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Letter #4, 2026, Tuesday, January 13: The Roche Letter
Another bombshell.
Earlier today, something important was unexpectedly published: the photographed text of a letter on the Church’s liturgy, prepared by Cardinal Arthur Roche, to be handed out to the assembled cardinals in the Extraordinary Consistory on January 8, 2026.
This text reveals a great deal about the inner workings of the struggle in Rome over the Church’s liturgy. That is the struggle over whether Pope Leo ought to permit the wider use of the old Latin Mass, which Pope Francis curtailed. This matter will likely be discussed by the Cardinals in June when they meet again. However, the publication of this text reveals that the maneuvering over this question had already begun during the January 7 and 8 consistory.
Below is the complete text, which has not yet appeared anywhere else other than in a photographic copy (ITV Staff took the time to type in the letter).
Gavin Ashenden has already written a thoughtful overview of this document. You may find it under the title ‘Feed My Sheep’:- The Latin Mass & the Attempt to Propagandise the Cardinals: Cardinal Roche, Vatican II, and the Struggle for the Soul of the Church (link).
—RM
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We will spend three days in Assisi, followed by several days in Vatican City and Rome. This pilgrimage is limited to a small number of pilgrims, and only a few seats remain. Click HERE for more information.
EXTRAORDINARY CONSISTORY
(January 7-8, 2026)
Liturgy: careful theological, historical, and pastoral reflection “that sound tradition may be retained and yet the way remain open to legitimate progress” (SC 23)
LITURGY
Card. Arthur Roche
In the life of the Church, the Liturgy has always undergone reforms. From the Didachè to the Traditio Apostolica; from the use of Greek to that of Latin; from the libelli precum to the Sacramentaries and the Ordines; from the Pontificals to the Franco-Germanic reforms; from the Liturgia secundum usum romanæ curiæ to the Tridentine reform; from the partial post-Tridentine reform to the general reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The history of the Liturgy, we might say, is the history of its continuous ‘reforming’ in a process of organic development.
Saint Pius V, in facing the reform of the liturgical books in observance of the mandate of the Council of Trent (cf. Session XXV, General Decree, chap. XXJ), was moved by the will to preserve the unity of the Church. The bull Quo primum (14 July 1570), with which was promulgated the Roman Missal, affirms that “as in the Church of God there is only one way of reciting the psalms, so there ought to be only one rite for celebrating the Mass” (cum unum in Ecclesia Dei psallendi modum, unum Missae celebrandae ritum esse maxime deceat).
The need to reform the Liturgy is strictly tied to the ritual component, through which — per ritus et preces (SC 48) — we participate in the paschal mystery: the rite is in itself characterised by cultural elements that change in time and places.
Besides, since “Tradition is not the transmission of things or words, a collection of dead things” but “the living river that links us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are ever present” (BENEDICT XVI General Audience, 26 April 2006), we can certainly affirm that the reform of the Liturgy wanted by the Second Vatican Council is not only in full syntony with the true meaning of Tradition, but constitutes a singular way of putting itself at the service of the Tradition, because the latter is like a great river that leads us to the gates of eternity. (ibid.).
In this dynamic vision, “maintaining solid tradition, and “opening the way to legitimate progress” (SC 23) cannot be understood as two separable actions: without a “legitimate progress” the tradition would be reduced to a “collection of dead things” not always all healthy; without the “sound tradition” progress risks becoming a pathological search for novelty, that cannot generate life, like a river whose path is blocked separating it from its sources.
In the discourse to the participants in the Plenary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (8 February 2024), Pope Francis expressed himself thus:
“Sixty years on from the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the words we read in its introduction, with which the Fathers declared the Council’s purpose, do not cease to enthuse. They are objectives that describe a precise desire to reform the Church in her fundamental dimensions: to make the Christian life of the faithful grow more and more every day; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to reinvigorate that which serves to call all to the bosom of the Church (cf. SC 1). It is a task of spiritual, pastoral, ecumenical, and missionary renewal. And in order to accomplish it, the Council Fathers knew where they had to begin, they knew there were particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy” (Ibid.). It is like saying: without liturgical reform, there is no reform of the Church.”
