Traditional Catholics ‘persecuted’ as Pope Francis clamps down on ‘loyal’ Church-goers

Speaking to Jacob Rees-Mogg on GB News, Gloria said: "It's a little bit like in school the nasty kids get to get away with everything while the good ones, once they make a mistake, they get kicked out.

"It's ridiculous. You can give any heresy, you can spread any heresy you want. They will leave you alone. But if you are a conservative and you take your mask seriously and you like the old right, then you are immediately an outcast."

Pope Francis launched a crackdown against access to Traditional Latin Mass, sometimes called the Trident Rite, because the Old Rite was being misused “in an ideological way”.

Some conservatives in the Church have used the Latin Mass as a battle cry in their general opposition to the reforms of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which included the introduction of Mass in vernacular languages.

Religious conservatives in the United States in particular have used the Latin Mass debate to align with politically conservative media outlets to criticise the Pope over a host of other issues such as climate change, immigration and social justice.

Gloria added: "It is something that I don't understand because we are advocating for diversity. Well, where is the diversity here? If we are diverse, we would say the Church has lots of rights.

"We have the Ambrosian Rite, We have a Syro-Malabar Rite, we have the Dominican Rite. Why not also have the Tridentine Rite?

"No to the Tridentine Rite. People get persecuted for no reason. I mean, this is ridiculous. I don't understand it. I really don't.

"I go to any mass. For me any mass is valid and I like to go everywhere. But I cannot come to terms with the fact that the people who like the old rite get so persecuted for it. I just don't understand it.

In 2014, a year after Francis was chosen, the Pope removed Cardinal Burke as head of a Vatican tribunal and moved him to a largely ceremonial post several days after Burke said the Church under Francis was "like a ship without a rudder".

Francis told the heads of Vatican offices last week about his decision to punish Cardinal Burke, claiming he was a source of “disunity” in the church, according to The Associated Press, which based its report on an unnamed official who attended the meeting.

Talking about the decision, Gloria told GB News host Jacob Rees-Mogg: "Cardinal Burke is a victim. I'm sure that they have badmouthed him a lot in Rome and it was very ill-advised to send him away because of course now all the cardinals are very scared to to say anything they believe.

"You can't give your opinion anymore without having to fear that you're getting stripped of all your belongings. Because don't forget, these people don't have an income if the Pope strips them of an income, they have to go and beg because they have nothing else to live on.

"He stripped his apartment. He stripped his pension, so he needs to find good people who will support him, and that's a warning sign for any cardinal."