19th July 2021
I have been mulling over the whole Traditiones Custodes affair during this weekend.
I attended the Traditional Latin Mass at the SSPX Chapel in Fatima yesterday (Sunday) and that helped consolidate my musings on the matter. Its beauty, reverence, ethos of adoration and the rousing Sermon clarified my thoughts.
Basically what Traditiones Custodes attempts to declare is that the Mass that :
* Has its roots in Apostolic times is - REJECTED
* Inspired St Gregory the Great is - REJECTED
* Imbued Gregorian Chant with its spirituality is - REJECTED
* Inspired the building of the great Cathedrals of Europe is - REJECTED
* Fills the greatest works of Catholic spirituality is - REJECTED
* Was the centre of the spiritual lives of the Great Saints - REJECTED
* Was the driving force of the missionaries is - REJECTED
* Was called the Most beautiful thing this side of Heaven is - REJECTED
* The Martyrs of Great Britain died for is - REJECTED
* The Irish flocked to during persecution is - REJECTED
* St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross loved is - REJECTED
* Inspired countless works of art is - REJECTED
* Was the inspiration of so much music is - REJECTED
* Mozart wrote his Mass settings for is - REJECTED
* Catholic soldiers in two World Wars sought comfort from in the Trenches is - REJECTED
* Catholics in Communist countries suffered horrifically to attend is - REJECTED
* Padre Pio embodied and reduced him to tears of love and adoration is - REJECTED
There are so many examples that if I could write them all down no blog on earth could contain them.
So many questions need answering.
How can a Liturgy that has over 2000 years of existence and legitimacy be cast aside for a fabricated rite of 50 years?
If the Pope does this to the TLM, why not the Melkite Rite or any other ancient Rite?
If Benedict said that there were two forms of one Roman Rite how can that now no longer be true?
Does this mean truth changes?
Why is going to war against the TLM more important at this moment in Church history than going to war against with sex scandals, abortion loving American Presidents, the 500 + priests who blessed gay couples in Germany, financial corruption, heresy etc?
How can James Martin S.J be afforded profound respect, support and admiration from Francis but the TLM is so despised and rejected?
Again, there are so many questions. No doubt those reading this will have their own.
What is clear is that the Pope has greatly overstepped his authority. No authority in the Church has the power whatsoever to just cast aside the TLM and the whole patrimony of the Latin Church.
In fact, the Pope has no more power to do that than I have to consecrate bread and wine. Traditiones Custodes is as invalid as a Methodist Eucharist. It simply does not exist. Ink and paper have been wasted.
The problem is that so many Catholics, especially the conservative Novus Ordo type, afford to the Pope a power and authority that he literally HAS NEVER HAD in the whole history of the Church. They treat him as if he is the successor of Christ rather than Peter (who had to be corrected by Paul).
The Pope is meant to be the servant and guardian of the Faith, Doctrine, Traditions, Liturgies and Treasures of the Church. I repeat, SERVANT and GUARDIAN. He is not the Lord of such. Christ is.
We all need to get back to a CATHOLIC understanding of the Papacy.
Traditiones Custodes has ZERO authority. Nada. Zilch. Niente. It must be roundly ignored. Those Catholics who refuse to do that are, in some measure, complicit in this abuse of power.
That may be hard hitting but it is true. Either it is fear or cowardice or treachery. The Pope simply CANNOT say that a fabricated liturgy of 50 years is the Roman Rite. That is so unimaginably absurd it is utterly risible.
If Traditiones Custodes were true :
Where was the Novus Ordo in 1930 when my Grandmother was born? How come she didn't attend it for the first 40 years of her life?
Where was the Novus Ordo when St Therese of Lisieux offered Jesus her heart at her First Holy Communion?
Where was the Novus Ordo when St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross went about Spain reforming the Carmelite Order?
Where was the Novus Ordo when they chopped off St. Thomas More's head?
etc etc
Friends, fellow Catholics...Traditiones Custodes is utter nonsense. It literally makes NO SENSE.
It flies in the face of basic logic. No Catholic can give it one millimetre of credence or adherence.
If Traditiones Custodes is true, if the Novus Ordo is now the One Roman Rite, then it must be concluded, logically speaking, that we are dealing with a different Church than the one that preceded Vatican II.
If the TLM is no longer THE ROMAN RITE then a new Church was brought into existence in the 1960s.
By rejecting the TLM as the Roman Rite, Francis is rejecting everything it stands for.
People, this is logic 101.
Many people out there are frightened to come to the logical conclusions. You have been beaten over the head ad infinitum with an abusive version of obedience. I know. I was where many of you are today.
I was told, many years ago, by a well meaning conservative Novus Ordo priest, not to ask such questions. All I did was to ask him why they changed the Offertory prayers and how the new ones could be better than what we had before.
The time for sitting on the fence ended on 16th July 2021, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Civil War in the Church has been going on for decades but it ramped up on Friday.
It is time to choose.
In making your choice remember this. Popes come, Popes go. God and the true Faith alone remain.
What you are saying is indisputably true. Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum, as you say, stated that the Traditional Latin Mass has not been abrogated and gave it the title of the Extraordinary Form as a perfectly valid Mass which could be celebrated. The overriding of that Motu Proprio by Francis via Traditiones Custodes actually calls into question his own continuity with the tradition of the Church particularly as he seems to be more than willing to embrace such things as pagan symbols placed on the altar and the LGBTQ etc advocates. There is, therefore, a massive contradiction in trying to make acceptable things that scripture tells us are wrong and then choosing to try to force us reject the Traditional Latin Mass, the text of which can be recognised through the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament and which became firmly established in the civilised world through the spread of the Roman Empire and the direct actions of the saints and martyrs. Perhaps the most perturbing aspect of the Francis Document is that he feels it unacceptable that parishioners can attend the EF in their own parishes; also that he does not wish newly ordained priests to say it. Unfortunately, such an attitude will lead to real and probably permanent division within the Church rather than the feeble quest for a unity which cannot be achieved by trying to silence/kill tradition that has existed for 2000 years.
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