WHAT TO DO?! WHAT TO DO?! OH, WHAT ARE THE POPE AND THE CARDINALS TO DO ABOUT MARIA, I MEAN, THE TRIDENTINE MASS?!

 

Rorate Caeli has published a post that I find interesting because it is true in my own experience:

(In France, a) poll indicated that 33% of regular church-goers (the survey specifies: those who attend Mass every Sunday) have no objection to the Latin Mass; 9% say the Tridentine Mass is their favorite; 25% like both equally; and 67% have no objection against the Tridentine Rite. Yes, now it is La Croix that is stating these figures, which Paix Liturgique has been publishing for quite some time.

And then there is the live survey of the “Tridentines”: La Croix journalists attended a Sunday Mass in Lyon, at the Church of Saint-Georges. Upon leaving, they observed: numerous families with young children; only a handful of older people; some foreigners passing through; and, above all, many young adults. 

The bishops are particularly worried about this phenomenon of the “mixing”, which La Croix analyzes extensively: many parishioners attend both rites. Clearly, the contagion is spreading from the Traditional world to that of Paul VI, but perhaps also somewhat in the other sense, in as far as the style of ordinary parishes is spreading to traditional parishes: "Many parishes have been 'traditionalized,'" notes a young couple from Lyon who "eat at both tables," while at the same time some “tradi” parishes are also changing a bit their style with regard to some things.

Furthermore, if, as is possible, there were a de facto relaxation of the repression against the traditional liturgy, this would inevitably be accompanied by the customary warning, heard since 1984: “You may choose the Traditional Latin Mass, but only on the condition that you recognize the Council.”

 It remains to be seen what “recognize” means, and even what exactly this Council is, which, unlike councils of the past, did not excommunicate anyone, but which, on the other hand, demands a very particular reverence: as if it were no longer communion, but about the Council itself to be received on one's knees. 

It is to be feared (if there was anything to fear in this…) that this Council will become obsolete along with synodality, through which it was intended to rejuvenate it. It is clear that the more attempts are made to suppress free theological debate, the more it will flourish.

My comments:

What I highlight in red in the quoted French article above is important for the Pope and Cardinals to reflect upon at the extraordinary consistory and yes, repent! So many in the Church since Vatican II have demanded that Catholics stand to receive Holy Communion but they demand that they kneel to receive the Second Vatican Council. And with Pope Francis, the kneeling to receive synodality is also demanded while still demanding that communicants stand to receive our Lord!

It is easy for some Catholics to make gods out of externals and those things that clearly are not God even if there is divine inspiration for it. But to claim divine inspiration where the Church has not made such a claim a dogma of the Church is manipulation of the Faithful and truly corrupt and damnable!

And as I have written before, the Second Vatican Council was a pastoral council. It did not issue any decrees elevating any theology or doctrine to the level of a dogma. Yet in the aftermath of Vatican II, Catholics heard homilies and went to classes where the exclusive topic was Vatican II, not Jesus or the Most Holy Trinity or the Blessed Mother and the saints and angels in heaven. They seldom heard about the need to be saved from the fires of hell. It was all about Vatican II and making people kneel to accept it. Jesus was sidelined!

Certainly Vatican II reiterated Catholic dogmas and doctrines, but one cannot claim that the revision of the Mass suggested by Sacrosanctum Concilium is an infallible document and neither can we say that St. Paul VI’s promulgation of Bishop Bugnini’s fabricated post Vatican II Mass is infallible or a dogma in and of itself!

Much of Vatican II, while authoritative, is not infallible and can and should be changed in some instances.

But let me be clear. The living Magisterium of the Church, meaning the current pope and bishops in union with him, have the authority to enforce certain non-doctrinal or dogmatic disciplines for the sake of unity in the Church. 

But if enforcing pastoral policies that are not matters of faith and morals, but only of obedience to authority for the sake of the authority itself, this is never good for the unity of the Church.

Thanks be to God that Pope Leo knows and preaches that Christ must be at the center of the Church and the eternal salvation in heaven that He alone makes possible for us poor miserable sinners. Pope Leo emphasizes God and soteriology!

Return to the era of Summorum Pontificum and let the mess that Pope Francis desired from young people go forward again! “Hagan Lio!” “Make some noise and make a mess!”