Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop Emeritus of Bombay and member of the Council of Cardinals that advised Francis, has said he would not oppose the traditional Mass continuing to spread as long as that does not imply rejecting the Second Vatican Council. “I would not be in favor of prohibiting the spread of this, provided it did not indicate a rejection of the Second Vatican Council,” he stated in an exclusive interview with the portal AdVaticanum published on November 2. The quotations, originally in English, are translated by this editorial team.
Gracias spoke from his experience in governance. He recounted that, as archbishop, he had allowed the traditional Mass in three churches of the Archdiocese of Bombay and that he had not perceived “any growth in the number of those attending these Masses.” His difficulty, he explained, was finding priests who knew Latin well enough to celebrate “with devotion.” He provided no figures for attendees or priests.
On the liturgy in general, the cardinal maintained that the reform, continuity with tradition, and the active participation of the faithful must all be safeguarded, without any of these elements being imposed on the others. “What must be promoted is a healthy balance among these elements,” he said. According to the text of the interview, he also referred to a greater openness toward this celebration in the current pontificate, without citing any document. He did not mention Traditionis custodes, the motu proprio with which Francis restricted the traditional Mass in 2021, nor the decisions of recent weeks.
Those decisions point in another direction. St. Peter’s Basilica was closed to the traditional pilgrimage Ad Petri Sedem after the Secretariat of State twice rejected the request to celebrate the ancient Mass there again, and a note from the Dicastery for Divine Worship warned of the danger of extremism in groups that propose receiving Communion on the knees or in the hand and the use of the veil. On October 30, Leo XIV appointed the Salesian Elena Massimi, a liturgist who publicly praised Traditionis custodes in 2022, as Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod.
The interview covers other matters. Gracias, who was the Pope’s special envoy to the plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences held in Jakarta in July, defended that “synodality is one of the greatest gifts of the Church to the world” and that it should also inspire democracy and politics. He valued the extraordinary consistory of cardinals at the end of June as a useful occasion for sharing and listening.
Regarding India, he recalled that Christians make up about 2.3% of the population and Catholics 1.8%, and described social and sometimes violent pressures. He spoke of legislation “unfriendly to the Christian community” and of “some restrictions on adult baptisms,” and acknowledged that caste discrimination also affects Christians, with legal problems for Dalits who lose their special status upon converting. The growth of evangelicals and Pentecostals does not concern him: the Church, he said, must respond with holiness and apostolate. And regarding a papal trip, he assured that “Pope Leo has already expressed his desire to come to India” and that he trusts the visit will bring spiritual renewal. Francis wanted to go, but the details were never finalized with the government.
Gracias turned 80 on December 24, 2024, which left him out of the conclave, and Francis accepted his resignation from the see of Bombay in January 2025. For years he was one of the trusted voices of the previous pontificate. That a cardinal of that profile now says he would not prohibit the spread of the traditional Mass contrasts with the decisions of the Curia in recent weeks.
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