Noted Theologian Critiques Cardinal Cupich's 'Spectacle' Claims About Traditional Latin Mass

The Italian priest and theologian Nicola Bux, liturgical consultant during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Francis, has published an open letter to Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, refuting his recent criticisms of the Traditional Latin Mass. The letter, published on November 18 at National Catholic Register by English journalist Edward Pentin, defends the validity and importance of the usus antiquior as an expression of the Church's profound identity.

Bux’s letter is a response to Cupich's reflection on Leo XIV's apostolic exhortation Dilexit te, in which the cardinal reduces the solemnity of the Mass to a fraternal assembly that can be shared with the poorest. For Cupich, the Traditional Latin Mass is a spectacle influenced by elements of imperial and royal courts.

This is how Bishop Bux situates his reflection within a theological framework: the liturgy, he affirms, is not an aesthetic exercise nor a communal activity, but rather the public manifestation of the worship due to God, a reality that Christians have upheld even in the face of persecution. Therefore, he rejects the notion that the Second Vatican Council called for a “poor” or trivialised liturgy, and recalls that the “noble simplicity” requested by Sacrosanctum Concilium refers to ritual clarity, not to the impoverishment of worship.
 

The Beauty of Worship as a Sign of Divine Majesty

Bux reminds us that both East and West have long understood that the liturgy possesses a “regal” quality, because it expresses that only God deserves adoration. He even cites Saint Francis of Assisi, who, far from advocating for a stripped-down worship, requested that the finest vestments and sacred vessels be used in the Mass.
 

Active Participation: Entering into the Mystery, Not Copying the World
 

In the letter, the theologian returns to the conciliar notion of “active participation,” which he describes as entering into the Mystery through prayers and rites, in continuity with Saint Thomas Aquinas. He criticizes, however, the tendency to confuse participation with spectacle or entertainment.

He cites a reflection by the then-priest Robert Prevost—later Pope Leo XIV—made in 2012, in which he stated that evangelising today involves redirecting the public's attention from spectacle to mystery. According to Bux, this is precisely what the traditional liturgy achieves.
 

Warning about the “distortions” of the Novus Ordo
 

The priest invites Cupich to recall what Benedict XVI described as “distortions to the limit of what is tolerable” present in some liturgical contexts after the Council: applause, dancing, and elements improper to worship, already denounced by Saint Cyprian. Therefore, he maintains that the liturgy must retain its solemn and apologetic character, capable of moving people to conversion.
 

Here follows Bux’s letter:
 

To His Eminence Cardinal Blase Cupich
 

Your Most Reverend Eminence,
 

“For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.” (1 Cor 4:9). This statement of the Apostle describes the identity of Christianity, both as the proclamation of the Gospel and as the Church’s public worship. Focusing on the latter, it can rightly be said that the liturgy is the spectacle offered to the world by those who adore Christ, the one Lord of the cosmos and of history, to whom they belong and not to the world. This is recalled by the expression “liturgical service,” which is truly appropriate — unlike the term “animation,” now in vogue — as if worship were not already animated by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

After the persecutions, this became evident, because Christians did not burn incense to the Roman emperor but to Jesus, the Son of God. Catholic liturgy therefore has regal and imperial characteristics — Eastern liturgies teach us this — because worship of God stands in opposition to any worship of the worldly rulers of the moment.

It is untrue that the Second Vatican Council desired a poor liturgy, since it asks that “rites should shine with noble simplicity” (Constitution on the Liturgy, 34), because they must speak of the majesty of God, who is noble beauty itself, and not of worldly banalities. The Church understood this from the beginning, both in East and West. Even Saint Francis prescribed that the most precious linens and vessels be used in worship.

What then is the “participation” of the faithful, if not to be part of and to take part in the “spectacle” of a faith that affirms God and therefore challenges the world and its profane spectacles — which are indeed spectacular: think of mega-conferences and rock concerts.The liturgy expresses the Sacred, that is, the Presence of God; it is not a theatrical performance. The participation desired by the last Council must be full, conscious, active, and fruitful (ibid. 11 and 14) — that is, a “mystagogy,” an entry into the Mystery that takes place per preces et ritus [through prayers and rites], which, as Saint Thomas reminds us, must elevate us as much as possible to divine truth and beauty (quantum potes tantum aude); or, in the words of then-Father Robert F. Prevost: “Our mission is to introduce people to the nature of the mystery as an antidote to the spectacle. Consequently, evangelization in the modern world must find adequate means to reorient the public’s attention, shifting it from spectacle toward mystery” (May 11, 2012). The usus antiquior of the Roman rite performs this function; otherwise it could not have withstood the secularization of the Sacred that entered into the Roman liturgy, to the point of making people believe that the Council itself wanted it. This is the identity and mission of the Church.

Finally, Your Eminence, I invite you to consider that the liturgy, since ancient times, was solemn in order to convert many to the faith, and for this reason it must also have an apologetic value and not imitate the fashions of the world, as Saint Cyprian reminds us (applause, dances, etc.), up to the “deformations at the limit of the bearable” that entered the novus ordo, as Benedict XVI observed. This is the authenticity of the “sacred liturgy”; this is the ars celebrandi, as demonstrated by the offertory of the Mass, which is performed for the needs of worship and for the poor.
 

Therefore, Your Eminence, I ask you to engage in a synodal dialogue for the good of ecclesial unity!
 

In the Lord Jesus,
 

Fr. Nicola Bux