And I am trying to prepare myself for that reckoning with more prayer and the offering of my present sufferings.

In this twilight of my life, one of the greatest satisfactions remaining to me is that of having ordained, as archbishop of La Plata, 49 priests and three deacons on their way to the priesthood. Several of them — young and courageous, zealous guardians of sound doctrine — are today serving in growing communities characterized by careful liturgy, patient pastoral attention, and missionary zeal. From these communities vocations are emerging for the whole Church: for marriage and family, for the priesthood and religious life.

They and their spiritual children constitute a great part of the consolation and hope of this elderly bishop. + Héctor Aguer Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata Buenos Aires, Monday, July 13, 2026 Memorial of St. Henry