02313nas a2200253   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001200043653003300055653001100088653002700099653002000126653002200146653002700168100001900195700001600214700001200230700001200242245012700254856014500381490000700526520150600533020002002039       2023                            d  c2023///10aIntangible cultural heritage10aUNESCO10atransnational heritage10aCatholic Church10aCatholic heritage10aTraditional Latin Mass1 aP. Kwasniewski1 aI. Parowicz1 aJ. Shaw1 aP. Stec00aTransnational Religious Practices as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Complex Case of the Traditional Latin Mass  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85153871288&doi=10.3390%2flaws12020023&partnerID=40&md5=188a9808a121b3cc04aea4b269ec83b90 v123 aThe 2003 UNESCO Convention definition of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) covers religious practices and rites, as can be seen from normative descriptions and dozens of actual examples, many of which are Catholic religious traditions. The Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), practiced in one form or another for over 1500 years by an ever-increasing number of peoples and nations and in possession of a common stable set of rules, meets the UNESCO criteria for listing as ICH; in fact, it is arguably the best possible example. It is also a complicated one. After the Catholic Church’s liturgical reform in the 1960s and 1970s, new rites were introduced and the old rites were officially abandoned; nevertheless, a minority of clergy and laity continued to celebrate the TLM, and, over time, the legitimacy of their attachment to it was recognised by several popes, who also spoke regularly of the great value of the Church’s cultural and artistic patrimony and recommended that it remained joined with its religious origins. In contrast, the current pope, Francis, has recently become opposed to the continuation of the old rites. Be this as it may, it is quite possible that such a threatened but deeply appreciated international ICH as the TLM could be proposed for listing by several states that (unlike the Holy See) have signed the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, to give it a recognition appropriate to its immense historical and present-day cultural value.  a2075471X (ISSN)