We must write that the Pontifical Solemn Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite may not take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on August 14, the Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  A letter from His Eminence Wilton Cardinal Gregory was received by His Excellency Archbishop Gullickson, our intended celebrant.  The decision of His Eminence is that the Mass “would seem … to be at odds with the restrictions” of Pope Francis placed upon liturgical celebrations using the 1962 Roman Missal, and is not opportune at this time for permission.

We ask this unfortunate reply be met with controlled reactions of strength, substance, and opposition, without polemics and inflammatory or coarse words, which The Paulus Institute rejects.

We regret that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Mass of Our Lady will not occur at the Shrine in the liturgical Roman Rite of millennia.  This is the Mass rooted in Apostolic Tradition, the Mass of saints and sinners, kings, queens and paupers, and doctors and virgins of the Church, and our own ancestors.  It is the oldest, most venerable extant anaphora in the Church, East and West, recognizable by the Eastern and Orthodox with their Divine Liturgy.  The Shrine is the most appropriate church in the United States for this Mass, being not a diocesan church but our national church, and furthermore, the church of our bishops, any of whom may say Mass here without permission.  It is moreover the church of all American Catholics, who built this majestic edifice and have a right to this enactment of the essence of our Catholic faith in the lex orandi-lex credendi of our Catholic heritage.

– Paulus Institute Board of Directors