SAN ANGELO, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican granted a Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in Texas a two-year extension, the first such reprieve from Traditionis Custodes under Pope Leo XIV.

“I’m grateful to @Pontifex and to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments for allowing the TLM to continue to exist in our parish church, extending permission for another two years,” Father Ryan Rojo announced Friday.

The extension has been granted to St. Margaret’s in San Angelo, which holds Traditional Latin Masses once on Sundays, as well as on Thursday mornings.

Rojo, who is the director of vocations for the Diocese of San Angelo and assists with the TLM at St. Margaret’s when the chaplain is unavailable, clarified in the X thread that the decision was dated May 28, 2025.

He confirmed the decision in an email to LifeSiteNews, stating, “We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to shepherd the community into the future. It’s my prayer that similar extensions happen around the country.”

Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo also confirmed to LifeSiteNews in a Monday statement:

The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments informed me in a decree of May 28, 2025, that my request has been granted for a further two years for a dispensation from article 3§2 of the Motu proprio Traditionis custodes, so that Mass according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 may be celebrated in the parish church of St. Margaret of Scotland in San Angelo. Just as before, the granting of this dispensation is based upon an ongoing effort to promote the full appreciation and acceptance of the liturgical books renewed by decree of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by Popes Saint Paul VI and Saint John Paul II.

Rojo said on X that he was “encouraged” by the decision, a sentiment affirmed by many “likes.”

One social media user, self-identified as a traditional Catholic “layman,” pointed out that the decision suggests Pope Leo XIV will not revoke Traditionis Custodes.

“If they are granting extensions then I fear the full removal of Traditionis Custodes is not happening,” the Catholic layman said.

Another X user highlighted the fact that the decision reinforces the view that the TLM can be subject to limitations and restrictions.

“Why only for 2 years?? What is wrong with the TLM, the Mass of our Saints,” Cla Marzewski questioned.

Pope Francis’ TLM-suppressing Traditionis Custodes, aimed at tightly restricting the Traditional Latin Mass, stipulating that TLMs not be held in parish churches and contrary to Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, says that priests must ask permission from their bishop to continue to offer the TLM.

Liturgist and author Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has pointed out that the Traditional Latin Mass has been definitively authorized by St. Pius V’s bull Quo Primum, which states:

(I)n virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain … that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remains always valid and retains its full force …

Would anyone, however, presume to commit such an act (i.e., altering Quo Primum), he should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.