Pope Leo is still on time to make the funniest "secret third option" decision in the History of Catholic Liturgy in the Roman Rite.
This would be entirely too long to explain well, but I'm gonna explain it as shortly as I can, even though sketchily because of it, because it's gonna bug me if I don't.
So, the Catholic Mass. In the Latin Church, there's been historically, several rites. Because of the Reformation, the Holy See saw fit to establish a Roman Missal with all the details of how a Catholic Mass according to the Roman Rite should be celebrated, and abolished all other rites (again, for the Latin church, the eastern churches are a different matter AND WE ARE NOT GETTING INTO THAT) except those considered ancient and venerable (for example, the Dominican, the Benedictine, the Sarum, the Ambrosian, the Mozarabic, which are all preserved in some shape or form till this day).
Said Roman Missal, fully in Latin, remained in place with not many big changes till the 20th century, and it got some big ones during that century and before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The council and specially the controversies and environment surrounding it were a mess of sixties proportions (including the Pope dying in the middle of it), AND WE ARE NOT GETTING INTO THAT EITHER. What matters to this post is that the council advised liturgical reform, so an attempt at liturgical reform was undertaken, which was also a mess of sixties proportions and NEITHER ARE WE GETTING INTO THAT EITHER other than to say the result was a new missal, intended for vernacular adaptation, in 1969, which is known as the Novus Ordo Missae and is, in summary, the rite you are most likely to meet at any random parish in the Latin Catholic world today.
Due to the messiness of said missal creation plus messiness of the VII drama, things got... complicated. There was some schism under the form of sedevacantism, and there was also kinda-but-not-but-yes schism with some communities, most notably the Society of St. Pius X (I'M MOST DEFINITELY NOT ENTERING HERE) who kept celebrating the older form or Vetus Ordo. Things reached a climax of ugliness when the society asked to get 4 priests ordained bishops, Pope John Paul II refused, and they were ordained all the same, and so he excommunicated them. That was in the late 80s.
After that, things started to thaw. JPII allowed for the use of the old missal through an indult that put the power to concede or deny on the bishops. Communities were formed specifically for its celebration. Then in 2007 Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio that liberated it so that every Latin priest who wanted could celebrate it, and the lay faithful could ask for it and have it granted. The old rite started spreading slowly. Fast forward to 2021. Francis signs a motu proprio called Traditionis Custodes which means the almost suppression of the rite to be done in 5 years time tops, and all authorizations and indults are then to be processed by the Holy See itself exclusively. I'M NOT GONNA ENTER IN THE CHURCH AND INTERSECTION WITH WORLD POLITICS OF THIS SITUATION OR WHETHER FRANCIS REALLY WANTED TO DO THIS HIMSELF OR WAS TRICKED OR PUSHED OR WHATEVER BECAUSE WE'D BE HERE TO THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT.
So, now, we are here. Francis is dead. Leo XIV reigns in Rome. The TC deadline is approaching. Leo is committed to creating unity within the Church. This is an incredibly hot button issue. TC was messy and messily written, and has positively made the tensions with traditionalism and general liturgical conservatism within the Church worse, because it has deepened the guetto effect. It's also not very good law as written, and has created an incredible and incredibly unnecessary burden on the Roman Curia. Something has to be done about it. The problem is, if Leo reinforces it, he will deepen the rifts in the Church. If he overturns it, he also deepens the rifts in the Church AND comes across as, you know, opposing Francis. It's a very messy situation (as you can imagine, from all the messiness I've barely alluded to).
BUT
You see, in 1965, there was a transitional Missal. In very short, it was very very very similar to the Vetus Ordo, trimmed some prayers, went for a mix of Latin and vernacular, etc. It was in place/allowed till the Novus Ordo came in force in 1969, and then fell into obscurity.
So, if Pope Leo authorized the use of this other missal:
Wouldn't be actually touching TC at all.
Would be giving more traditional sensitivities in the Church something
Would be severely reducing the workload of the Vatican about the Vetus Ordo because a very good number of communities would rather pick the other one that go through all that hassle
Would avoid the whole "the oscurantism of Latin!" and "right wing crazies and grifters are being empowered!" thing.
Would, in summary, give no one exactly what they are demanding, while giving everyone something they can be okay with
It's LITERALLY the secret third option and I think it'd be both awesome and hilarious.
Bonus points if it's like "I give you a new missal!" *looks inside* it's the 1965 missal.
I don't even go here (and by here I mean the Catholic Church) but
Via @eastern-lights
As what was probably the best line on Once Upon a Time put it "when you can see the future, there's irony everywhere"