THE PILLAR HAS AN ARTICLE ON POPE LEO’S UNDERMINING OF TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS AND THERE IS A COMMENT ON THE ARTICLE ON THE FRENCH THAT POPE LEO USED, WHICH IS WORTH STUDYING!

 Thanks to Pope Leo’s words to the French bishops to allow the Vetus Ordo to be respected and grow, while also upholding what Vatican II taught about revising the Vetus Ordo (as did Pope Benedict) Pope Leo’s French words are worth noting.

A commenter on the Pillar article did so and very nicely. The following is from that comment:

1. The characterization of the liturgical divide *itself* as a «douloureuse blessure», a painful wound.

2. «Pour la guérir, un regard nouveau...est certainement necessaire»: "To heal [the wound], a new perspective/look/pass-over is certainly necessary." This is the big one to me. There is in this sentence the sense that "the previous way of handling this is not working to heal the division, so the expectation is a different direction."

3. «des frères riches e leur diversité» "Brothers rich in their diversity", pertaining to liturgical expression. This is similar language used with eastern rite discussions and mutual enrichment there.

4. «d’inclure généreusement les personnes sincèrement attachées au Vetus Ordo». Two things here. "To include generously"--generously is actually carrying a lot of weight here. It's demanding something substantial, rather than lip service. And "Persons sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo". This is a wording I have primarily seen used by folks sympathetic to the Extraordinary Form, even by those who are Extraordinary Form attenders themselves, specifically because it highlights the earnestness and faith behind the attachment, and abandons the polemic or negative strawman often employed by those hostile to the EO.

5. «dans le respect des orientations voulues par le Concile Vatican II en matière de Liturgie.» Tying the reality of liturgical diversity to the norms of Vatican II, clearly framing the "generous inclusion" as being not opposed to Vatican II but in fact an authentic expression of its guidelines. Massively contradicts the more bullyish interpretations of TC, with regards not only to the EO but to traditional-ish practices like prie-dieux.

It's not splashy, it's not TNTing the last 10 years of handling of this issue. But there is a *lot* of attitudinal and tonal work going on in this language.

And finally, notably, despite how any English translation may or may not sound, this is *not* labyrinthine, bureaucratic, buzzwordy French. The French feels very clear and actually astonishingly direct in its communication of these ideas.