New Evidence Confirms CDF Report, Erodes Vatican Narrative on Traditional Latin Mass Restrictions

A response to the Vatican’s July 3 statement on the newly released documentation concerning Traditionis Custodes

VATICAN CITY, July 10, 2025 — More evidence has come to light confirming the authenticity of the sections I published last week from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s final report on its 2020 survey of bishops concerning the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter liberalizing the traditional Roman liturgy.

The sections I published on July 1 comprised the CDF report’s overall assessment of the survey results and a collection of quotations from bishops that were meant to give Pope Francis an overall representation of their responses.

Since publishing that story, I have obtained the Vatican protocol number for the CDF final report. Additionally, I have obtained the introduction to its Second Part, which confirms that the overall assessment constituted the official “opinion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” to which Pope Francis refers in Traditionis Custodes.

Both the protocol number and the introduction were provided by Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta, and Italian liturgist don Nicola Bux, co-authors of a new book in Italian on the CDF final report.

This follows Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni’s comments last week in which he downplayed the sections of the CDF final report that I published on July 1. He said he would not confirm the sections’ authenticity, that they “presumably” were only a “very partial and incomplete” part of the decision-making process that led to Pope Francis issuing Traditionis Custodes, and that other documents and “confidential reports” went into the Pope’s decision, something that the Vatican had not revealed until now.

But Bruni’s comments raise more questions than they answer. In his accompanying letter to Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis made it clear that it was the responses to the 2020 CDF survey that persuaded him “of the need to intervene,” even though—as has now come to light—the CDF’s overall assessment concluded that “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire stated that making legislative changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.”

So if there were, as Bruni states, additional documents and confidential reports that went into the decision-making process that led to Traditionis Custodes, something the Vatican claimed only after the details of the survey results were disclosed on July 1, those documents would logically have to prove that the CDF final report inaccurately represented what the majority of responding bishops said, and therefore that Pope Francis had the support of the greater part of the episcopate when he imposed TC’s restrictions on the traditional Roman liturgy.

This raises the question: if what Matteo Bruni says is true, why did Pope Francis not refer to those “additional documents” in Traditionis Custodes, given that they presumably gave him the basis for his decision to “abrogate” Summorum Pontificum?

Protocol Number Revealed

The photograph below confirms the authenticity of the CDF final report containing the overall assessment and collection of quotations that I published one week ago.

Photo courtesy of don Nicola Bux and Saverio Gaeta.

The Vatican protocol number, indicated near the top of the page, is: N. 03/2020-ED.

An English translation of the photograph reads: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Protocol Number 03/2020-ED; Consultation of Bishops concerning the Application of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, April 2020; Report; February 2021.

The Consultation was likely dated April 2020 because the responses to the questionnaire began to arrive at the CDF by post or email that month.

In keeping with certain Vatican protocol numbers, “03/2020” appears to indicate that the report is the third document (“03”) in a process that began in 2020. The first document in the process would likely have been Pope Francis’ request to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that they carry out the consultation of bishops on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum.

The second document in the process, which would have been assigned the protocol number “02/2020-ED”, was the nine-point questionnaire that the CDF sent in Spring 2020 to presidents of episcopal conferences worldwide for distribution to local bishops.

Additional Evidence

In addition to the Vatican protocol number, a second pair of images from the CDF report shows the first and last page of the overall assessment (Giudizio Complessivo) in the original Italian. It is dated February 22, 2021, the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter.

A third image from the CDF report shows the first page of the collection of quotations (Florilegio) taken from the responses received from the dioceses, in the original Italian, which I also published on July 1.

The Central Role of the CDF Report according to TC

In both Traditionis Custodes and in his accompanying letter to the decree, Pope Francis made clear that the results of the survey of bishops carried out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith played a central role in prompting him to impose restrictions on the traditional Roman liturgy.

He writes in Traditionis Custodes:

“In line with the initiative of my Venerable Predecessor Benedict XVI to invite the bishops to assess the application of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum three years after its publication, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out a detailed consultation of the bishops in 2020. The results have been carefully considered in the light of experience that has matured during these years.

At this time, having considered the wishes expressed by the episcopate and having heard the opinion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I now desire, with this Apostolic Letter, to press on ever more in the constant search for ecclesial communion.”

And addressing the bishops of the world in his accompanying letter, he says:

“With the passage of thirteen years, I instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to circulate a questionnaire to the Bishops regarding the implementation of the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene.”

