Archbishop Schneider says Pope Leo told him he met young people converted through Latin Mass

(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently revealed that Pope Leo XIV told him he has met young people who converted to Catholicism because of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM).

The extraordinary report was highlighted by National Catholic Register Vatican correspondent Edward Pentin in an X post sharing an interview the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan had with Dr. Robert Moynihan, founder and editor of Inside the Vatican magazine. 

Bishop Schneider: Pope Leo admits Latin Mass leads to conversion. pic.twitter.com/2XKJY9LX5F

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“He said he met young people who told (h)im that their conversion to God was thanks to the traditional Latin mass,” Schneider told Moynihan. “I was surprised to hear this from the pope himself. So this was for me a sign that he had some sensibility for this topic.”

This reported admission from Leo is especially remarkable considering that thus far he has permitted bishops’ implementation of his predecessor’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which has suppressed the traditional Mass around the world.

Schneider explained to Moynihan that he met with Leo to offer two proposals: First, he presented the pope with a draft “Profession of Faith,” containing points about doctrinal errors “spread in our time” or preached about ambiguously.

Second, he asked the pontiff to bestow a “liturgical peace” that would “grant the same rights” to the traditional form of the Roman Rite and the Novus Ordo Missae, and “let them peacefully coexist.” 

The bishop said he told Leo, “When you will do this, then it will go down in history as a Pax Liturgica Leonina.” Moynihan translated, “The liturgical peace of Pope Leo.”

Schneider shared last month that he personally suggested to Leo the issuance of an apostolic constitution to establish a stable legal framework for the traditional Latin Mass, with the aim of overcoming restrictions on the TLM.

“I would suggest and I’ve made the Holy Father the proposal, when I met him, to do a more solemn document than a motu proprio,” Schneider said. “Benedict XVI did a motu proprio and Francis did an anti-motu proprio. So, I think it would not be so fitting to do again an anti-motu proprio against Francis, but simply a more solemn document.”