Introduction:
Dear Readers, I am saddened to report that as of Sunday, June 29th, 2025, A. D., in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ, despite my own efforts at a petition (LINK), and I am sure other local requests, after 13 years the Latin Mass Community of Sts. Peter and Paul (SSPP) parish, in the Diocese of Tulsa, will be effectively banished, snuffed out, outcast, dispersed, scattered to the winds, destroyed.
Dead.
If there are updates, I will let you know.
At the same time, I am acutely aware that if I do not report this, and critically examine this, nobody probably will.
To me, this reflects a pattern all across the Church, bishops continuing to implement the removal of the TLM from diocesan parishes, in some cases as if they are trying to quickly finalize the deed before potentially Pope Leo steps in and reverses the restrictions, which I personally predict he will do for his plan of unity. And because he seems to me to be a cause for peace and hope.
May our new pope examine the original dubious survey of bishops on the TLM that would be, according to many credible reports, severely distorted to justify the unjust clampdown since 2021. I remain at this point going forward cautiously optimistic about what Pope Leo might do, that is having reservations but being hopeful.
Also, note that a major shutdown of diocesan TLM’s happened last month in the Diocese of Charlotte, NC which caused quite a stir across Catholic media.
The Situation:
There will be no more Latin Masses at Sts. Peter and Paul, not EVEN scheduled on a weekday, or a Saturday as a Vigil Mass.
Based on my research, it appears the reasons were not made clear publicly to their community why the TLM is ending at SSPP, in Tulsa, except mention of priest shortage issues, nor to explain in any detail with clarity the problem of maintaining the TLM there.
However, consider that the new pastor knows how to say the TLM, has a devotion to it, and in fact often said it in the past at SSPP when he was once associate pastor there.
According to a reliable source close to the situation. according to the new pastor, this change is not his choice. He said that it was the bishop’s decision. While not answering the question WHY the decision was made, when asked in detail WHY by this source.
When I myself politely asked in a short post on the group Facebook page (which my wife and I have been a member of for years) why, and about a possible Saturday Vigil Mass (TLM), instead of just not approving the comment, the main Admin corrected me and banned my comment from the group, even though I’ve never had a problem on there before.
Not everyone was able to hear the reasons why.
An extreme response like that to mere reasonable questions, suitable or not for the FB page, for people who weren’t there to hear the pulpit announcement, only suggests they don’t want to answer because there isn’t a reasonable answer.
By all accounts I have examined, the priests involved deliberately DID NOT give the TLM community a clear answer.
Yet the community certainly was, and still is, owed a clear answer, transparency, accountability, and good faith.
For me reporting this goes beyond simply defending and promoting the TLM and Catholic Tradition across the entire diocese, and the universal Church. This is also personal, in that it is difficult for me and my family as we have attended the TLM there many times.
For various personal practicalities over the years, it was where we attended the TLM locally when not attending it at the Fraternity parish, after the SSPX chapel was shut down in 2017 after 47 years as a community.
But now the traditional Mass at SSPP is no longer an option for us. Nor for you if you live in the greater Tulsa area, or move here. For Tulsans, the TLM and Catholic Tradition has now been effectively quarantined to a relatively small parish in the countryside outside of the city. As if Catholic Tradition is leprosy, and traditionalists are lepers. From some people’s perspective. Time will tell if the clampdown on traditionalism will extend there.
And to my knowledge there is no parochial church here where the Novus Ordo is celebrated Ad Orientem, with the major parts in Latin or Gregorian chant, with any sense of restoring the traditional orientation of the Mass, as Pope Benedict XVI wanted.
The TLM and TLM community was established at SSPP in 2012, by the tradition- minded Fr. Tim Davison of fond memory by the community, and by many in the diocese. For 13 years, they had a weekly solemn, sung Latin High Mass, and the Latin Mass often on certain weekdays. Families have literally been raised in this community, many who homeschool. Some enrolled their children in the parish school known to be one of the most orthodox and devout diocesan schools, thanks in great part to their former principal Patrick Martin and the former pastor Fr. Davison.
There was a long history of their sons laboring to practice serving for these solemn Masses, very devoted to serving Mass. The community participated in parish events and parish work projects, while also meeting for coffee and doughnuts, special festivities, including for years organizing a St. Patrick’s Day festival, having All Saints Day parties, and less formal gatherings after Mass.
They had a men’s group, for a time a newsletter, and maintained a pubic Facebook group. There were two Gregorian chant scholas, one of men and one of women. And the Tradition of this Mass also positively influenced the Novus Ordo Masses there for years to be more rubrical, reverent, and traditional. It was a living, breathing, permanent community devoted to the ancient Mass, and part of the parish.
It also drew quite a few Hispanics from the Spanish Mass community in the parish. And the community was a major contributor to parish finances, by the way. SSPP being a relatively poor parish. That $$$ will now be gone.