Since publishing my July 1 article, I have obtained an additional section of the CDF Fourth Section’s report that clearly shows it constituted the Congregation’s official opinion on the survey. The new section I have obtained forms the introduction to the report’s Second Part (titled “Synthesis” or “Summary” in English), which consists of the introduction, a summary on each continent, and the overall assessment. The Second Part is then followed by the collection of quotations and an index.

The introduction to the Second Part of the CDF report states (in English translation):

In accordance with the will of the Holy Father, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith undertook an inquiry into the application of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum throughout the world, thirteen years after its promulgation (2007–2020). The Fourth Section (formerly the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei) was entrusted with the task of studying the responses, processing the data, and producing a synthesis accompanied by an overall assessment of the responses to the questionnaire received by the Dicastery.

[…]

The present work seeks to present most significant conclusions of the aforementioned inquiry, including a statistical analysis of the responses gathered (cf. Part One, pp. 11–170), a summary of the responses from various Prelates according to geographical region, and an overall assessment of the inquiry conducted (cf. Part Two, pp. 171–184). Finally, the Appendix contains a Florilegium of quotations (p. 185) drawn from the bishops’ reports, together with an index of place names (p. 194). … (emphasis in the original)

It is clear, therefore, that the extensive report prepared by the Fourth Section of the CDF (protocol number 03/2020-ED), which would have been approved by the then CDF prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, SJ, contained the results of the “detailed consultation of bishops in 2020” that Pope Francis refers to in Traditionis Custodes.

The Vatican Response

This further evidence comes to light just days after Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni sought to downplay the significance two sections of the report that I published on July 1.

At a July 3 Vatican press conference on the “Mass for the Care of Creation,” a reporter took the opportunity to ask one of the panelists, Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, Secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for a statement or clarification about the sections of the CDF report that I released on July 1.

Archbishop Viola, who is believed to have been instrumental in the process that led to Traditionis Custodes, immediately turned to Matteo Bruni, who—after reprimanding the reporter for asking a question not pertaining to the “Mass for the Care of Creation”—took up a piece of paper and read this prepared response:

“I do not confirm the authenticity of the texts that have been published, which presumably concern part of one of the documents on which the decision was based and, as such, contribute to a reconstruction that is also very partial and incomplete with regard to the decision-making process. In fact, further documentation was later added to the consultation mentioned, including other confidential reports resulting from additional consultations that were submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. That said, I have nothing more to add on this matter.” (emphasis added)

It is worth noting that the current prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, was also present in the audience for the press conference as Matteo Bruni read the statement.

Having provided rather definitive evidence of the authenticity of the texts I published one week ago, I would like to make the following points in response to the prepared statement read out by the Vatican spokesman:

1. In Traditionis Custodes and his accompanying letter to the decree, Pope Francis clearly says that he decided to intervene on the basis of the results of the detailed 2020 survey of bishops carried out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He did not refer, even obliquely, to any “further documentation” and “other confidential reports resulting from additional consultations,” now mentioned by Matteo Bruni.

2. Four years after Traditionis Custodes, it has now come to light that the CDF final report reveals that “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire stated that making legislative changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.” This directly contradicts the stated rationale for issuing Traditionis Custodes.

3. The sections of the CDF final report that I released were “partial and incomplete,” in the sense that they were not the full report. However, this does not mean that the CDF Fourth Section report itself was a “partial and incomplete” account of what the bishops said.

4. The relevancy of any “further documentation” and “other confidential reports” that went into the “decision-making process” depends upon whether those documents definitively show that the CDF Fourth Section’s final report was incorrect and did not reflect the position of the majority of bishops who responded to the survey. If they do not show this, then the CDF final report stands as an accurate account of the 2020 consultation of bishops concerning Summorum Pontificum.

5. Given the gravity of the situation at hand, and its impact on the life and unity of the Church, it is therefore the Vatican spokesman’s burden to prove that the “further documents” and “other confidential reports resulting from additional consultations” either wholly contradict, or at least seriously undermine, what is written in the CDF report’s overall assessment. In other words, the burden of proof is on the Vatican spokesman to demonstrate that these other documents prove the CDF report inaccurately represented the responses of the world’s bishops to the questionnaire, and that Pope Francis in fact had the support of the greater part of the responding bishops in issuing Traditionis Custodes and revoking Summorum Pontificum.

In the absence of such proof, we may conclude that “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire” did in fact state that “making legislative changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.”