Of course, unfounded rumors out of the Vatican are not new, and some journalists have not been able to identify anybody who has actually seen the document in question.

Still, even if it ends up being in the class of "Pope Francis is dying" rumors that we have heard for years, such a document would be in character for a pontificate that has emphasised placing hedges around the more conservative, traditional elements of the Church.

While his predecessor's position towards the Latin Mass community can be broadly characterized as one of accommodation, Pope Francis has taken a more confrontational approach.

But why? What is the problem with allowing what is by all measures a small fraction of Catholics to participate in a licit Mass that they find beautiful, reverent, and holy?

The very real fact is that Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) participation has been associated with factions inside the Church who do not accept Vatican II and may even be quasi-schismatic, and multiple popes have taken a variety of approaches in how to deal with groups such as the SSPX.

It is not our place to tell the Holy Father what to do; we are social scientists, not bishops, and one of us is not even Catholic.

However 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.

The Latin Mass today

The Prefect for the Dicastery for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arthur Roche, has made it clear that he thinks the TLM has a different liturgical theology than the Novus Ordo.

There is also the argument that the TLM is an implied, if not explicit, rejection of Vatican II. It seems the Holy Father himself holds this view. Conclusions based on impressions are suspect if they are not supported by more objective evidence.

In announcing Traditiones Custodes (the 2021 round of Latin Mass restrictions), the Pope invoked a survey that he had disseminated among bishops on the question of the Latin Mass.

However, in addition to the fact that the survey was of bishops and not Traditional Latin Mass-goers themselves, the wordings used, the exact responses, the representativeness — any one of many things that would be required for a professional survey statistician to objectively gauge the validity of the survey — were completely unknown.

Therefore it is difficult to know how seriously to take the results of the survey when only the vaguest details are known.

Objective data collection

We, a professor of sociology and theology (and a TLM attender) and a demography/sociology dual-PhD data scientist, have been striving to remedy the lack of transparent, systematically collected, objective data on the TLM community in preparation for a book we are writing.

This involves collating all previously published information on the demographics and attitudes of the TLM community (it is not a lot), as well as conducting our own surveys and supplementing our quantitative data with approximately 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews of TLM Catholics across the country.

While our study is on the United States TLM community in particular, given the American Church's reputation as a hotbed of conservativism, we believe our findings have broad implications.

Survey findings

So what did we find? While we are still processing our data, some relevant themes have already emerged.

There is obviously a lot to talk about with TLM Mass-goers, which we will discuss in greater detail in the book, but in broad strokes, this is some of what we learned about Traditional Latin Mass Catholics in the United States:

There is some truth to the conventional wisdom that they tend to be politically conservative. Of the 446 respondents in our survey who attend the Traditional Latin Mass at least once per year, 77 percent of them lean Republican.

They are very, very pro-life. 85 percent of the TLM Catholics in our sample believe that abortion should be illegal in all cases, whereas 13 percent believe it should be illegal in most cases, while only 1.6 percent believe it should be legal in most cases, and less than 1 percent believe that it should be legal in all cases.

They are orthodox. In our survey only 2 percent% of TLM Catholics believe that the bread and wine of communion are symbols, as opposed to the Real Presence, of the body and blood of Christ. In a similarly worded Pew survey of general Catholics, 69% considered the Eucharist a symbol.

They generally accept the Second Vatican Council. When we asked "I accept the teachings of Vatican II"

• 4 percent - Strongly disagreed
• 7 percent - Disagreed
• 10 percent - Somewhat disagreed
• 15 percent - Neither agreed nor disagreed
• 15 percent - Somewhat agreed
• 27 percent - Agreed
• 22 percent - Strongly agreed

This is a case where the interview data helped flesh out the reasons for the ambivalence in the survey responses.

A very common theme found in our interviews was distinguishing between what was actually in the Vatican II documents and how it had been carried out or interpreted. Read more

• Stephen Bullivant holds professorial positions at St Mary's University, London and at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney.
• Stephen Cranney is a data scientist and a non-resident Fellow at Baylor's Institute for the Studies of Religion.

Sixty years hence, we can reflect on the impact of this document on New Zealand's theological landscape and liturgical practices.

Sacrosanctum Concilium is the cornerstone of Vatican II because it addresses more than just ritual adjustments to the 1962 rites.

At its most profound level, it articulates a renewed understanding of the Church, where the liturgy of the church and the life of the baptised form a single coherent unity.

Sacrosanctum Concilium was the first Constitution issued by the Council, not only because of the decades-long research that preceded it and the liturgical reforms of Pope St Pius X and Pope Pius XII but, most importantly, according to Pope Benedict XVI, because the liturgical life of the Church is central to the very existence of the Church.

2,147 bishops at the Council overwhelmingly approved Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Only four voted against the Church's cornerstone document and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was promulgated by Pope St Paul VI on December 4, 1963.

Historical Snapshot

The journey of implementation unfolded gradually in New Zealand.