But now, as a community, it will soon be six feet under the ground, no more.
Effectively vaporized.
The Question is: Why???
Because in part due to Francis’ tyrannical restriction on TLM’s in diocesan parishes? That is distinct from “personal parishes” under the FSSP, Institute, and the like. You can decide for yourself, but “the facts speak for themselves.”
Consider that the only other diocesan parish Bishop Konderla gave dispensation to continue the TLM at, besides SSPP, was Holy Cross in Wagoner, which went from a weekly TLM to more recently now only once a month. It is reasonable to conclude the local pastor there did not decide this totally on his own, but that it came also from the diocese/chancery/bishop.
Another reliable source close to the situation confirms this change at Holy Cross was due, at least in part, to a recent Vatican directive. Was such a directive also issued about SSPP? In the name of Traditionis Custodes and its guidelines, used to restrict the TLM from the parish setting?
When somebody (not me) asked on the Facebook page of the SSPP Traditional Latin Mass group why it is ending, one of the group moderators responded “Nobody really knows.” Nobody knows. The parish as a whole did not know clearly WHY. This was AFTER the announcement was made on their Facebook page it was ending.
And to be crystal clear, I am not accusing here publicly the bishop of personal wrongdoing, intentional or not, or of intentionally phasing out the traditional Mass from the mainstream of the diocese, from parish churches, whether due to Vatican policy or his own. Or both. I can only guesstimate his thinking, but you can decide for yourself.
Yet consider that since Bishop Slattery (RIP) retired in 2016, the works of traditional restoration under him have over and over been as a matter of fact ended. This includes the Doloran Fathers, Mother Miriam’s Daughters of Mary, the traditional style Ad Orientem Novus Ordo Mass on Sunday’s at the cathedral, weekly Sunday Vespers at the cathedral, etc. That is in fact a pattern.
The grave injustice is that the ancient Roman rite, the unquestionably orthodox and reverent form of Mass, the Mass of the Saints, will no longer be offered at SSPP, and that this is scattering a verifiable long term community within a parish. While the Novus Ordo in Spanish and English remains.
Consider the spiritual and psychological impact this will have on all the individuals of that community, not to mention disruption to their lives certainly having to change parishes.
Solutions to the Issue of The New Pastor Having No Associate Pastor?
Consider that canon law allows a parish priest to say many Masses on one Sunday with permission for special circumstances, such as priest shortages. Why then can’t the diocese work something out?
Why can’t he say the TLM on a weekday when his Mass schedule is less full? Like on Saturday? As a Saturday Vigil Mass, which fulfills the obligation for Sunday?
Why does the new pastor have no associate? Or, why is there no priest available within driving distance across the city or nearby to float to SSPP and help out with the Mass schedule, even just to say one of the Novus Ordo Masses, to unburden the new pastor (who is a young priest), so as to free up the new pastor to say the TLM?
There are, in my estimation, over 20 parishes in the Tulsa area. Most have more than one priest. Most do not have Mass Sunday afternoons. Not one parish has more than one Saturday Vigil Mass.
Or why not condense the number of Masses so the TLM continues? In addition, is there really no nearby priest in the greater Tulsa area trained in the TLM who can help out? Or who knows enough Latin from seminary to learn it?
Or, why not ask an FSSP priest, say during the afternoon on Sundays once his parish duties are finished? At least to help out temporarily, as they have before at SSPP. The SSPP Sunday Mass schedule leaves open time for the TLM most of the afternoon. Or why could not a combination of solutions not work?
And there is always the 10:30 am spot it occupied for 13 years.
And, there is time Saturday evening for a second Vigil Mass, if it came to it. Why not then??? Why not a 5 pm Saturday Novus Ordo, and then a 7 pm TLM? The new pastor can’t do that? Or a local priest can’t come over and say the Saturday Novus Ordo so the new pastor can afterwards say the TLM? From any of a number of Tulsa area parishes with more than one priest.
Also, consider that Fr. Robert Healey, a young priest of the diocese who once said public TLM’s at Holy Cross, will be re-assigned from Stillwater 1.5 hours from Tulsa, to St. Thomas More in Tulsa, just 15 minutes from SSPP, one of three priests there covering a weekend schedule of 7 Masses.
If there was just one added Mass to their combined schedule (that is Fr. Healey driving over to SSPP fifteen minutes away for say a Sunday afternoon TLM, or a Saturday evening TLM), that would be just 8 Masses instead of 7, just one more, meaning say 3 for two priests, and 2 for the third. Which is a normal Mass schedule for a priest today. Outside of other unknown circumstances, it appears that is something that can be done. And if so, should be done, all things considered.
And I haven’t even mentioned yet the two priests who know the TLM, who said it at SSPP, about to be transferred from SSPP to Wagoner and Muskogee, respectively. Is there really no section in their schedule to also help out the new pastor with his burdensome Mass schedule?
