Liturgy Talk: Pope Francis And Traditional Liturgy

[ Estimated read time: 6 minutes ]

Introducing Conspicuous Maximus and Dubious Contentious, two armchair scholars who love God and the Church. Dubious is a former middle-of-the-road Catholic set ablaze by a reading of the Church Fathers. Conspicuous, a shy and retiring individual, has learned to be more outspoken about his convictions. He recently graduated from the Institute for Recovering Catholics Who Are Suspicious of Heretics (IRCWASH).

Today's topic: Pope Francis and Traditional Liturgy

Conspicuous Maximus: Is it true the Vicar of Christ has a bit of a hate on for traditional liturgy?

Dubious Contentious: It seems so, at least to those who are close to the older Latin Mass.  The public record tends to confirm his antipathy toward the older Mass and/or its proponents.

CM: Exempli gratia?

DC: Well, he issued a formal inhibition in the form of a motu proprio called Traditionis custodes, that restricts the celebration of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite, i.e., the extraordinary form of the liturgy.  Pope Francis' apostolic letter was accompanied by a letter to the Catholic bishops of the world. And there is that bit about "how the allowances granted by his predecessors were 'being used in an ideological way.'"

CM: Ideological way? How so? And why is that a threat?

DC: I'm not certain, but it is known that some traditionalists - or traddies as they are known - have a bit of a hate on for the Holy Father, too, and so they use the older rite in attempt to undermine any positive developments in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.  They're hearts might be in the right place as far as appreciating the beauty of the older form of the Mass. However, instead of happily celebrating the beauty and goodness of the older rite, they pit the old against the newer rite in a way that points to alleged deficiencies of the new and to justify a retreat from moving forward in a way that builds on the solid foundation of the past.

CM: So the "traddies", as you call them, they are off base?

DC: No, not entirely.  If criticism is based upon the quality of the routine celebration (of the Liturgy), then the newer rite could be seen as inferior.  Cause and effect, and all that.  The newer form of the Mass tends to be mired in abuse.  It is unfortunate that the newer rite arrived at a time when many of the brethren were enamoured of sexual license and a rejection of legitimate authority.

CM: Yes, true.  And so they appropriated the rite of Pope Saint Paul VI and remade it in their own image?

DC: The loss of Latin in the newer rite, for example, and the rejection of plainchant so named for the great Pope Saint Gregory, and the change from communion on the tongue to communion in the hand confirm the susceptibility of the newer rite to unsanctioned or imprudent changes.

CM: Abusus non tollit usum.

DC: Exactly.

CM: So they denigrate the newer rite based on the understanding that the new rite cannot be celebrated with dignity, so it must be inferior?

DC: Assentior.

CM: Pope Francis' off-the-cuff remarks can be perplexing, if not down right frustrating.

DC: He does tend to paint with a very wide brush.

CM: And what of Pope Francis' actions contra the older rite?

DC: Other than a generational bias and claims of misuse of the older rite to challenge the newer rite, the Holy Father's actions seem a little super summitatem.

CM: Are the Holy Father's comments driven more by fear than a concern for unity?

DC: It is difficult to say what drives the Holy Father's decisions at times.

CM: Perhaps I should walk back my previous comment. The Holy Father has done nothing that attacks institutes such as the FSSP and ICKSP which celebrate exclusively the older form of the Mass.

DC: Well, he did authorize a review of the Fraternity of Saint Peter. The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life announced an informational visitation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and has been tasked to learn more about the society of Pontifical Right in order to offer it “the most appropriate support in its journey of following Christ.”

CM: Agnitus.

DC: The visitation seems routine enough. However, given a number of visitations that have resulted in moderate to severe restrictions, a reasonable person could be justified in his suspicion about motives.

CM: Does the FSSP actually have need of the Dicastery for any kind of support?

DC: Given its many successes, successes which confirm the widening attraction of young people to traditional liturgy, it is difficult to imagine what support the Dicastery could offer, other than staying out of the way.

CM: Those charged with the oversight of societies within the Church might learn something from the FSSP et al.

