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(LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone defended the use of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) amid rumors that the Vatican plans to impose further restrictions on it.

In an essay published in the National Catholic Register, the archbishop of San Francisco explained why the Church needs the TLM and that restricting it would be a mistake, stressing that the beauty of the traditional Latin Rite is an essential tool of evangelization.

“The Second Vatican Council taught us to read the signs of the times,” Cordileone said. “One sign staring at us right now in large block letters is: Beauty evangelizes.”

“We live in an age when we need to leverage the power of beauty to touch minds, hearts and souls, for beauty has the quality of an inescapably real experience, one that is not subject to argument.”

“The current cultural maxim, ‘You have your truth and I have my truth’ leads to the refusal to recognize even obvious physical and biological reality, whereas beauty circumvents the cognitive process and hits directly to the soul,” he explained.

“Sacred beauty lifts us out of the world of time and gives us a glimpse of that which transcends time, of what ultimately lasts, of what our goal and our final home is: the reality of God.”

“In an age of anxiety and unreason, beauty is thus a largely untapped resource for reaching people, especially young people, with the Gospel message of hope,” he continued.

“In a de-Christianized age that is becoming increasingly inhospitable to any traditional sense of religion, the Church needs to operate on all cylinders. The traditional Latin Mass and the beauty it inspires is one of those cylinders.”

“That even nonbelievers can feel an attraction to it in itself proves this point,” he said in reference to the recently published open letter of leading British figures – many of them non-Catholics – in defense of retaining the Latin Mass.

READ: Leading British figures pen defense of Latin Mass to echo Agatha Christie’s famous petition

Cordileone cited “noted human-rights activist Bianca Jagger,” who highlighted “the apolitical and non-ideological nature of the request.”

“Surely ‘rigidity’ cannot explain such an extraordinary and diverse outpouring of love for this liturgical form,” the archbishop concluded in an apparent reference to the charge of “rigidity” Pope Francis has often leveled against tradition-loving Catholics.

READ: Pope Francis again laments ‘clericalism’ of ‘rigid seminarians’

“I am concerned that a skewed impression of lovers of the Latin Mass has taken hold due to a few extremists on the internet,” Cordileone wrote. “As this petition, and previous petitions, demonstrate, the Latin Mass has a curiously inclusive appeal.”

“Most who attend the Latin Mass also attend the Novus Ordo (known colloquially as the Mass of Vatican II). They know that to be Catholic means we must remain inside the barque of Peter, however stormy the seas.”

“They plead not against the new Mass but for the form they love, that feeds and inspires them – indeed, to the point that they constitute a visible proportion of those who go on to become creators of new art and beauty in which the world shares and celebrates,” he continued.

“This is why the Latin Mass has attracted the support of nonbelievers who understand its crucial role in the creation of Western civilization.”

READ: Archbishop Cordileone thanks signatories of open letter supporting the Latin Mass

Cordileone backed up his statement by citing the “many great classical musicians” who signed the recent petition to keep the TLM available.

“Sir James MacMillan, who spearheaded this petition effort… is the most celebrated and most performed Catholic classical music composer of our times,” Cordileone wrote, adding, “His Stabat Mater was commissioned by the Vatican and performed in the Sistine Chapel.”

“Why suppress what is one, among others, successful means for connecting with souls far away from Christ and bringing them into the loving and saving encounter with him within the communion of his Bride, the Church?” the archbishop of San Francisco asked.

“I trust and pray that this cri de coeur from the artists and other prominent British figures will be heard and seen for what it is: that, rather than dividing the world in the name of ideological purity, it is an opportunity to bring the world together for beauty – a path that eventually and inevitably leads to the Beauty ever ancient, Beauty ever new,” he concluded.

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