Tennessee bishop to suppress all Traditional Latin Masses in his diocese by year’s end

[Stone]

Tennessee bishop to suppress all Traditional Latin Masses in his diocese by year’s end
Citing Pope Francis' Traditionis Custodes, the Diocese of Knoxville will replace Traditional Latin Masses with Novus Ordo Masses said with Latin.



Catholic priest celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass
Thoom/Shutterstock

Oct 13, 2025 - 6:12 pm EDT
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — The Diocese of Knoxville under Bishop Mark Beckman plans to end the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at all three parishes where it is currently offered and replace them with Masses celebrated in Latin, but according to the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Missae, by the end of the year in an effort to implement Traditionis Custodes, LifeSiteNews has learned.

The parishes that currently celebrate the Tridentine Mass informed their parishioners over the past week that the Masses will “transition” into Novus Ordo Masses celebrated in Latin according to the 2002 Roman Missal, which will be said ad orientem (facing liturgical east), and incorporate Gregorian chant, among other traditional elements, by the end of 2025. A spokesman for the Diocese of Knoxville confirmed the decision to LifeSiteNews, emphasizing that the decision came after much discernment on how to implement Traditionis Custodes in a way that accommodated the faithful devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass as much as possible.

The traditional Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Missal is currently celebrated at the diocesan parishes of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, St. Mary’s Church in Johnson City, and Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville.

“My wife and I feel gut-kicked because we just moved here, in part due to TLM nearby!” X user Discipulus wrote in a post.

“The (TLM) communities will continue to be able to celebrate Latin Mass, but they’re just going to have to use the current liturgical books,” a spokesman for the diocese told LifeSiteNews.

While strictly speaking a Mass celebrated in Latin is a “Latin Mass,” the Traditional Latin Mass, or Tridentine Mass, refers to the Mass codified in 1570 by Pope St. Pius V after the Council of Trent, which will not continue in the Knoxville diocese.

“And (the parishes will be) allowed to practice any of the traditional elements that are allowed for by the rubrics because we know how much they want to incorporate these (elements) into their worship, and so we want to respect that to the extent which we are able to,” the diocesan spokesman added.

In an October 12 pastoral letter to his congregation explaining the bishop’s decision, Father J. David Carter, pastor and rector of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, sympathized with his congregation’s devotion to the ancient Roman liturgy but urged them not to harbor a “rebellious spirit” against the Church hierarchy.

“I need to speak bluntly to you as a father to his children. Don’t be Protestant. If you feel so strongly about the 1962 edition of the Missal that you would separate yourself from union with the Church rather than follow the current Missal of the Universal Church, I urge you to repent. This is nothing more than the spirit of Protestantism,” the priest said.

“I exhort you to open the ears of your heart and mind to the Successors of the Apostles, the bishops in union with the Pope. Be wary of harboring a rebellious spirit in your heart,” he added. “Guard your heart in this moment. The danger of schism is very real. Do not be lured by the promises and sophistries of those who have the appearances of devotion but at heart have rejected union with the Church.”

Carter’s claims echo those made by Pope Francis in a letter accompanying his 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which placed heavy restrictions on the celebration of the Latin Mass. The late pontiff declared that “the instrumental use of Missale Romanum of 1962 is often characterized by a rejection not only of the liturgical reform but of the Vatican Council II itself, claiming, with unfounded and unsustainable assertions, that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.’”

However, several vocal proponents of the traditional liturgy have decried this characterization of Catholics. Cardinal Raymond Burke has stressed that the Latin Mass was “never juridically abrogated,” and that it is not permissible for a Pope to pretend to wield “absolute power” to “eradicate a liturgical discipline.”

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, has underscored that the Holy Father does not have the right to suppress the Tridentine Mass, which served as the liturgy of numerous saints, emphasizing that it is not disobedient to continue celebrating or attending the ancient Mass:

The faithful as well as priests have the right to a liturgy that is a liturgy of all the saints (…). Therefore, the Holy See does not have the power to suppress a heritage of the whole Church, it is an abuse, it would be an abuse even on the part of a bishop. In this case, you can continue to celebrate the Mass even in this form: It is a form of obedience (…) to all the popes who have celebrated this Mass.

READ: Faithful pack Charlotte Latin Mass on first Sunday since restrictions took effect

Since the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes, several bishops across the globe have restricted its celebration or reduced the number of parishes that are permitted to celebrate the TLM.

In one recent case, Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, of Charlotte, North Carolina, set off a firestorm of controversy when he announced in May the forthcoming closure of four Latin Masses throughout the diocese in accordance with Traditionis Custodes, which states that TLMs are not to be celebrated in “parochial” churches.

After intense backlash, Martin postponed the planned merger of the TLMs from July to October. Just days before the merger was set to take effect, the bishop announced in a letter that the newly renovated Little Flower Chapel, which will replace the four suppressed congregations, is not intended to accommodate all the faithful who wish to attend the ancient Roman liturgy.