Context: Far and wide we are getting reports of bishops celebrating Pontifical Masses, for example the latest in Holland by Card. Eyck. Also, on the horizon the SSPX will consecrate bishops with or without mandate of the Holy See. People have have been seriously abused by bishops who have a rigid view of forced uniformity of liturgical rites (which in the Novus Ordo is non-sensical and virtually impossible). Traditional groups have growing numbers of priests.
We read that, before the French bishops meet in a plenary session the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, sent a message which clearly related the desire of Pope Leo. Parolin (Leo XIV) urged the bishops of France to seek “generous” pastoral solutions for Catholics attached to the Traditional Latin Mass.
I am minded of John Paul II in 1988 after the consecrations by the SSPX. In Ecclesia Dei adflicta he wrote:
“by virtue of my Apostolic Authority I decree the following:… c) … respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.”
Most bishops simply ignored him.
Will it be different this time?
