This is according to a Vatican-approved order that comes almost one year after Pope Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland, one of his most outspoken critics, as head of the diocese.

Bishop Joe S Vásquez of Austin, who has served as apostolic administrator of the Tyler Diocese in East Texas since Strickland's dramatic ouster last November, announced the move in a letter to parishioners of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tyler, which has offered a 2 pm Sunday Mass in Latin.

A spokesperson for the diocese also confirmed with CNA that Masses celebrated according to the pre-Vatican II liturgical form will also be halted in four other parishes: Mary Queen of Heaven in Malakoff, Sacred Heart in Texarkana, St. Francis of Assisi in Gilmer, and Sacred Heart in Nacogdoches.

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