(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV met two sociologists on March 5 who have co-authored a book on Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass in the United States.
Stephen Cranney, a data scientist and lecturer in sociology at The Catholic University of America, and Stephen Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St. Mary’s University London, had a private audience with the pope at the Vatican.
Book on Latin Mass to be published in November
The two are co-authors of “Trads: Latin Mass Catholics in the United States,” scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in November 2026. The book draws on original survey data, ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine the community of people who attend the traditional Latin Mass in the U.S.
The papal audience comes amid ongoing tension within the Church over the traditional Latin Mass, which Pope Francis moved to restrict in 2021 through the decree “Traditionis Custodes.” The authors say their data-driven research challenges portrayals of so-called “Trads” on both ends of the debate.
In a jointly written article published in July 2024, Cranney and Bullivant noted a lack of reliable data on Latin Mass attendees. “The extent to which the TLM community is a schismatic hotbed of negative attitudes towards Vatican II is ultimately an empirical one that is scientifically investigable, and on this point there has been a clear lack of objective, systematically collected data,” they wrote.
Data offering more nuanced picture
Their survey data offered a more nuanced picture. When asked whether they accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they did to some degree — 22% strongly agreed, 27% agreed and 15% somewhat agreed. Only 4% strongly disagreed.
The researchers also found that schismatic groups represent a relatively small share of the broader Latin Mass community. The Society of St. Pius X, which recently announced it will consecrate bishops without papal approval, only has 103 chapels in the United States, compared to nearly 500 non-SSPX parishes that offered the traditional Latin Mass following the 2021 restrictions. Before the restrictions took effect, more than 800 parishes offered the Mass in its traditional form.
Framing new work as a corrective
Bullivant, who holds doctorates from Oxford and the University of Warwick and has previously written on Catholic disaffiliation, and Cranney, a nonresident fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for the Studies of Religion, frame their work as a corrective to an area previously treated “only through op-eds or historical or theological analysis.”
The audience with Pope Leo was private, and the Vatican did not release any details about the meeting. Bullivant declined a request for comment for this story.
It was one of eight audiences held by Pope Leo on March 5, including meetings with several heads of state and government, including Mary Simon, governor general of Canada; Tharman Shanmugaratnam, president of Singapore; Alexander Van der Bellen, president of Austria; as well as Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group.
The pope also received several senior church figures, including Archbishop Peter Soon-Taick Chung of Seoul, South Korea; Bishop Emeritus Pedro Daniel Martínez Perea of San Luis, Argentina; and Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, apostolic nuncio to Morocco.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
