Adult Catholics who have respect for the Supreme Pontiff, understand that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away—blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Popes give and popes take away—blessed be the popes. But are we obliged, under the pain of mortal sin, to like it? It depends.
St. Pope John Paul II opened the door to more celebrations of the Vetus Ordo. Pope Benedict XVI went much further allowing it to be celebrated freely but also as the exception rather than the rule—the rule is the Novus Ordo. It is the ordinary form of the Mass, while the Vetus Ordo is out of the ordinary, which better defines in English, Benedict’s use of extraordinary not as“being better” but as out of the ordinary or regular usage.
For the first 10 years of Pope Francis papacy, there was no indication from His Holiness that he would suppress in any way or aspect Summorum Pontificum, let alone abrogate it altogether.
Even Praytell was a bit shocked with the complete suppression of Summorum Pontificum because by Pope Francis doing this, he was striking Pope Benedict XVI in the face even while the Emeritus Pope was still living next door to His Holiness—and there was no communication to the Emeritus Pope that Pope Francis would completely suppress SP and institute the backward looking TC (when the NO was the only form of the Mass allowed after Vatican II).
Thus, we can say that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was a victim of this abusive document and everyone else who embraced SP because Pope Benedict XVI allowed it—they were obedient to His Holiness and moved forward (forward looking) with SP. And they (and me) accepted Pope Benedict’s interpretation of Vatican II in continuity with what preceded it. The majority of Catholics who accepted SP also accept Vatican II properly interpreted and in line with how Pope Benedict XVI interpreted Vatican II and SP.
Thus, we can say that all those who were obedient to Pope Benedict’s liturgical vision, not just in allowing the Vetus Ordo, but also inspiring a logical “reform of the reform” of the Novus Ordo were victimized by Pope Francis and His Holiness’ Traditionis Custodis.
But we aren’t children and we cannot remain stuck in the victims’ state of mind.
We know that in life, in our faith life and worship too, that God and the popes give and God and the popes take away. We might feel victimized, but that’s our problem not theirs.
Arthur Cardinal Roche gave an interview to a less than friendly interviewer, which the good Cardinal should be commended for doing so.
I have no reason to believe that Cardinal Roche is making up or is in a state of wishful thinking when he says Pope Leo XIV is not going to change Traditionis Custodis or bring back SP. I take it at face value that he is communicating what Pope Leo has indicated to him.
Children might pout about this for the rest of their lives, but adults should not be doing so. They should put on their big boy pants and move forward and accept reality and remain in full communion and love with the pope and the bishops in union with him.
But I think that Cardinal Roche, who once supported Pope Benedict XVI and Summorum Pontificum and then supported his new boss, Pope Francis and TC and he’s supporting is newest boss Pope Leo XIV, should have been less verbally victimizing of those who had and have a hard time when Pope Francis in the most authoritarian and mean way, suppressed the liturgical magisterium of Pope Benedict.
Here’s what Cardinal Roche said in the interview which Rorate Caeli carried:
Interviewer: This year will mark five years since the implementation of Traditionis Custodes, the motu proprio from Pope Francis’s pontificate, which adjusted a previous motu proprio from Pope Benedict’s pontificate. Do you think, in view of these changes from pontificate to pontificate, we are likely to see Pope Leo give his own guidance – particularly as much of the Catholic revival amongst young people seems at least to have a focus on the 1962 Mass? Or do you see something coming from Pope Leo?
Cardinal Roche: No, I do not. He is not going to change Traditionis Custodes. He is not going to go back to Summorum Pontificum.
His words to the priests and people of consecrated life in Notre-Dame on Saturday evening are very, very clear: stop preferring your own particular view about this matter, and return to what the Church is asking you to do. He said that very clearly, not only there, but also two or three weeks back in his concluding talk for his Wednesday catechesis on Sacrosanctum Concilium. He made it very clear that the direction of the Church is in this particular direction, and that personal choices should not come into this matter.
Why? Because the Church assembles as a family, as a group, not simply as individuals. Of course we are individuals, but we assemble as a Church who believe in what the Church has given to us, what it handed down to us from the Lord, and we remain faithful to that deposit of faith.
Interviewer: Would you say to those people who attend the Vetus Ordo that it would be better for them to go to a Novus Ordo, or would you say they really should not be going to a Vetus Ordo Mass?
Cardinal Roche: You should not be going to that Mass exclusively, I think. That is what I would say. But the thing that impresses itself upon me constantly, dealing with groups of traditionally minded people, is that when they come to see me and talk about this, and they say the Pope has not been kind to us, I say to them: the Holy Father has given you the possibility of celebrating the Mass according to the Antecedent Rite. What is your problem? What else is it that you are wanting?
Generally speaking, they cannot answer the question. But you see in the traditionalist blogs that they are wanting more than that. They are wanting to turn back to a Church that does not have the teaching of the Second Vatican Council; that does not have this new form of working together in order to evangelise the world. So I would say, for any Catholic with any tendency, you should always examine your conscience against what is the teaching of the Church, and not just what you prefer to do yourself.
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