It has just come to my attention that Pope Francis has abrogated Summorum Pontificum. If I understand correctly, the pope has placed severe restrictions on the continued use of the Tridentine Mass. The message I derive from reading Pope Francis' decree is that outside limited permissions granted by local bishops and the Holy See ready availability to the Tridentine Mass is to cease.
The justification behind this decree is the claim that the greater availability of the Tridentine Mass has only made traditionalist Catholics more hostile to the Mass of Paul VI and Vatican II, exacerbating division in the Church, so for the sake of unity this availability is to be curtailed. But of course, liberal and modernist hostility to the Church's moral teaching is to continue unopposed. No, traditionalists who actually believe the faith are the real threat.
In any case, even though this decree does not affect me directly (I attend the Ordinariate) I am nonetheless angry to the point of feeling ill. Dismayed to the point that I am seriously questioning whether I can even maintain a Catholic faith anymore. I am not sure I can take these people seriously anymore. This burning train wreck of an institution and the incompetent people who run it are a meme at this point. The sex scandals, the financial corruption, the Pachamamas, the mass graves and now (the straw on the camel's back) the taking away of an ancient and beautiful liturgy because it affronts the ideological and aesthetic preferences of the current pope and the bulk of the Roman Rite episcopate.
Granted, I have been harboring doubts about the claims of Roman Catholicism to absolute truth for quite a while now. The big hit came in confronting the possibility that half the New Testament is a forgery, at least if modern biblical scholars are correct. But also my growing abhorrence to the idea that adherence to this one religion is necessary if you wish not to be tortured for all eternity.
But I am starting to rant. I think what is really getting to me is the notion that my religion should be defined by the whims of whatever man happens to hold this one office. One pope says that such a venerable and ancient tradition of the Church cannot suddenly be harmful or forbidden. And his successor then says the opposite. Such a venerable and ancient tradition of the Church is harmful and thus forbidden. (Or rather constrained to highly restricted accessibility). Is the pope to soon restrict the Ordinariate liturgy, seeing as it is similar to the Tridentine Mass? Probably not, but the mere fact he could, even on mere whim, comes across as outrageous.
No, I will not. I grew up under that liturgy and it never inspired an iota of reverence or faith from me. As the young people say, it was usually cringe. I came back to the Catholic faith in large part due to the beauty of the traditional liturgy. The beauty of tradition. I do not care if my utter indifference to the Novus Ordo boomer Mass is an affront the feelings of the liberal clergy. That liturgy is not what inspired my faith to begin with. I need beauty in my religion, I need ritual reverence, not a mid twentieth century contrivance artificially held as eternally sacrosanct by a rapidly aging liberal hierarchy.
I am not at this point going renounce Catholicism. I would hurt many family members were I to do so. But the temptation has never been stronger. My desire to practice is almost gone at this point. I don't know what to believe anymore. It seems to me the religion I found is not the religion the institutional Church wants maintained. Everything before Vatican II is to be left to the dustbin of history. But I am not sure I at all want what the 'modern church' is selling.
The justification behind this decree is the claim that the greater availability of the Tridentine Mass has only made traditionalist Catholics more hostile to the Mass of Paul VI and Vatican II, exacerbating division in the Church, so for the sake of unity this availability is to be curtailed. But of course, liberal and modernist hostility to the Church's moral teaching is to continue unopposed. No, traditionalists who actually believe the faith are the real threat.
In any case, even though this decree does not affect me directly (I attend the Ordinariate) I am nonetheless angry to the point of feeling ill. Dismayed to the point that I am seriously questioning whether I can even maintain a Catholic faith anymore. I am not sure I can take these people seriously anymore. This burning train wreck of an institution and the incompetent people who run it are a meme at this point. The sex scandals, the financial corruption, the Pachamamas, the mass graves and now (the straw on the camel's back) the taking away of an ancient and beautiful liturgy because it affronts the ideological and aesthetic preferences of the current pope and the bulk of the Roman Rite episcopate.
Granted, I have been harboring doubts about the claims of Roman Catholicism to absolute truth for quite a while now. The big hit came in confronting the possibility that half the New Testament is a forgery, at least if modern biblical scholars are correct. But also my growing abhorrence to the idea that adherence to this one religion is necessary if you wish not to be tortured for all eternity.
But I am starting to rant. I think what is really getting to me is the notion that my religion should be defined by the whims of whatever man happens to hold this one office. One pope says that such a venerable and ancient tradition of the Church cannot suddenly be harmful or forbidden. And his successor then says the opposite. Such a venerable and ancient tradition of the Church is harmful and thus forbidden. (Or rather constrained to highly restricted accessibility). Is the pope to soon restrict the Ordinariate liturgy, seeing as it is similar to the Tridentine Mass? Probably not, but the mere fact he could, even on mere whim, comes across as outrageous.
It is possible that those who are given to such tendencies may intensify their “rejection of the Church” now that their preferred liturgical expression has been curtailed. While Pope Francis is certainly aware of this, it is his view that such Catholics “need to return in due time to the Roman Rite promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II.”
Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes: Five Consequences of the New Motu Proprio Curtailing the Latin Mass
Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes: Five Consequences of the New Motu Proprio Curtailing the Latin Mass
No, I will not. I grew up under that liturgy and it never inspired an iota of reverence or faith from me. As the young people say, it was usually cringe. I came back to the Catholic faith in large part due to the beauty of the traditional liturgy. The beauty of tradition. I do not care if my utter indifference to the Novus Ordo boomer Mass is an affront the feelings of the liberal clergy. That liturgy is not what inspired my faith to begin with. I need beauty in my religion, I need ritual reverence, not a mid twentieth century contrivance artificially held as eternally sacrosanct by a rapidly aging liberal hierarchy.
I am not at this point going renounce Catholicism. I would hurt many family members were I to do so. But the temptation has never been stronger. My desire to practice is almost gone at this point. I don't know what to believe anymore. It seems to me the religion I found is not the religion the institutional Church wants maintained. Everything before Vatican II is to be left to the dustbin of history. But I am not sure I at all want what the 'modern church' is selling.
