“Pro aris et focis” – Food for thought

Not being a fan of The Pillar for various reasons, I wouldn’t ordinarily point out one of their posts.  However, this one is by Luke Coppen, my former editor at The Catholic Herald when I wrote for them in happier times. I have great respect for him.

Coppen posted a an interesting piece entitled “Does ‘Traditionis custodes’ have a future?”

That’s a question which merits attention. It was spurred by recent comments from the head of the Vatican dicastery for liturgy, the infamous Arthur Card. Roche. Give his past record on antipathy and persecution of traditional Catholics some were surprised by what seemed to be conciliatory comments regarding the Vetus Ordo. Roche said, incredibly, “There is nothing wrong with attending the Mass celebrated with the 1962 missal.” The rest of his comments are a mess, but that quote spurs the aforementioned question. “Does ‘Traditionis custodes’ have a future?”

I think not. It’s so egregious awful, so unjust and uncharitable, that I suspect it will simply be relegated to that special shelf of embarrassed regret where other tchotchke documents have gone to gather dust.

To drill into this topic, Coppen reached out to several figures who in some way or another have interest (favorable or hostile) toward the Traditional Roman Rite. Coppen contacted Gregory Di Pippo of New Liturgical Movement, Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB of the progressivist Pray Tell blog, the execrable Mr. Cricket, Andrea Grillo, who was probably a driving force behind Taurina cacata, the esteemed Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the venerable Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, and the smarmy papalotrous Austen Ivereigh. Their comments are mostly predictable. The most intriguing, and I think correct, remarks come from Di Pippo. He is the first one Coppen cites, by the way. Shaw is good too, and you can just skip, Ruff, Grillo and Ivereigh… who is just plain silly.

Even more interesting to me were comments in my closely knit “text” group, whose members are impressively credentialed. I will not share their names. I can, however, let you in on some of their insights.

One of them:

To my mind DiPippo gets both answers right, what Roche meant, and what will happen in the future. Evidently, in the short term, much will depend on the Successor of the Vicar of Himself. I venture that, if we are not stuck with Francis II, TC and the debate surrounding it will not be something he will want to deal with as a priority. In that case, once again, I think DiPippo gets it right: TC will fade from view without a new motu proprio and sooner rather than later bishops will be told, without much fanfare, that they can make provisions for the EF in their own dioceses.

This is quite close to my thought.

Another one made this point, which I also think is true: “my trust in the bishops is not precisely strong. Unless this substantially reverts to the pastors, it will not be as good as it should be.”   That’s what Summorum Pontificum provided.

The real meat of the discussion is worth sharing precisely because he makes points we need to take to heart and ponder.    I will add my emphases and comments.

If Roche’s interview really sounded like an olive branch to some then I’d expect hysterical pressure on him and all of Francis’s satellites to persecute trads even more harshly before it’s too late. It may not happen just because some bishops are busy positioning themselves for the after-Francis and most of them just like to work very little.

There is no way of knowing what the future holds (other than Armageddon that is) but one thing is sure: the hatred for the traditional liturgy has very little to do with some actually cranky, eccentric and all-around insufferable characters in the trad world (as if there were none among the Novus Ordo Karens of both sexes). That hatred has to do with the fons et culmen [the “source and summit”] of the life of the Church which the traditional liturgy in all its parts, textual and ceremonial, plus the calendar, the fasting etc. encapsulates with the truly Spirit-guided wisdom of the Apostles and the Fathers since time immemorial. Therefore they can’t let it be and this is why the fight for it is also the fight for every normal and decent Catholic – Novus or Vetus Ordo doesn’t matter – every serious priest and theologian, anybody sincerely trying to follow Christ – the one the Apostles saw risen – and made Him loved by others as well. This is truly a battle pro aris et focis [“for our altars and our hearths”… ancient Roman houses had altars for their household tutelary gods, the lares, so this is tantamount to “hearth and home” or, in an extended sense, “God and country”, all that we hold most dear.] because they hate normal Catholics lay and ordained alike, because they won’t let go of the sacrificial nature of the Mass and of the Church itself. That blood that won us salvation in that gory manner, the meaning of that altar so obvious to “Roman” eyes – that is, of men of good will everywhere – must NOT be the center of our lives. [According to the enemies of Traditional and those who want it.] So there may be some respite, but they will keep coming at us all, regardless of the preferred liturgical form.

To paraphrase the Protestant Niemöller …

“First they came for the trads, and I said nothing as I was not a trad and I didn’t like them very much, then they came for seminarians and I said nothing as I was not a seminarian, then they came for theologians and I said nothing as I was not one of them, then they came for me and there was nobody left to speak out”.

My conclusion above applies as food for thought to trads who think they can just ignore the rest of the Church for liturgical preferences but especially to those in the Olympian Middle who think there is common ground with the nimrods and the Cains currently in power everywhere.

We will prevail, in history or at the end of it, but we won’t have peace as the world gives, ever. That said, I am convinced both that we need some soul searching in our very ranks and that many of the wounds of the trad world are self inflicted.

In truth there is a visibility on the internet of certain types who represent themselves and their dog and who are particularly obtuse and yet they’re the ones taken as model for a whole world of good priests, families etc.

Be as it may, they will keep coming at us all, if not now, later, unless a normal pope is elected who can start picking a good team for the Curia and appoint decent bishops around the world (which I doubt, but never say never).

And that, my dear readers, is some serious food for thought.