DC: Yes - e.g., that progress does not always mean innovation.  Progress can mean an increase due to a renewed interest in that which is proven reliable, true, good and beautiful, and a return to ways that preserve respect for mystery.

By their fruits... .

CM: The Holy Father must be aware of the ever increasing number of young people who are drawn to the older Latin Mass, to Eastern liturgies and to Divine Worship of the Personal Ordinariates, that curious mustard seed of a liturgy that is bearing much fruit in the vineyard of the Lord?

DC: I cannot see how he could not be aware.  There are plenty of examples that vex tradition-minded Catholics, especially seminarians.  I recall an article at La Croix claiming that "Catholics from the pews to the pope are worried about young priests." Quoth the article, "At the October meeting of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis gave an unexpected intervention denouncing clericalism and lamenting the “scandal” of young priests and seminarians trying on fancy vestments in Roman shops. The synod’s final document echoed some of these concerns, pointing to the 'formalism and ideology that lead to authoritarian attitudes' in some priests, and calling for a consultation of seminary formators on how to teach priests to lead in a synodal style." 

CM: It seems unfair to chastise young priests according to a rather shallow assumption, as if they are merely enamoured in liturgical bling.

DC: Assentior. Perhaps they want to employ beautiful vestments to communicate something of the ineffable using elements of a visual vocabulary, to bridge the invisible beauty of God with a visible work of art that affirms the intention to worship God in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 96:9).

CM: Is the Holy Father a Jesuit who does not appreciate artful expressions of dignity that also point to the divine?

DC: One could be forgiven for concluding that Pope Francis drifts, at times, toward the puritanical. 

CM: How utterly un-Jesuit! (grin)

DC: His attitude does smack of being stuck in the iconoclastic 1970s along with others of his generation.  Not all members of his generation, mind you, are iconoclasts.  Pope Benedict XVI understood the effectiveness of a vestment's silent witness to the beauty of the Lord.  The art of the Church is born of the beauty of God, to lead souls to God.

CM: I recall an article at the Catholic News Agency that reported that Pope Francis "criticized people who 'call themselves guardians of traditions, but of dead traditions,' saying that failing to move forward is dangerous for the Church today.  The pope also said that it was vital to make progress by 'drawing from the roots.'"  He said that "there is the fashion — in every age, but in this age in the Church’s life I consider it dangerous — that instead of drawing from the roots in order to move forward — meaning fine traditions — we 'step back,' not going up or down, but backward.  This 'back-stepping' makes us a sect; it makes you 'closed' and cuts off your horizons.  Those people call themselves guardians of traditions, but of dead traditions."

DC: Dead traditions? Forward? Toward what? Away from?

CM: Again, Pope Francis does paint with a wide brush.

CM: Does the Holy Father protesteth too much? (grin)

DC: Fortasse parum. Perhaps a bit.

CM: And others? Why do they protest at traditional forms of worship?

DC: Generally speaking, people tend to fear (and loathe) what they do not understand.

CM: Do those who reject traditional liturgies also disparage the venerable liturgies of our Eastern brethren? The Byzantine Liturgy, for example? the Chaldean Liturgy? Are they not ancient liturgies, traditional in aesthetic and content?

DC: There have been times when we Romans have Latinized or attempted to impose Latin elements on our Eastern brethren, an imposition born of an false assumption indiscriminately applied.

CM: Could it be that, in the wake of the Council, the Roman Church and her venerable liturgy suffered the imposition of attitudes not unlike those of our narrow-minded brethren who steamrolled eastern liturgies?

DC: Aqua(m) sub ponte?

CM: Pons reaedificandi valet?

DC: A bridge too far for some or even many.

CM: Is the Holy Father out of touch or perhaps a little confused? Has he not called upon young people, on more than one occasion, to make a mess?

DC: And when they do so by plunging deeply into history to discover reverent liturgy, it seems that the developing outcome is not the mess for which the Holy Father had hoped.

CM: Perhaps the Holy Ghost has something else in mind.

DC: In the words of the lead chorister of Volvere Lapides, dear brother Conspicuous, "Non semper id quod voles potes!"