Is your diocesan Traditional Latin Mass in danger of being shut down due to Traditionis Custodes? Is your bishop supportive in finding ways to keep the TLM in your diocese? Is your diocesan TLM celebrated on Sundays only or also for daily Mass? Is it conveniently located? What are some of the pros and cons you observe in comparing a diocesan TLM to that of a traditional apostolate, such as the FSSP or ICKSP?
OK, I’ll go first 
… Our diocesan TLM is being celebrated each Sunday at Noon in a Novus Ordo parish until our dispensation from Rome expires in February 2024. Many N.O. parishioners do not want the TLM, because they see it as “taking up a time slot” for the N.O. Mass. We have no other TLM options in our diocese except for SSPX.
Our TLM community of 200+ people has asked the bishop to request an FSSP or ICKSP Apostolate to establish a full-time, permanent TLM chapel in our diocese. Our bishop is said to be “supportive” of the TLM, but his statements and actions indicate otherwise. (We pray for him daily.)
Some downsides to our diocesan TLM are: (1) Sacraments other than the Eucharist are not available in the traditional rite; (2) There are no weekday or holy day Masses outside of Sunday; (3) Our TLM priest is the N.O. parish pastor and his time is focused on N.O.; (4) The TLM location is not convenient for the majority of us, requiring people to drive up to 2 hours to attend.
An FSSP or ICKSP Apostolate would provide 1 or 2 priests, formed in the traditional liturgy and dedicated to it full-time. It would give our widely scattered TLM community a permanent home and access to traditional Sacraments, catechesis, spiritual direction and a true parish experience. I think many of us would move to whatever location the bishop would allow.
Our TLM started out as being Sunday’s only and celebrated by the same priest that did the NO Masses. But our bishop decided that it wasn’t right to have him do both, at least I’m assuming that it was his decision. So now our priest is only doing the TLM and we have one every Wednesday and Friday at noon, Thursdays at 7PM and Saturdays at 9:15AM along with the Sunday one at 9:00AM. They still hold the NO Masses there but by a different priest. Up until lately, they were always low masses and no choirs on weekday and Saturday morning masses. But they recently held two high masses on Sundays and with a Latin choir.
We have been truly blessed!!!
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Yes, you are blessed indeed! To have a diocesan priest 100% dedicated to the TLM is a testament to the character of your bishop. What diocese are you in?
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In my city, the TLM community used to be based at a conservative Novus Ordo parish. It was basically one TLM per week (on Sunday). Then a previous bishop started the process of inviting in the ICKSP and an oratory was established by his successor and the TLM community moved there from the Novus Ordo parish. Our current bishop is very friendly to the ICKSP oratory (I am registered there). He has assisted at Mass on two occasions and has led a Eucharistic procession through the neighborhood where the oratory is located. He has also very quietly allowed diocesan priests in more remote areas of the diocese to offer the TLM, but these are not publicized.
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I applaud your bishop! Ours claims to be supportive, but we are strictly limited to the one Sunday TLM, celebrated by the same priest who says all of the Novus Ordo Masses at that parish. As I explained in my initial message several months ago, this causes us “trads” to be viewed as taking up the priest’s time and energy, not to mention a time slot for the N.O. Mass.
Last June, we petitioned our bishop to invite an FSSP or ICKSP apostolate to the diocese. He still has not responded, and in 2 months our dispensation from Rome expires. Please pray for him to approve a TLM apostolate here. Thank you.
Sorry for not replying sooner. We’re situated in Regina, Sk. Canada. In Saskatoon a city 2-1/2 hours north of us they celebrate the High Mass every Sunday.
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Our diocesan TLM here in California seems solid, we’ve had it about five years now. I think that as a devotion it has helped the parish priest in his spiritual life, I think that is the biggest benefit which easily transfers to the “novus ordo” Catholics. During the week I usually go to a Tridentine Mass out of town which is provided by the ICKSP, and I like that their training gives them a better perspective on the mass and reverence, and that I can get an absolution in confession which has the additional prayers that are usually omitted in English. In my mind the biggest downside of the diocesan priests is just an annoyance, that they always seem to think that people go to mass to hear a sermon. My biggest take away from the whole “old rite vs. new rite” (when in fact there aren’t two rites, but only one Roman Rite) is that Catholics need to be humble and recognize that the sacraments are the sacraments, and getting a “better feeling” from the Latin prayers doesn’t make them more effective. We should want the devotional decoration that adorns our sacraments to be better because the sacraments deserve that, not because I’m a snob.
Oh, and regarding the bishop, he is privately supportive of the Tridentine Mass, but he also is a great example of the fact that what we need from our bishops is for them to stick their neck out. The bishops seem to have taken the erroneous position that to do their work they need to make sure they aren’t the nail that sticks out and gets hammered down. Well, that position would be described in the epistles as sinning against the cross that Christ gave us.
Our TLM priest (who co-exists as a Novus Ordo pastor) always reminds us that the modern Mass and the TLM are “two forms of the same rite” – but I am not at all convinced, and I am not trying to be a snob about it. The modern Mass and Sacraments may be licit and valid, but they are stripped of important prayers and exorcisms. I highly recommend reading any of Dr. Peter Kwasniewski’s numerous books and articles on this topic.
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That’s quite a drive you have to make. I am fortunate to be less than an hour away from our one and only Sunday TLM.