The End of the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Monterey
HOLLISTER – In what has been his final act as the fifth Bishop of Monterey in California, the Most Rev. Daniel E. Garcia—recently installed as the sixth Bishop of Austin, Texas—issued a decree shutting down the diocese’s only traditional Latin Mass, celebrated according to the 1962 edition of The Roman Missal and what the late Pope Benedict XVI called the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The story was first reported by the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli on Sunday, 21 September 2025, which asked: “Could something be more petty, more pathetic, and more ridiculous?”. Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf, ordained a priest in Rome by St John Paul II in 1991, provided extensive commentary on his widely read blog. Within days, Catholic News Agency, Life Site News, and EWTN News Nightly had picked up the story, spotlighting the suppression of the traditional Mass in Monterey—the very same form of the Mass that St Junípero Serra celebrated when he first brought the Faith to California over 250 years ago, now abruptly ended by the outgoing bishop.
Traditional theologian and liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski remarked on Facebook that “the cruelty is the point” and that “no one can wonder why the SSPX exists—it exists because of bishops like this”. Local Catholics added their own grief-filled reactions:
“This was at our church. When our priest Fr. Stephen [Akers] read this letter to the congregation, everyone was heartbroken. It was incredibly painful. What is going on in the church?”
“In Monterey we have seen how priests that talk about hell, sin and true faith are constantly removed and others have been removed after being accused of sexual abuse, the church here is all about feeling good, hell is not existent because God is all mercy. A few years ago before the pandemic came [the] Our Lady of Fatima image came to visit the Carmel mission and only 8 people were there to receive the image, my heart broke.”
A Brief History
The roots of the traditional Latin liturgy in California reach back to St Junípero Serra (1713-1784). When he founded the Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Monterey on 3 June 1770, he described how he inaugurated it with a Missa Cantata or Sung Mass:
“Our arrival was greeted by the joyful sound of the bells suspended from the branches of the oak tree… With everyone lending a hand we set [a cross] in an upright position… I began the High Mass, [and] a sermon after the Gospel; and, as long as the Mass lasted, it was accompanied with many salvos of cannon…” (Tibesar, Writings of Junípero Serra, vol. 1; Morgado, Junípero Serra: A Pictorial Biography).
The Mass celebrated by the Apostle of California had been codified by the Council of Trent in 1570, though its origins date back to the 6th and 7th centuries in Rome, gradually spreading throughout Western Europe by the 8th century. By the 11th century, the Roman liturgy had assumed the form it would retain until the reforms of St Paul VI following the Second Vatican Council.
Many Catholics continued to desire the older liturgy as it had been celebrated for centuries.
In Monterey, requests for the traditional Mass were consistently denied by the Most Rev. Sylvester D. Ryan, 3rd Bishop of Monterey, following St John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei. But in September 2007, the late Most Rev. Richard J. Garcia, 4th Bishop of Monterey, announced that the Extraordinary Form would be made available in three parts of the diocese:
“Both forms celebrate our participation in sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ: in the ordinary form or post-Vatican II, we do so by means of our English (vernacular) language and communal prayer, while in the extraordinary or pre-Vatican II form, participation also includes listening to the prayers in Latin and joining our hearts to the words and actions” (Pastoral Letter, September 2007).
The parish of Saint Paul the Apostle in Pismo Beach began hosting the traditional Mass in November 2007, celebrated by Rev. Michael Bell until his death in 2015. Dom Christopher Andrews, OSB, of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, then served as chaplain to the Traditional Latin Mass Community of St Junípero Serra in the southern diocese for a time.
In 2008, Rev. Nicholas A. Milich was appointed chaplain of the Traditional Latin Mass Community of Monterey Bay, with the first Mass celebrated at Mission San Juan Bautista on 29 June 2008. The Mass continued weekly, moving in 2011 to the Shrine of Saint Joseph in Santa Cruz, then to the Queen of Heaven Mausoleum Chapel in Salinas, and finally, in 2016, to Sacred Heart Church in Hollister. Around this time, Fr. Milich retired, and Rev. Hugues Beaugrand of the Institute of the Good Shepherd was invited by the late Bishop Garcia to serve as chaplain to both the traditional Mass communities in Hollister and Pismo Beach.
The late Bishop Garcia himself administered the Sacrament of Confirmation according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, using the 1961 edition of the Pontificale Romanum, at Mission San Juan Bautista (2010, 2012) and at Carmel Mission Basilica (2014).
Following the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes in 2021, Fr. Beaugrand was recalled by his community to serve as pastor of a personal parish exclusively using the 1962 liturgical books. Since then, the southern traditional Latin Mass community has been without regular celebration, with some faithful attending the local Byzantine Catholic Church, while the Hollister community has been served by two diocesan priests, Fr. Stephen Akers, pastor of Sacred Heart & St Benedict in Hollister, and Fr. Germán Rodriguez, pastor of Saint John the Baptist in King City.
The September 2025 Decree
On Laetare Sunday, 30 March 2025, diocesan officials visited the Hollister community. According to attendees, little effort was made to understand the group’s perspective, with emphasis instead placed on Pope Francis’ directive in Traditionis Custodes that the liturgical books of St Paul VI and St John Paul II are “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite” (art. 1).
Critics noted that this stance contradicted both St John Paul II and Benedict XVI:
“Respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition…” (St John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei, 1988).
“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden…” (Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum letter, 2007).
Bishop Daniel Garcia’s decree was signed on 14 September 2025, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross—eighteen years to the day after Summorum Pontificum took effect. Fr. Zuhlsdorf responded: “What a cheap shot”.
Canon Law and Episcopal Authority
Questions soon arose about the timing. Bishop Garcia had been appointed to the See of Austin on 2 July 2025 and was installed there on 18 September—just four days after issuing his decree in Monterey.
Canon Law makes clear that a bishop retains governance of his diocese until he takes possession of a new see (can. 418 §2), making the decree dated 14 September 2025 canonically valid. Still, many canonists note that the law also states, “when a see is vacant, nothing is to be altered” (can. 428 §1). While technically Monterey was not yet vacant, the principle is meant to prevent disruptive decisions at moments of transition. As a result, some view the decree as an imprudent move that attempts to pre-emptively tie the hands of Garcia’s successor.
Looking Ahead
The suppression comes at a time of wider uncertainty. Pope Francis died on 21 April 2025, and Pope Leo XIV was elected on 8 May. Many Catholics are adopting a cautious “wait and see” approach toward the new pope’s stance on the traditional Mass.
For now, however, once the traditional Latin Mass is celebrated for the last time on Sunday, 12 October 2025—the day before the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fátima—there will be no regular celebrations of Mass in Latin or with Gregorian chant in the Diocese of Monterey. This raises broader questions about the reception of Vatican II’s own liturgical directives:
“Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 36.1).
“Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 54).
“The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 116).
Whether the ancient form of the Mass, celebrated by St Junípero Serra himself, will ever return to the See of Monterey remains an open question. Yet in a diocese where the cathedral hosts an annual “Dixieland Jazz Mass” and the now former bishop reportedly forbade his seminarians from studying Latin—despite canon law requiring they be “well trained in the Latin language” (can. 249)—one must wonder what passes for fidelity to the Church’s liturgical and disciplinary tradition.
SCHEDULE OF FINAL MASSES
- 16th Sunday after Pentecost, 28 September 2025 – 3pm (celebrant: Fr German Rodriguez)
- External Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary, 5 October 2025 – 10am (celebrant: Fr Stephen Akers)
- 18th Sunday after Pentecost, 12 October 2025 – 10am (celebrant: Fr Stephen Akers)
