Fr. Z's Blog

At Catholic World Report George Weigel reacts to the 2021 Plessy v. Ferguson move Traditionis custodes.

First, let it be said that in his writings about what the Church needs today viz. “new evangelization” and the like has not included the Traditional Latin Mass.  He is solidly in the Novus Ordo camp and he repeats that in this new piece.

Having expressed his preference, he goes on (with my emphases):

That being said, I also think that the recent apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes [Custodians of the Tradition], which attempts to repeal Pope Benedict XVI’s generous permission for easier use of the Traditional Latin Mass in the 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, was theologically incoherent, pastorally divisive, unnecessary, cruel — and a sorry example of the liberal bullying that has become all too familiar in Rome recently.

Summorum Pontificum was an act of pastoral solicitude for those Catholics who find it more efficacious to worship according to the 1962 Missal, in what Benedict XVI described as the “Extraordinary Form” of the Roman Rite. It was also hoped that the Church’s broader experience of that Extraordinary Form would lead to a re-sacralizing and ennobling of the Church’s worship according to the “Ordinary Form” of the liturgy, the post-Vatican II missal of Pope Paul VI as revised by Pope John Paul II. In my experience, that hope was being vindicated, as the silly season in liturgy was mercifully drawing to an end.

[…]

In many American parishes where the Extraordinary Form has been offered as well as the more common Ordinary Form, the unity of the Church has not been impaired. That some proponents of the Extraordinary Form think themselves the sole faithful remnant of a decaying Church is certainly true, and their presence online is depressingly familiar. But it is an empirically unsustainable slander to suggest, as Traditionis Custodes does, that that divisive superiority complex (coupled with an ideologically-driven rejection of Vatican II) is the new normal for those who wish to worship at Masses celebrated with the Missal of 1962. Roman judgments should not be based on the hysteria and antics of the Catholic blogosphere. [This perhaps overstates the influences in this terrible decision.  It seems to me that “Roman judgments” in this case were altogether predetermined.  Then came the “consultation”, which turns out to have been rather selective, of bishops.  That “consultation” was intended to give cover to what was already decided.  I sense that “Roman judgments” were driven less by “antics” (of which I suspect they were mostly unaware) but of the reports of the rapid growth of the TLM and rapid expansion of the number of priests celebrating with it.  Morever, as I understand it, it could be that Summorum was about, perhaps, to get some traction in Italy.]

Progressive Catholicism has typically been characterized by an authoritarian streak — a tendency to bullying and intimidation that certainly bespeaks impatience and may suggest a lack of confidence in its proposals and arguments. In the present pontificate, that has led to an extreme notion of papal authority that might make Pope Pius IX blush. This has not gone over well throughout the world Church, and that fact will have a marked effect on the next papal election.

EVERYONE…

…please consider becoming a Custos Tradionis.  HERE