VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, denied his rumored involvement with alleged new restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.

In a statement sent exclusively in reply to LifeSiteNews’ questioning, Cardinal Parolin firmly denied the veracity of reports that he is involved in ushering in new restrictions on the traditional Mass. His statement reads:

With apologies for the delay, I am replying to your e-mail … stating that the media reports about a role of mine in the “Latin Mass” issue are completely unfounded. I can only be saddened that false news is being circulated, but my defense is the Lord (cf. Ps. 7).

The cardinal’s email came by way of a reply to a message sent to him earlier in the summer, asking him about his rumored role in supporting a document supposedly set to usher in new restrictions on the traditional Mass.

Parolin had been named in a June report by The Remnant, along with Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the papal nuncio to France, and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, as being the three key aides in a move to compile a new document ushering in restrictions on the traditional Mass.

The document is believed to be being written by Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, who serves as the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) under Cardinal Arthur Roche, and who – according to some reports from earlier in the summer – is drawing up a text restricting the traditional Mass on which he will hope to receive papal approval.

Citing “reliable sources,” The Remnant wrote in June that “a new Vatican document more restrictive than Traditionis Custodes does indeed exist, is backed by Cardinal Parolin, and has been presented to Pope Francis.”

Migliore and Gugerotti have already issued exclusive denials to LifeSiteNews about their involvement with the alleged document.

READ: EXCLUSIVE: Vatican officials deny involvement in rumored Latin Mass crackdown

After The Remnant’s June 25 report, LifeSiteNews contacted both Migliore and Gugerotti asking if they would comment on the report and if they were giving “support or assistance or encouragement to an attempt by Archbishop Vittoria Viola, who is preparing a new document on the ‘Latin Mass.’”

Migliore swiftly replied by saying:

Short question, short answer: these are conjectures, to say the least, fanciful.

Gugerotti’s private secretary replied August 6 with a less direct statement, which nevertheless appeared to distance the cardinal from the rumored document. The reply read:

Thank you for your kind request, of which His Eminence Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, has taken careful note. In this regard, I would like to inform you that no information appears on the subject to which you refer.

With Parolin now also denying his involvement in the document, the three key figures named by The Remnant as aiding Archbishop Viola have all officially distanced themselves from his alleged document.

The Remnant placed faith in its sources, who name the seasoned Vatican prelates among the three key supporters of Archbishop Viola.

Cardinal Roche, Viola’s superior, has not replied to similar questioning and has in the meantime blocked LifeSiteNews on a social media platform.

The Remnant previously reported that Parolin was a leading figure in a 2020 meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which heard strong concern from participants about the growth in the traditional Mass.

At that meeting, according to The Remnant in 2021, one cardinal said that the “CDF should therefore ask for a ‘concrete sign of communion, of the recognition of the validity of the Mass of Paul VI,’” from priests offering the Latin Mass, adding that “‘we can’t go on like this.” The Remnant identified the cardinal as Parolin in its 2024 report.

READ: Vatican allowed fewer than 60 parish churches worldwide to offer Latin Mass in 2022

Considerable confusion and apparent contradiction in certain details have abounded over this summer regarding the rumored new document restricting the Latin Mass. Similar to such rumors in 2023, it was a single report that sparked consternation about likely fresh restrictions on the traditional Mass.

On June 17, the traditional blog Rorate Caeli issued a report suggesting that the Vatican is set to publish new measures restricting the traditional Mass even further than it already is. Rorate cited “credible” sources to say that there is an attempt to implement a “stringent, radical, and final solution banning the Traditional Latin Mass.”

The Remnant’s report some days later added further weight to the concerns Rorate had published.

Well-placed Vatican sources close to Pope Francis questioned by LifeSiteNews could not attest to the existence of the document. They highlighted the confusion emanating from the Vatican about the current state of affairs regarding the future of the traditional Mass, though none of the sources consulted denied that such a document might exist.

Or was The Pillar able to confirm existence of the rumored document despite its record of having talkative and apparently well-placed sources throughout the Vatican and especially in the Secretariat of State, the office led by Cardinal Parolin.

An outpouring of public support for the traditional Mass was subsequently seen after the June reports, coming both from Catholic and non-Catholic lay figures and from respected cardinals. Commenting on this grassroots support for the old Mass, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote how it “demonstrates that, even beyond its spiritual value, the Traditional Latin Mass is a cultural treasure that has inspired artistic creativity of every kind & in every age, building what we know as Western Civilization.”

For the time being, Archbishop Viola’s rumored document appears to have been stalled.