Effective Sept. 8, 2022, Bishop Burbidge has implemented Traditionis custodes in the Diocese of Arlington, imposing heavy restrictions on the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass. Under these norms, only eight parishes are permitted to continue the public celebration of the TLM, out of more than 20 parishes which previously celebrated it regularly.

Of these remaining eight, only three parish TLMs, listed below, are permitted to be celebrated in their parish church buildings. This indult was granted for two years, i.e. ending in 2024, unless it is renewed. 

The other five remaining parish TLMs have been assigned to alternate locations outside the parish church buildings, listed below, with no publicly announced end date to their permissions.

*** UPDATE *** 

On July 18, 2024, it became public knowledge that Bishop Burbidge's request to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (DDW) for an extension of the indult for the three in-parish TLMs was granted. Therefore, St. Rita, St. John the Beloved, and St. Anthony of Padua Mission will be able to continue to offer the TLM in their parish church buildings until summer 2026, at which point the permission will need to be renewed again. The other five locations, which require no permission from Rome under TC since they are not parish church buildings, will be able to continue as well.

On July 19, the Diocese of Arlington formally announced the indult renewal, revealing a key condition (officially a "suggestion" from the DDW) attached to it: the three parishes must replace one TLM per month with a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin. (This does not apply to the five off-site TLM locations, which will continue every week as normal.) In homilies preached at St. Rita and St. John the Beloved on Sunday, July 21, it was made clear that these would have to be Sunday Masses, but that the off-weeks would not be the same for all three parishes.

ALMS will work diligently to communicate the dates of these off-weeks. If you have not already done so, please subscribe for our email updates (see the footer of any page on this website) and follow us on social media, especially Facebook. 

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Additionally, these norms prohibit the public celebration of the TLM in the Diocese during Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum. 

Public celebrations of the traditional Divine Office are not implicated.

Besides the locations listed below, residents of the Diocese of Arlington may also be interested in options in neighboring jurisdictions: the closest would be the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., which is a Sunday TLM venue approved by the Archdiocese of Washington; the Priory of the Annunciation in Charles Town, W.Va., which is in the Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston and administered by the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem; and St. Joseph in Richmond, Va., which is in the Diocese of Richmond and administered by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

As explained in the update to the Background Information section, above, these three parishes will be losing one Sunday TLM per month, pursuant to the DDW's "suggestion" to the Diocese of Arlington to replace these Masses with Latin Novus Ordo Masses. Each parish will generally follow the schedule shown immediately above. Deviations from this schedule will be noted with an update, and/or marked on a schedule for Seasonal Masses.

The Arlington Latin Mass Society encourages everyone who regularly attends the traditional Latin Mass on Sundays to avoid attending the Latin Novus Ordo Masses imposed on these three parishes one Sunday per month, because these are intended by the DDW as a means to limit use of the TLM, rather than as pastoral provision for those who wish to attend the Novus Ordo.

Rather, consider attending the next-nearest TLM on those once-a-month Sundays when the TLM is not offered at your parish. St. Rita and St. John the Beloved are only 9 miles or 20 minutes apart from each other, and St. Anthony Mission is a manageable 28 miles or 35 minutes from St. Patrick in Fredericksburg (see below). Holy Trinity's TLM oratory in Nokesville, Old St. John the Evangelist in Silver Spring, Md., and the Franciscan Monastery in Brookland, DC, may also be viable options for some.

Or, check out our new list of Masses and Divine Liturgies in alternative rites, including Eastern Catholic rites and the Ordinariate use of the Roman Rite, which bears many similarities to the TLM.

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Photo credits for banner image and St. Rita thumbnail: Divine Mercy Care.