RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — All diocesan Traditional Latin Masses have been suppressed in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia due to the Vatican’s restrictions per Traditionis Custodes after the expiration of a two-year indult from Rome.

The Latin Mass Directory website announced that as of July 5, the diocese implemented Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, according to which bishops are not to allow Traditional Latin Masses (TLM) in “parochial churches.” While LifeSiteNews previously reported that the TLM at Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville would end, the more recent announcement clarifies that two other TLMs at St. Joseph in Petersburg and All Saints in Floyd have also ceased.

Bishop Barry Knestout had declared in a June 21 letter to the pastor of Holy Comforter Catholic Church that he wished to renew a request for a dispensation for the TLM but was unsure if this request would be granted. The bishop also expressed his “confidence” that the pastor would lead the faithful toward the Novus Ordo as “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite,” citing Traditionis Custodes.

In a comment on a Facebook post announcing the suppression of the diocese’s TLMs, Ron Simeone remarked, “This incredible, diabolical cruelty is an insult to our Lord,” adding, “How much longer O God of the Universe must your Church suffer?”

The suppression of Traditional Latin Masses in the Diocese of Richmond comes amid reports that the Vatican is considering a more universal suppression of the Traditional Mass. According to “well-informed sources,” if published, the document would ban the offering of the TLM by all priests except those belonging to “approved ex-Ecclesia Dei institutes,” including the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP).

Vatican journalist Diane Montagna confirmed that a document further restricting the Traditional Latin Mass, backed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has been “presented to Pope Francis.”

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Society of St. Pius X both continue to offer the Traditional Latin Mass within the Diocese of Richmond, with their locations flagged on a map provided by the Mass of the Ages website. A TLM continues to be offered by the FSSP at St. Joseph’s in Richmond and St. Benedict’s in Chesapeake, and TLMs are offered by the SSPX at the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn as well as Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Richmond and Immaculate Conception Mission in Virginia Beach.

These groups and other Latin Mass Catholics were targeted by the FBI in their infamous “Richmond memo,” which claimed that so-called “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” is a magnet for “violent extremists.”

The document identified “Radical Traditional Catholics” as typically rejecting Vatican II as a “valid council,” and often holding “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.” Its mention of “anti-LGBTQ” beliefs appears to vilify the vast majority of traditional Catholics as well as the majority of conservative Christians, since the biblical belief that marriage only exists between a man and a woman is interpreted by “LGBTQ” advocates to be “anti-LGBTQ.”

Despite the FBI’s retraction of the memo after intense backlash over its contents, former FBI agent turned whistleblower Kyle Seraphin said the memo was still being internally circulated last year.

Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has written that priests must resist Traditionis Custodes and its accompanying Responsa ad dubia “regardless of threats or penalties,” since obedience to these documents would undermine the very mission of the holy Catholic Church.

‘The traditional Mass belongs to the most intimate part of the common good in the Church. Restricting it, pushing it into ghettos, and ultimately planning its demise can have no legitimacy. This law is not a law of the Church because, as St. Thomas (Aquinas) says, a law against the common good is no valid law,’” he said in a speech during the 2021 Catholic Identity Conference. 

The suppression of the Latin Mass at All Saints in Floyd is a particularly heavy blow to Latin Mass attendees in Virginia because it is the only TLM that has been offered in the southwestern part of the state, now leaving a large swath of the region deprived of the Latin Mass.