MANILA, Philippines – A Philippine diocese said it is exploring the possibility of offering more Traditional Latin Masses after the Vatican decreed the excommunication of the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).
The Diocese of Cubao is located in the heart of Quezon City, the Philippines’ most populous city and home to the country’s most prominent SSPX chapel.
Cubao Bishop Elias Ayuban Jr. told Crux Now on Saturday they were “still in the process of discerning how to expand our liturgical services to those who adhere to Latin Masses.” He has “not yet” reached out to the local SSPX community while the discernment process was ongoing.
The 58-year-old Ayuban, a canon lawyer trained at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, was the first Filipino bishop publicly known to have addressed the SSPX schism in a local context.
While there are no publicly available data on the number of SSPX members in the Philippines, the society has 26 chapels in the country, which has about 86 million Catholics, making the Philippines a major SSPX hub in Asia.
A former Spanish colony, the Philippines is also the biggest Catholic-majority country on the continent.
In a pastoral letter on Monday of this week, Ayuban expressed his “deepest sentiments” to people affected by recent events.
The Filipino prelate wrote his pastoral letter four days after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a decree dated July 2, declared that clergy and members of the SSPX have been excommunicated. The DDF made this decision after the SSPX ordained four new bishops on July 1 without the approval of Pope Leo XIV.
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Founded by the conservative French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Switzerland in 1970, the SSPX rejects the reforms of the historic Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. The society has asserted that the Mass be recited exclusively in Latin — not in the vernacular, as allowed by the 1960s gathering of the world’s Catholic bishops at the Vatican.
The bishop of Cubao told SSPX members, “To you, I speak these words from the heart: I am saddened that many of you, our dear lay faithful, who have sincerely worshiped at liturgies celebrated by the Society, now find yourselves not only in a painful moment of discernment but also of being deprived of the sacraments.”
The bishop addressed SSPX followers as God’s children “who have genuinely loved the sacred liturgy and seriously devoted” themselves to the Catholic tradition. He said he knew that many of them “never intended to reject” Church’s teachings or to disobey the Pope.
No condemnation
Ayuban then urged the Diocese of Cubao to welcome SSPX members “with charity, understanding, and patience.” He urged collaboration and dialogue as the diocese encouraged SSPX members “to seek reconciliation with the Church.”
“Through preaching and catechism, may we avoid condemnation but approach the matter with pastoral tact and sensitivity,” said Ayuban, a former provincial superior of the Filipino Claretian missionaries.
He added that the Diocese of Cubao will begin organizing a group of priests and laypersons “who will be able to competently and compassionately provide information, counseling, and pastoral assistance,” tending to the spiritual needs of SSPX members.
“While the Mass of the 1962 Roman Missal (Traditional Latin Mass) will continue to be celebrated in the Diocese of Cubao, we shall explore the possibility of providing additional Traditional Latin Masses accessible to a greater number of devotees in accordance with the prescriptions of Traditionis Custodes,” said Ayuban, referring to the late Pope Francis’s apostolic letter in 2021 regulating the Traditional Latin Mass.
The SSPX chapel within his diocese’s territory — the Our Lady of Victories Church in New Manila, Quezon City — has not published any public statement in response to Ayuban’s pastoral letter.
However, on Friday, the Our Lady of Victories Church posted photos on its Facebook page, showing highlights from its 9 am sung Mass last Sunday.
The SSPX had already been excommunicated when that Mass was held, but the Our Lady of Victories Church said it was “wonderful to see new faces in the pews.” The church noted that “attendance was also strong and steady across all low Masses last weekend.”
Over the past week, the Our Lady of Victories Church has also posted several sermons and videos defending the SSPX against the Vatican decree.
