Diane Montagna has a Substack (I still haven’t figured that out yet) about the extremely dodgy excuses for the cruel “Traditionis custodes”. She had published the summary of the survey of bishops. She asked about it during a presser. She got a slippery answer. Msgr. Nicola Bux coincidently issued a short book about the same topic.
Diane’s Substack piece is HERE, if you can read it. If not, here is a summary.
Montagna’s article at Substack provides evidence challenging the Vatican’s non-“explanation” for restricting the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) through Taurina cacata…. Traditionis custodes. She documents that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), tasked with surveying bishops globally in 2020 about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum (Benedict XVI’s decree liberalizing the TLM), produced a final report stating most bishops did not support legislative changes.
This final report, protocol number N. 03/2020-ED and dated 22 February 2021, included a comprehensive assessment, regional summaries, statistical analysis, and a florilegium of bishops’ quotations. Montagna published parts of this report on 1 July: the majority of bishops believed restricting the TLM would cause more harm than good.
In TC and the accompanying letter, Francis explicitly stated that this 2020 CDF consultation convinced him to impose new limits on the TLM. However, after Montagna’s publication, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni claimed her excerpts were “partial and incomplete” and that “other confidential reports” were also used in making the decision. None of these were cited in the decree or disclosed to the public.
Montagna writes that this new claim contradicts the Francis claim, which referred solely to the CDF survey as the basis for the decision. She states that if additional documents were decisive, they should be presented openly. I think that would be a matter of justice to the people who were harmed by what seems to have been done on the basis of a falsehood.
Further, she explains that the introduction to the CDF report’s Second Part explicitly confirms it was the Congregation’s official synthesis prepared at Francis’ request. The report was compiled by the Fourth Section (formerly the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“).
Montagna contends that unless the Vatican produces credible evidence proving the CDF’s conclusions misrepresented bishops’ views, the claim of widespread episcopal support for restrictions collapses. She concludes that this inconsistency undermines confidence in the Vatican’s transparency and decision-making and calls for disclosure of the purported “confidential” evidence.
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I know you’ve been eagerly awaiting International Chess Day: 20 July.
