Some Further Thoughts on Traditionis Custodes and the Current State of Traditionalism:
There is not much more to say about supposed traditionalism than what I have said in recent weeks when responding to the predominant reaction from these circles to Traditionis Custodes. The responses of that nature can be read here:
Thirty Pieces of Evidence In Support of the Decision in Traditionis Custodes (circa October 17, 2021)
On Traditionis Custodes and the Circumstances That Motivated Its Promulgation (circa October 21, 2021)
Reason, logic, and documented evidence however expansive can only get you so far. The reason?
Experience has shown that for those of a cultic mindset, it is akin to a conspiracy theorist insofar as like the latter, reason and logic are usually not the roads taken into such endeavours. For this reason, expecting them to take those paths out can not infrequently be disappointing. There are
emotional factors at play here and when someone is guided by emotions, their reason and logic can become very foggy if non-existent. So for those kinds of folks, consider the following analogies:
---The Tridentine liturgy is akin to the plump juicy animals King Saul spared from the Amalekites to make sacrifices to God. What did God think of King Saul's actions? From the words of Samuel the prophet:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in heeding the voice of the Lord? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, being attentive is better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, arrogance like the evil of idolatry. [1 Samuel xv,22-23]
Those who think the Lord is pleased with their purported resistance to Pope Francis' restrictions on the Tridentine liturgy are no different than King Saul and in like manner, God is not pleased with them.
---The Tridentine liturgy is analogous to the Bronze Serpent, made by command of God:
The Lord sent seraph serpents among the people. They bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord so that he might save us from the serpents.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a seraph serpent and put it upon a pole. Whoever has been bitten and looks upon it will live.” [Numbers: xxi,6-8]
Even if some today would claim that the Tridentine liturgy was commanded of God{1}, so too was the Bronze Serpent. And what was the fate of the Bronze Serpent?:
Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah began to reign during the third year of the reign of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel...He eliminated the high places and he broke down the pillars. He cut down the Asherah and he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites had burned incense to it and they called it Nehushtan. [2 Kings xviii,1;3-5]
In other words, even if Pope Francis was abolishing the Tridentine liturgy{2} and even if the Tridentine liturgical form was literally decreed by God{3} there is biblical precedent for such an action. For Pope Francis is acting similar to King Hezekiah and restricting what has become a source of literal idolatry in the traditionalist movement by a not-insignificant number of those folks. They have become like the modernists who according to Pope Pius X sought to "try in every way to diminish and weaken the authority of the ecclesiastical magisterium itself."{4} Or as St. John Henry Newman noted of the defect in faith of Protestants in one of his Discourses to Mixed Congregations not long after his conversion:
[I]n spite of so much that is good in them, in spite of their sense of duty, their tenderness of conscience on many points, their benevolence, their uprightness, their generosity, they are under the dominion (I must say it) of a proud fiend; they have this stout spirit within them, they determine to be their own masters in matters of thought, about which they know so little; they consider their own reason better than any one's else; they will not admit that any one comes from God who contradicts their own view of truth. What! is none their equal in wisdom anywhere? Is there none other whose word is to be taken on religion? Is there none to wrest from them their ultimate appeal to themselves?{5}
This is the reality of what we are seeing here:
a movement that whatever value it may have had at one time is shot through with serious problems including the problem of idolatry. If it was only an issue of serenely observing the pre-reformed liturgy, then Pope Francis would not have had to do
what he did. But far too often there is a discernible pattern that takes place over time amongst those of a traditionalist inclination. It starts with mere preference for the Tridentine liturgical form. From there it inexorably moves towards denigrating the revised Roman liturgy, speaking contemptuously of the Pope who promulgated it{6}, often moving onto his predecessor{7} and successors prior to Pope Francis{8} to say nothing of what they have done to Pope Francis the past eight years, running down the last ecumenical Council in various ways{9}, and not infrequently lionizing schismatics{10}, and eventually at some point along the way, imbibing forms of antisemitism.{11}
The suppression of the Tridentine liturgical form by Pope Francis{12} in other words did not happen in a vacuum. It is being done to chasten those with a superficial understanding of the faith. They are spiritual infants who whine and cry over external liturgical forms whereas
those with the eyes of faith see Christ in every mass because the externals are literally the least important factor.{13} And rejection of the so-called "Novus Ordo" by those traditionalists who do so is a rejection of Jesus Christ himself{14} and that is the bottom line really.
