Fr. Z's Blog

UPDATE 27 Dec 2021:

There is no way… NO WAY… that this wasn’t all coordinated.

At vaticannews.va:

Originally Published on: Dec 27, 2021

What could one expect from Cupich?  Really?   We knew that he would, eventually, issue something the cruelty of which would be exceeded only by its overreach.

The document is HERE.

I am not going to obliterate my buoyant yuletide spirit by mucking around with this for a long time.  It is an interconvertible truth that when it is necessary to respond to and to refute bad things like this, it takes ten times the number of words. The Chicago Plop is over 2000 words.   That in itself is a bit of a give away, because the more they write about why they are doing what they are doing, the less convincing it is.

Right on cue, like a bad cliché, the document – “Policy of the Archdiocese of Chicago for implementing Traditiones Custodes” – has several paragraphs of justification blah blah, laced with only the most convenient proof texts.

Some bullet points which will unquestionably reassure the faithful in Chicago that none of this is intended to marginalize them.   This all goes into effect on 25 January, which could give people time to find a new home in another diocese.

• Priests have to ask permission even for private use of the 1962 Missale.  Good luck with that!
• Priests have to “be animated by a lively pastoral charity” (unlike the promulgator of these rules) and “by a sense of ecclesial communion”.  I’m not sure how one quantifies these.
• Priests must not only “explicitly affirm ‘the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform, the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the Magisterium of the Supreme Pontiffs,’ (no dissent about the value of air conditioners, I guess) and “demonstrate an appreciation ‘of the value of concelebration, particularly at the Chrism Mass”.  Forced concelebration with, I’m guessing, appointed rats watching your every move.
• Written requests to use the Vetus Ordo “should note the average attendance at such celebrations as well as their frequency and location, along with a statement of agreement to abide by the norms set forth in this document.”  They have learned a lot about how to control people through the whole vaxxing and revaxxing and testing and retesting mania.
• No bination for priests, which means that if Father has the Novus Ordo that day, he can’t say Mass with the Vetus Ordo… except if the Archbishop allows.
• No Mass with the Vetus Ordo on Christmas, the Triduum, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. Because, of course, there is no intent to marginalize people who want to go to Mass on those days.
• Get this: “Priests and those groups that receive permission from the Archbishop of Chicago to celebrate the Mass using the Missal of 1962, are bound on the first Sunday of the month to celebrate Mass only using the Missal of Paul VI.” Two poison pills in this. First, not only are the priests restricted about bination, they can’t use the Vetus Ordo on 1st Sundays, thus diminishing by 23% the number of Sunday Masses with the Vetus Ordo. And note that language about “groups”. “Groups that receive permission”. How does that work? How do they know if you are in the group? What if you are not in the group? Will there be a check of papers? Membership cards? One might ask: Will a similar policy be imposed across the diocese for people who attend a parish that is NOT their territorial parish?
• This is where malicious overreach comes in. “Mass is also ordinarily to be celebrated versus populum, unless permission is granted otherwise by the archbishop.” I think that applies to the Novus Ordo in Latin. But… it is overreach. I don’t believe that diocesan bishops have the right to forbid ad orientem worship. (To translate for readers of the Fishwrap and Amerika, that means “back to the people”. Just being helpful.) They can bully priests, of course and torture them in a thousand ways if they exert their right to say Mass ad orientem. However, this would not have been put into the document unless they had first talked it over with the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who will back anything that tears tradition down. Wait for the challenge and see what happens.
• Priests have to ask permission to celebrate on weekdays. BUT… priests cannot binate and the Novus Ordo must be offered on that same day. So, if you are a priest alone in a parish, your people are out of luck. But none of this is intended to marginalize them. In fact, it won’t: they will be able to meet up and chat after Masses at the local SSPX chapel.
• No sacraments with the Rituale Romanum except on a case by case basis with the permission of the Archbishop. Yes, he will be personally regulating Suzy and Bill’s wedding and personally involved when Uncle Bob must be anointed. He will be personally involved with every absolution given in confession. I just had an image of a priest sending case by case requests to the Archbishop’s phone, from the confessional, for absolution in the old Rite for every penitent. Maybe a fax machine could be helpful?
• If other sacraments are requested, “The priest making such a request should first discuss with the faithful the possibility of using the reformed liturgical rites” and – this is rich – “also demonstrate that he is accompanying them towards the common use of the one lex orandi of the Roman Rite”. I can see it now: “I am going to help you change your mind and prefer the Novus Ordo. However, hang on for a moment. I have some adulterers over here whom I promised to accompany to Holy Communion. Be right back. I don’t want you to feel marginalized or anything.”
• The very end – in cauda venenum – is the smarmiest stab of all. “From the Office of the Archbishop of Chicago, December 25, 2021, the 60th anniversary of Apostolic Constitution, Humane Sa!utis, by which Pope Saint John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council.” Ewwwww. First, note that this was done on CHRISTMAS! “Merrrrrrrry Christmaaaaaas, you nasty retrogrades! Here’s your present. Take it.” And then the oily reference to the document calling Vatican II.

One wonders if anyone in that office has read Humanae salutis, which had in its core vision that the Second Vatican Council should be a super-Council, intended to reinterpret the past, a disruption in the continuity of Councils. No, wait.   What does Humanae salutis really say?…

Hac de causa, veluti intimae supernoque quodam instinctu ortae voci obtemperantes, matura iam esse tempora existimavimus, ut catholicam Ecclesiam universamque hominum familiam novo Oecumenico Concilio donaremus, quod eam viginti maximarum Synodorum seriem continuaret, quae per saeculorum decursum ad caelestis gratiae in christifidelium animis incrementum et ad rei christianae progressum tantopere valuerunt.   … (To translate for readers of the Fishwrap and Amerika… “For this reason, complying with – as coming from above – an inner voice of our spirit, we thought the time was now ripe to give the Catholic Church and the world the gift of a new ecumenical Council, as an addition to and a continuation of the series of twenty great Councils which throughout the course of centuries have been for the increase of heavenly grace in the souls of Christians and for the grace and of great of Christianity.”

The theological starting point for these people – across the board with the papalatrous (at least today – were it a different Pope they’d change their spots fast) – the Second Vatican Council is the interpretive lens to be used to interpret and, in fact, reinterpret all of tradition before it.  And it isn’t even the Council itself that is the interpretive principle.  It’s the indefinable SPIRIT of the Council that is the re-interpretive principle.  They declare by fiat what the Council means for every sphere of life and then shove that fiat down everybody’s throats.

I am not yet convinced that what resulted from Vatican II is what is described in either Humanae salutis or in Gaudet Mater Ecclesia.

I am sad for the people of Chicago today, because it is clear that your souls are not really the true motivating force in decisions being made: conformity is the goal.  You must not stray from their definition of the herd.

I am even sadder for people under those bishops out there who have been waiting for the Chicago boss to make a move; they know him to be one of the favored circle and its “safer” to be on his side.

What will result from this?

First, imposition of will can be undone by a successor with the snap of a bic pen.  That undermines authority and good order.

This will be resisted.  We shall see what happens then.

Some, will comply and even over comply, which will be taken by just about everyone as… limp, like the character behind a bad handshake.   Remember handshakes?

Meanwhile, against the tyranny of Traditionis custodes be a Custos Traditionis.  Details HERE