The liturgical Reform was elaborated on the basis of the “accurate theological, historical and pastoral investigation” (SC 23). Its scope was to render more full the participation in the celebration of the Paschal Mystery for a renewal of the Church, the People of God, the Mystical Body of Christ (see LG chapters I-II), perfecting the faithful in unity with God and among themselves (cf. SC 48). Only from the salvific experience of the celebration of Easter, the Church rediscovers and relaunches the missionary mandate of the Risen Lord (cf. Mt 28, 19-20) and becomes in a world torn by discord, a leaven of unity.
We ought to recognize that the application of the Reform suffered and continues to suffer from a lack of formation, and this urgency of addressing, beginning with Seminars to “bring to life the kind of formation of the faithful and ministry of pastors that will have their summit and source in the liturgy (Instruction Inter æcumenici, 26 September 1964, 5)
The primary good of the unity of the Church is not achieved by freezing division but by finding ourselves in the sharing of what cannot but be shared, as Pope Francis said in Desiderio desideravi 61:
“We are called continually to rediscover the richness of the general principles exposed in the first numbers of Sacrosanctum Concilium,grasping the intimate bond between this first of the Council’s constitutions and all the others. For this reason, we cannot go back to that ritual form which the Council fathers, cum Petro et sub Petro, felt the need to reform, approving, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and following their conscience as pastos, the principles from which was born the reform. The holy pontiffs St Paul VI and St John Paul II, approving the reformed liturgical books ex decreto Sacrosancti Æcumenici Councilii Vaticani II,have guaranteed the fidelity of the reform of the Council. For this reason I wrote Traditionis custodes, so that the Church may lift up, in the variety of so many languages, one and the same prayer capable of expressing her unity. [Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (3 April 1969) in AAS 61 (1969) 222]. As I have already written, I intend that this unity be re-established in the whole Church of the Roman Rite.”
The use of liturgical books that the Council sought to reform was, from St. John Paul II to Francis, a concession that in no way envisaged their promotion. Pope Francis— while granting, in accordance with Traditionis Custodes, the use of the 1962 Missale Romanum— pointed the way to unity in the use of liturgical books promulgated by the holy Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, in accordance with the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, the sole expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.
Pope Francis summarised the issue as follows (Desiderio desideravi 31):
“[…] If the liturgy is ‘the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed, and at the same time the font from which all her power flows,’ (Sacroanctum Conilium, n. 10), well then, we can understand what is at stake in the liturgical question. It would be trivial to read the tensions, unfortunately present around celebration, as a simple divergence between different tastes concerning a particular ritual form. The problematic is primarily ecclesiological. I do not see how it is possible to say that one recognized the validity of the Council — though it amazes me that a Catholic might presume not to do so — and at the same time not accept the liturgical reform born out of Sacrosanctum Concilium, a document that expresses the reality of the Liturgy intimately joined to the vision of Church so admirably described in Lumen gentium. […]”.
Rome, 8.01.2026
(END OF LETTER)
Below is the photograph of the first page of this text. The photographs of the entire text were published earlier today by Diane Montagna.
Rooted in Hope: Private Island Retreat & Medjugorje with Gavin Ashenden
May 29 – June 7, 2026
Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages invites you to join a special Pilgrimage and Retreat with Dr. Gavin Ashenden, May 29 – June 7, 2026.
Highlights of our Pilgrimage:
- Five-night private island retreat at a historic Franciscan monastery on the Island of Badija
- Three nights of pilgrimage and prayer in Medjugorje
- One night in Split
- Afternoon in Dubrovnik
- Morning retreat conferences led by Gavin Ashenden
- Daily Mass and spiritual reflections celebrated by Father Jacob Jose
- Time set aside for personal prayer, silence, and reflection
- Participation in the evening prayer program at St. James Church in Medjugorje
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- Catholic guides in Medjugorje providing daily guidance and schedules
- Travel by private coach and boat to and from the Island of Badija
- All breakfasts and most lunches (except 2) and dinners (except 1), are included
- A peaceful, unhurried retreat-style pilgrimage centered on Christ and Marian devotion