Notes:
{1} Which it was not.
{2} Which he is not.
{3} Which it is not.
{4} Pope St. Pius X: Encyclical Letter
Pascendi Dominici Gregis §42 (circa September 8, 1907) as Quoted in the
Rerum Novarum Postings
On the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, Obedience, and the Requirements of Faithful Catholics (
circa February 26, 2020) and
On the Controversy of Amoris Laetitia Amongst The More Faithful Than Thou Crowd (
circa December 5, 2019)
{6} Pope St. Paul VI
{7} Pope St. John XXIII
{8} Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI
{9} For example, the attempt to create a dichotomy between the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council as a "pastoral council" and other synods as "dogmatic councils." I first dealt with this false dichotomy
nearly twenty years ago but it is still a tired canard trotted out by the theologically ignorant.
{10} For example, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, other clerics given prominence by movement partisans, as well as various and sundry writers for traditionalist themed websites and periodicals.
{11} I could fill a footnote with link upon link involving traditionalist groups and the obsession not a few of them have with antisemitic views, both overtly as well as covertly. Rather than take up too much time with that, I will note here only a few of many such examples which could be noted:
Italian bishop condemns “anti-Semitic regurgitations” in Church after “traditionalist” Catholic unveils blood libel painting
Saint Simon of Trent (1475)
Traditionalist SSPX leader calls Jews "enemies of the church"
The traditional Latin Mass is not the problem with traditionalist communities
The Synthesis of All Catholic Conspiracy Theory (Part 1)
The Synthesis of All Catholic Conspiracy Theory (Part 2)
{12} It is worth noting that nothing in Traditionis Custodes annuls any of the privileges that Pope Francis has granted to the SSPX. Nor does this text appear aimed at the FSSP who have long had good relationships with many of the local ordinaries.
{13}
[T]hey have not realized that the least of the benefits which come from this Most Holy Sacrament is that which concerns the senses; and that the invisible part of the grace that it bestows is much greater; for, in order that they may look at it with the eyes of faith, God oftentimes withholds from them these other consolations and sweetnesses of sense. [St. John of the Cross: From The Dark Night of the Soul, Book I (circa ante-1582) as Quoted in the Rerum Novarum Note On Traditionis Custodes and the Circumstances That Motivated Its Promulgation (circa October 21, 2021)]
{14} The revised Roman Missal was promulgated by Pope Paul VI who possessed the power of binding and loosing. And that
"Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same" (Pope Pius XII: Mystici Corporis Christi §40), this teaching has not insignificant ramifications for the current situation. For as
"Christ and His Vicar constitute only one Head", logically "
[t]hey, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth" (Mystici Corporis Christi §41). Concretely, what Peter in the person of the Pope binds or looses is bound or loosed by Christ. So those accusing Pope Francis of immorality in issuing
Traditionis Custodes are engaging in a form of blasphemy toward Christ.
To be clear, disagreement with a decision is not an issue of course as long as that disagreement does not denote either disobedience or treating the judgment with contempt. However to those traditionalists who have spent years running down in various ways the revised Roman Missal, they run afoul of Church teaching which expressly condemns such conduct. For "the discipline sanctioned by the Church must never be rejected or be branded as contrary to certain principles of natural law. It must never be called crippled, or imperfect or subject to civil authority" (Pope Gregory XVI: Mirari Vos §9). Those who in any way try to diminish Traditionis Custodes or treat the so-called "Novus Ordo" with contempt are only treating with contempt the Vicar of Christ but Christ as well. This is why Pope Leo XIII cited with his approval the following words of St. Maximus the Confessor:
He speaks in vain who tries to persuade me of the orthodoxy of those who, like himself, refuse obedience to his Holiness the Pope of the most holy Church of Rome: that is to the Apostolic See. [Pope Leo XIII: Excerpt from the Encyclical Letter Satis Cognitum §13 (circa June 29, 1896) as Quoted in the Rerum Novarum Points to Ponder series (circa October 14, 2021)]