The bishops, cognizant of the sweeping changes, decided not to alter liturgical practices until the publication of the first Instruction on February 5, 1964.

Throughout 1964, New Zealanders, were kept abreast of liturgical developments through publications like Tablet and Zealandia, while the bishops prepared to implement the Mass in English.

On May 16, 1964, the decree permitting the use of English and Maori (vernacular) in the Mass reached New Zealand, outlining its application in parish Masses, Religious community Masses, and special occasions such as requiem and nuptial Masses.

A circular letter from the New Zealand bishops, dated July 10, 1964, further authorised changes in the Mass and extended permission for English in sacraments and funeral rites.

The final form of the New Mass was introduced on the First Sunday of Advent, 1970.

Throughout the late 1960s, religious women had been very prominent in the liturgical changes.

At the same time, they were exploring their original charisms under the guidance of Perfectæ Caritatis, the Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life (28 October 1965).

In New Zealand's four dioceses, some diocesan priests gave practical leadership to the reforms, many of whom used French, German, and English sources.

Most of these priests were associated with the St Paul's group at the National Seminary, Holy Cross during the 1950s which had been foundered by Basil Meeking, later Bishop of Christchurch, one of New Zealand's greatest advocates for the new Order of Mass (Novus Ordo).

In Christchurch, Bishop Brian Ashby displayed a nuanced approach to reform and emphasised practical ecumenism.

He established two commissions for Liturgy and Music with Fr Basil Meeking, playing a central role.

Indeed, Meeking was sometimes too Avant guarde in his approach.

There is much anecdotal evidence of his parish church resounding to the sounds of modern music long before this practice became popular.

And much to the horror and bewilderment of the majority of parishioners there was also the sight of liturgical dance.

In Auckland, Auxiliary Bishop, Reginald Delargey, emerged as the one who seamlessly embraced the reforms of Vatican II.

Delargey's enthusiasm came from his involvement with the Catholic Action or Cardijn movement.

Lay Catholic involvement was strong during this period of reform, especially from those involved in Catholic Action and the Young Christian Worker Movements.

Delargy's emphasis on the lay apostolate in theology and liturgy set him apart from Archbishop Listen (Auckland), Cardinal McKeefry and Bishop Sneddon (Wellington), and Bishop Kavanagh (Dunedin).

The Clergy and Laity

Both clergy and laity faced challenges transitioning from a rigid ritual practice of worship to one where the liturgy itself was seen as the principal way the Church does its pastoral work.

In short, the advent of Pastoral Liturgy.

Priests, accustomed to meticulous liturgical manuals, grappled with adaptability and laity, used to non-participatory forms of worship now had to adapt to praying the Mass and the sacramental rites with the priest.

Celebrating the Mass to the people (missa cum populo) for the priests meant facing the congregation and for the congregants, it meant seeing the priest presiding.

Consequently, altars had to be repositioned and lecterns introduced because previously the priest had read the epistle and Gospel at the altar.

Using our vernacular languages (English and Maori) was not new, but it was different, and new texts for shared proclamation had to be written and learned.

Although the "Dialogue Mass" with bi-lingual missals in Latin and English had been introduced in 1939, and Maori congregations had participated in the Roman Canon's prayers for the dead, these changes to language, posture and inclusion were significant.

As an example, our language changed from "going to hear mass" on Sundays to "celebrating the liturgy", or "celebrating the Eucharist" on Sundays.

"Liturgy", became a new word that, also, unfortunately, covered a multitude of mistakes as well.

Contemporary Context

Since the Council the voices for the reinstatement of the 1962 Roman Missal and the rites before 1962 became more strident, creating the so-called "liturgical wars", which as Pope Francis wrote in Traditiones Custodes, has led to a division in the church through their rejection of the Second Vatican Council as the Church's highest teaching authority.

Given this division, Pope Francis, guided by the bishops of the Church, abrogated the pre-Vatican rites and reserved permission to use them to the Holy See.

He did this to preserve the unity of the Church, through the use of the liturgical rites promulgated by Saints Paul IV and John Paul II.

Pope Francis has also offered Bishops' Conferences the opportunity to adapt liturgical rites further to local culture, language, and use.

This allows for the revision of many prayers in the current 2010 translation, excluding the Eucharistic Prayer.

The biggest danger to the New Zealand Church at present is the loss of 60 years of work towards a Church that is pastorally focused through liturgical prayer and responsive to the Signs of the Times.

Without this, the "self-revealing God" of the Scriptures and Tradition is replaced with devotionalism.

Many parish communities are endangered by laity and clergy who disenfranchise local communities through clerical structures and mentalities that belong more to the past than they do to the present.

Marking 60 years of Sacrosanctum Concilium is an opportunity to consider what the New Zealand Church has been through, tell the story, and ask those joining the Church to respond to this history in positive and life-giving ways.

• Dr Joe Grayland is a Liturgical Theologian and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He has been a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North for nearly thirty years. His latest book is: Catholics. Prayer, Belief and Diversity in a Secular Context (Te Hepara Pai, 2021).