California bishop suppresses Latin Mass just before departing for new diocese

[Stone]

California bishop suppresses Latin Mass just before departing for new diocese
On his way to take over the Diocese of Austin, Bishop Daniel E. Garcia has canceled the sole traditional Mass in his now former diocese of Monterey.

Sep 23, 2025
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks from original included below]) — On his way to take over the Diocese of Austin, Bishop Daniel E. Garcia has canceled the sole traditional Mass in his now former diocese of Monterey.

Publicized via social media networks and traditional blog Rorate Caeli, Garcia’s letter implementing new liturgical rules was dated September 14. The decree came just five days before the U.S. Papal Nuncio announced Bishop Slawomir Szkredka as the apostolic administrator of the see, after Garcia was named the incoming bishop of the Diocese of Austin on July 2.

Citing Pope Francis’ 2021 Traditionis Custodes restrictions on the traditional Mass, Garcia wrote that “clearly the Church is moving us to greater unity in worship.”

Traditionis Custodes and the subsequent restrictions from Cardinal Arthur Roche prohibited the traditional Mass from being celebrated in parish churches, unless granted direct permission by the Vatican. The sole traditional Mass in the Diocese of Monterey is held at Sacred Heart Parish, which currently has a dispensation from the Vatican that is due to expire this fall.

After deliberating over its future, Garcia had decided to end the Mass and not seek a continuation of the dispensation:

I have come to a decision for the good of the Church of Monterey not to request a dispensation from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for the celebration of the pre-conciliar Mass at Sacred Heart Parish church.

In unity with the Holy Father’s motu proprio. I have directed Fr. Stephen Akers to cease celebration of the pre-conciliar Mass in Hollister as of October 13, 2025.

This decision, wrote Garcia, will “strengthen our unity with the Universal Church.”

“I invite you all,” the outgoing bishop added, “to join in unity with the parish of Sacred Heart and St. Benedict, and in cooperation with your pastor, as they gather around the Table of the Lord celebrating the rich Eucharistic Sacrifice, each Sunday, which has been a great fruit of the Council.”

He urged Monterey Catholics to have the Novus Ordo liturgy “charge your hearts with charity and trust, to build the unity Pope Leo spoke about in the Mass he celebrated early in his pontificate in St. Peter’s Square.”

The news has sparked backlash among Catholics and – further afield – in the online sphere, as critics have questioned why Garcia moved to quash the Latin Mass community.

READ: Vatican cardinal says he was told to ‘wait for the Holy Father to decide’ future of Latin Mass

“The cruelty is the point,” wrote theologian and liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski.

Pope Francis famously declared in July 2021 that “the instrumental use of Missale Romanum of 1962 is often characterized by a rejection not only of the liturgical reform, but of the Vatican Council II itself, claiming, with unfounded and unsustainable assertions, that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.’”

But vocal proponents of the traditional liturgy, such as Cardinal Raymond Burke, have decried this characterization of Catholics. Shortly after the motu proprio was published in 2021, Burke hailed it as a “severe and revolutionary action of the Holy Father.”

Speaking to this correspondent in an interview for PerMariam, Burke added that the document itself “is problematic from the point of view of canon law and also of the theological reality of the sacred liturgy.”

Some Catholics have expressed hope that Pope Leo will be more open to the old Mass than his predecessor, and though Leo has shown himself to be more attuned to the liturgy than Francis, he has refrained from wading too deeply into the issue so far.

Last week, the text of a July interview was released in which Leo commented that the question and future of the traditional Mass was unclear:

Obviously, between the Tridentine Mass and the Vatican II Mass, the Mass of Paul VI, I’m not sure where that’s going to go. It’s obviously very complicated.

I do know that part of that issue, unfortunately, has become – again, part of a process of polarization – people have used the liturgy as an excuse for advancing other topics. It’s become a political tool, and that’s very unfortunate.

Since then, Leo has met with both Cardinals Burke and Robert Sarah, two members of the College of Cardinals known for their advocacy of the traditional liturgy. The details of their meeting will remain private, but in his July interview Leo expressed hope of meeting with advocates of the traditional Mass to learn more about the topic.

When asked by the Catholic Herald about the future of the traditional rite, the cardinal archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica – no warm friend of the traditional liturgy – replied: “Better not answer that. I have been told that we will wait for the Holy Father to decide.”

Though Leo has so far given no specific comment on the old rite’s future, it appears that those around him expect some change in the near future.