Pope Leo meets with professors who found Latin Mass Catholics are more orthodox, not ‘schismatic’

(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met in a private audience with Professors Stephen Bullivant and Stephen Cranney, two prominent sociologists who notably published a study showing that the vast majority of faithful who attend the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) accept Catholic teaching and the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Leo met with Bullivant, who is a Latin Mass attendee, and Cranney during a March 5 audience, per the Vatican’s daily bulletin, though it is not known what was discussed. The professors notably co-wrote the forthcoming book, Trads: Latin Mass Catholics in the United States, which is set to be published in November 2026 and, in 2024, published a study in preparation for this book showing that the overwhelming majority of Catholics devoted to the TLM accept both the doctrine of the Church and the Second Vatican Council.

The meeting comes as the 267th pontiff has sent mixed signals on whether he might loosen the restrictions on the Tridentine Mass imposed by his predecessor, Pope Francis’, 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.

Cranney and Bullivant’s 2024 study sought to find empirical data on whether the “TLM community” was really a “schismatic hotbed of negative attitudes towards Vatican II,” as portrayed by Pope Francis in Traditionis Custodes. The sociologists found that 49 percent of respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” when asked if they accept the teachings of Vatican II, while just 11 percent “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” with the statement.

The study also found that an overwhelming majority of respondents are orthodox in Catholic doctrine, with just two percent saying they did not believe in the Real Presence of the Holy Eucharist, compared to more than half of U.S. self-identified Catholics who do not accept the Real Presence, according to some surveys.

It’s worth noting, however, that the professors did not interview Catholics who attend Mass at the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) chapels, on the grounds that there are still far fewer SSPX chapels compared to diocese-approved churches that offer the TLM.

Pope Leo’s audience with Bullivant and Cranney is particularly significant as the American pontiff has yet to take any action regarding the future of the Tridentine Mass.

On the one hand, Leo allowed Cardinal Raymond Burke to celebrate a Latin Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the 2025 Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage last fall, after Pope Francis’ Vatican had prohibited Masses from being offered inside the basilica for the 2023 and 2024 pilgrimages. Leo’s Vatican has also granted two diocesan TLMs in the Diocese of Cleveland and a parish in Texas two-year extensions before their suppression under Traditionis Custodes.

The pontiff has also repeatedly called for renewed liturgical reverence and even told Bishop Athanasius Schneider that he has met young people who have converted to the faith through attending the Latin Mass during a December private audience.

READ: Bishop Schneider says Pope Leo told him he met young people converted through Latin Mass

As noted by InfoVaticana, Pope Leo has held roughly one audience a month with proponents of the Tridentine Mass, including Bishop Schneider, Cardinal Burke, and Cardinal Robert Sarah since August 2025, perhaps indicating that he is looking to find a favorable solution to the liturgical divide in the Latin Church.

On the other hand, under Leo’s watch, several bishops, such as Bishop Michael Martin in Charlotte and Bishop Mark Beckman in Knoxville, Tennessee, have been allowed to place sweeping restrictions on the TLM. Martin even banned the use of altar rails and kneelers for receiving Holy Communion.

The pontiff has also retained Cardinal Arthur Roche as prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a central figure in implementing Traditionis Custodes. During January’s extraordinary consistory, Roche handed out a document to the cardinals, which doubled down on these restrictions, arguing that the Novus Ordo Missae is the singular expression of the Roman rite.

READ: Leaked consistory texts reveal cardinal’s defense of Latin Mass restrictions

Leo’s Vatican has also been hostile to the SSPX since they announced their plans to consecrate new bishops in July.

During a February audience at the Vatican between Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and Father Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX, shortly after the Society’s announcement, Fernández offered to initiate a dialogue on several contentious issues, including the degree of the binding authority of the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

However, this dialogue would presuppose the suspension of the SSPX’s intention to create bishops without papal sanction. Fernández also threatened Pagliarani and the Society with the crime of schism should the consecrations proceed as planned.

Later that month, Pagliarani announced in a communique that the consecrations would go on as scheduled.

“[W]hile I certainly rejoice at a new opening of dialogue and the positive response to my proposal of 2019, I cannot accept the perspective and objectives in the name of which the Dicastery offers to resume dialogue in the present situation, nor indeed the postponement of the date of 1 July [for the episcopal consecrations],” the priest wrote.

READ: SSPX will consecrate bishops on July 1 despite Vatican ‘threat’

Pagliarani further stressed that he had requested this dialogue himself in 2019, “When I suggested a discussion during a calm and peaceful time, without the pressure or threat of possible excommunication, which would have undermined free dialogue—as is, unfortunately, the situation today.”