Your Excellency the Most Reverend Bishop Burbidge,

We are Catholics of the Arlington Diocese whose faith is nourished and enriched by the Traditional Latin Mass. Many of us have been married, or had our children baptized, in the Old Rite. Just as it has sustained countless saints from ancient times, we find the truth, beauty and reverence of the Traditional Mass to be an indispensable bedrock for our own Catholic faith.

Out of any diocese in America, the Diocese of Arlington stands as perhaps the greatest success story of Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum. Fully twenty-one parishes in Arlington regularly celebrate the Traditional Mass, more than any other in the United States. At a time when Mass attendance is in steep decline across the globe, these traditional masses draw large gatherings of faithful Catholics, many young and with large families. Far from being isolated and hostile “groups,” secluded from parish life and rejecting the authority of Vatican II, we are well-integrated into our parish communities and fully accepting of the authority of Rome and the magisterium of the Church. 

We have been devastated to learn of restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Mass and sacraments. We do not believe that the conditions that led the Holy Father to promulgate Traditionis Custodes apply in any way to the Diocese of Arlington. Traditional Latin Mass attendees in this diocese are marked by deep reverence and love for the Church and a burning desire to live our Catholic faith as fully as possible, not a sense of disunity and schism.

We feel a profound sense of loss and grief at the prospect of losing the ability to celebrate the Mass and other sacraments in the Old Rite. At a time when there is so much darkness and despair in the world and in our country, we find the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to be a beacon of light and hope- one which touches our hearts and nourishes our Catholic Faith. 

In the spirit of the Synodal Path that the church has embarked upon, we humbly ask that you engage in consultations with the faithful of each parish church potentially affected by restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass. And we pray fervently that you might offer permission to allow the Extraordinary Form and other traditional sacraments to continue across the Diocese of Arlington.

Yours in Christ,

Your Lay Faithful in the Diocese of Arlington