For example, when Fr. Donovan finishes up with Saturday evening Mass or Sunday morning Mass in Wagoner, and then Sunday morning Mass in Coweta (20 minutes apart), looking at their parish websites, there are NO other scheduled Masses.
For the rest of the day. Does he need the rest of the day to kick back and watch football? Sunday is a priest's main work day.
Would he really be unwilling or unable to drive 24 miles to SSPP on a Sunday afternoon? Or a Saturday evening? To help relieve the new pastor? To help preserve the TLM there and the community??
Knowing about his commitment to the priesthood, Catholic Tradition, and the TLM, all as former pastor of SSPP, I do not believe he is unwilling or unable.
And if not unwilling and unable, why was that kind of arrangement not made by the diocese? At least as part of the solution?
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it certainly seems reasonable to expect the local Church to have prepared for this situation well in advance, to plan ahead, to ensure a priest will be available to maintain the TLM, or help ease the Sunday schedule so the new pastor can say it, especially since, you know (sarcasm intended), this is the ancient and venerable rite of the Latin Church, the Mass of the Ages, one of the most beautiful things this side of heaven, and would otherwise mean the effective DESTRUCTION of a verifiable, permanent parish community, of over a decade, with a great pastoral need.
By the way, every priest should know Latin, as that is still the official language of the Church and liturgy, and enough to learn the TLM. It doesn’t take months to learn the rubrics of the TLM, once they know the Novus Ordo. It isn’t such a great leap to learn to say it.
I can say this as I grew up serving the Novus Ordo most every Sunday with its rubrics. It really wasn’t that hard then to learn to serve the TLM as I would do as a young adult, based on my previous experience. If I could learn the Latin responses and postures, in a short time, certainly it would not be so difficult for a Roman rite priest (Novus Ordo) to learn the traditional format. Especially for a more simple Low Mass which can still include the major parts sung in Gregorian chant by the choir.
There are enough local priests such that the local Church was and is able to provide priests to say Mass using the 1962 missal, in addition to the 1970 missal, or to drive over to SSPP and help out the new pastor, if not as his resident associate pastor. The bishop himself learned it in order to say the Mass at the FSSP during confirmations, and out at Clear Creek for ordinations. Which was very pastoral. Why not be as pastoral to preserve the TLM community at SSPP? In a diocesan parish other than the FSSP?
I do believe he is (and was) certainly able to ask any of a number of local priests in the Tulsa area, especially the younger priests who are now very tradition-minded, to have learned the 1962 missal by now, in addition to several who already know how. And to help fill in over at SSPP.
My main point is, all of this points to the ultimate question: did the Vatican under Pope Francis, before he died in April, order Bishop Konderla to phase out the Latin Mass in all diocesan parishes, including now at SSPP, as it has been ordering other bishops who had given a dispensation?
Of course I would not be making any sense here if the error of Clericalism were true and we are not allowed to respectfully publicly criticize Church leadership, in accord with canon law # 212, in a situation like this, or call it into question.
Or if Quietism were true and such respectfulness requires being only “nice.”
Or if the TLM is a mere Libertarian liturgical preference of a few old-fashioned people who like Latin, chant, and isolation from the diocesan mainstream. Vs. being, you know, the historically authentic Roman rite all Roman rite Catholics essentially have a right to, in principle, according to Pope Benedict XVI, and for the certainly sacred, vertical, clearly sacrificial worship of God as it was always offered before, by both the Latin Church and Eastern Churches (which still maintain uniformly the mystery and sacredness of the liturgy).
The bottom line is I cannot prove or assert with mathematical certainty exactly WHY this is happening, until I should learn more details one day, except to gather all the facts, connect the dots, and let the “facts speak for themselves.”
This does not pass the “smell test,” or the “common sense test,” or the demands of basic logic. If a mere layman with a blog can do the kind of logistical analysis as I did above, not more complex than playing checkers, then surely the apparatus of the Diocese could have found a solution.
I will keep this post up at the top of the blog for three months so that this doesn’t fade quickly into oblivion, with a few fleeting whispers in the church parking lot, across the diocese, but rather that we can hold our pastors accountable.
If you find this objectionable and very questionable, ask the bishop about it.
I encourage readers to please call or write the bishop your concerns about this, and also about the Holy Cross-Wagoner situation, in a respectful way. If/when more changes are made like this, or worse, we can let the bishop know our thoughts. So he can take it to heart. He is after all our Shepherd, and we are his sheep. For better or worse.
And I will make sure to let you know, as I have before. I’d rather be blogging about the Saints, or Catholic philosophy, or medical ethics, or the daily life of an Okie Catholic, or outdoor sports, as one of my hobbies, but as we like to say in Oklahoma, “it is what it is.” Somebody had to say this.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.