Pope Leo XIV's letter to Cardinal Arthur Roche never uses the words "Latin Mass," "Traditionis Custodes," or "Summorum Pontificum." Dr. Anthony Stine argues Cardinal Roche was still reading it correctly — and the proof is in what Leo chose to quote.

Cardinal Roche said Pope Leo is not rolling back Traditionis Custodes and is not going back to Summorum Pontificum. A lot of people online decided he was freelancing. Then the Holy See published the letter Leo actually wrote him.

Dr. Anthony Stine of Return to Tradition joins Joe McClane to read it. The letter is dated 29 June 2026 — the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul — and was released on 14 August for the Dicastery for Divine Worship's liturgical formation conference at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon. On its face it is about the reformed rites: fidelity to the approved texts, respect for the books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II. Stine grants that outright. He also grants that the letter "says almost nothing new."

His argument is about the citations. Leo's letter leans on Desiderio Desideravi — Francis's 2022 apostolic letter, issued the year after Traditionis Custodes — quoting and at points paraphrasing it nearly verbatim. Desiderio Desideravi is Francis's defense of the liturgical reform, the document that states the lex orandi of the Roman Rite is the Missal promulgated by Paul VI. Citing that text, Stine argues, is not a neutral act. And apart from Leo's own catechesis on Sacrosanctum Concilium, it is essentially the only thing the letter cites.

Read the letter yourself — the full English text is linked below — and judge it on its own terms.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The letter is real — and it says almost nothing new
1:06 Did Cardinal Roche speak for Pope Leo?
1:54 Why a curial cardinal doesn't freelance
2:59 What the letter is actually about: Mount Angel Abbey
4:02 The giveaway — Leo quotes Francis's Desiderio Desideravi
4:53 A warning for the Eastern Rites
5:42 What the letter never says
6:52 Inside Desiderio Desideravi: formation, polemics, communion
8:18 Sacrosanctum Concilium and the hermeneutic of continuity
9:02 The operative paragraph, read in full
10:47 Cardinal Burke and the limits of obedience

DOCUMENTS REFERENCED
Leo XIV — Letter to H.E. Card. Arthur Roche, 29 June 2026 (published 14 August 2026)
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/letters/2026/documents/20260629-lettera-card-roche.html
Leo XIV — General Audience catechesis on Sacrosanctum Concilium, 27 May 2026
Francis — Desiderio Desideravi, 29 June 2022 (nn. 34, 38, 54)
Francis — Traditionis Custodes, 16 July 2021
Vatican II — Sacrosanctum Concilium, 4 December 1963

GUEST
Dr. Anthony Stine — Return to Tradition — https://www.youtube.com/@ReturnToTradition

A CATHOLIC TAKE
Full show: https://thestationofthecross.com/act/
Books and pilgrimage: https://joemcclane.com/
Chi Rho Impact Media: https://chirhoimpactmedia.com/

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