Introduction
The people who were afraid that night were bishops. This conservative priest had started a project a year or so earlier – very simply a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel. Earlier that evening I had visited this chapel with some friends and ended up in a conversation with the priest after everyone had left. Word reached the bishops palace after the completion of the chapel and the priest received a phone call and visit from his local ordinary. My impression (this being now ~15 years ago) was that he was nervous about how the visit would proceed. The bishop came, made a visit to OLJC in the Blessed Sacrament and later made an approving statement.
It was around this nucleus of conservatism that the desire and request for a Diocesan Tridentine Mass. The request was denied and the priest was recounting his impressions about the meeting with his and one other bishop.
I think I can hazard a guess as to the source of the epsicopal fears of the Tridentine Mass: The Tridentine Mass embodies the pre-conciliar Dogmas, Doctrines and Magisterium that was rejected by the modernists after the Second Vatican Council.
Yep, there was a rupture at and definitely after V2 (Council not missile). All you have to do is compare any facet of the pre and post Vatican 2 liturgy. Liturgy embodies belief and while pre-V2 there is clear defined doctrine and liturgy, post-V2 there is ambiguity like the removal of the Filioque from the Creed.
There are a few notable exceptions, such as Pope St. John Paul II’s decision on Catholic Priestesses … for anyone who missed it … it is an impossibility.
The SSPX Angle
Initially, the SSPX was founded at the request of seminarians trying to stay Catholic in the storm that engulfed the Church after V2. Even a few years ago a seminarian wearing a black shirt was accused of being a “Lefebvrist”. After a few months of this he decided that he should go see the “Lefebvrists” to understand the accusation. I can’t remember the exact words, but he discovered that he wasn’t and neither were they … he just wanted to believe the Truths of the Catholic Faith and the “Lefebvrists” were stubbornly refusing to abandon that Faith.In 1970’s, this adherence to the Faith coalesced around the liturgical expression of the Faith. Over the past 60 years, that adherence has been called many things, schismatic, disobedient, nostalgic. All things it isn’t. For the SSPX, the Faith they practice isn’t something in the past – it is the present. The Dogmas and Doctrines are the present and therefore the expression of these same Dogmas and Doctrines should be complete and unambiguous.
Conclusion
The completeness and clarity in the Pre-V2 liturgy and Teachings removes room to maneuver for Catholics. It is uncomfortable and I would hazard psychologically painful for them to face the Truths of the Catholic Church, Truths that are in diametrical opposition to the modern world.That’s is why there was so much pressure to change the Mass and even the Rosary. Both are uncomfortable for Modern Catholics or at least the clergy because of what they are and what they teach.
So … that is what is at stake in the fight for the Mass, it is a fight for the Faith. In the Rosary it is a fight for the Marian Doctrines that are so disconcerting for the Modern Catholics because they offend the non-Catholics.
It is a very sad thing when human respect guides the expression of the Catholic Truths.
P^3
References
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/search/label/Series%20-%20Novus%20Ordo%20Missae
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2021/08/reblog-comparision-of-tridentine.html
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2021/08/fsspxnews-paul-vi-missal-part-1.html
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2021/08/fsspxnews-paul-vi-missal-part-2.html
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2021/07/catechism-of-council-of-trent.html
https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2024/07/new-liturgical-movement-what-does.html
https://liturgyguy.com/2017/07/23/busting-the-myth-of-the-tridentine-mass/
PostScript
I wokeup this morning with an additional thought that the fear of the Tridentine Mass is based less on what it embodies and more on its effect on the faithful and the priests saying the Mass.
I knew a young Jesuit priest (a rarity in a greying clergy) who was open to saying the Tridentine Mass (another rarity in the early 21st century). Amongst other things, this got him banned from any association with SSPX priests and faithful.
That all changed in 2011 with the promulgation of Universae Ecclesiae.
At that time this young priest was given charge of an obscure secondary church in parish and started with about 20 parishioners. From that humble start within two years the little church was packed and activities expanded outside its walls with processions and presence at a Marian conference. That was where, I understand, he made a public statement that may have signaled the beginning of the end:
“You need to worship this way.”
That seems to have been a turning point for this Jesuit and the little flock entrusted to his care. The Jesuit was removed from the position and sometime I understand transferred to a smaller city where he periodically offered the Tridentine Mass.
This was not to be the end of the story and I think it exposes the real reason for the fear of the Neo-Modernists et al who are still trying to pull the Catholic Church off its foundations. This same Jesuit, I have been informed, has been made a Jesuit Provincial. Granted it has been years, maybe a decade in the making, but here we have a nightmare for modernists: A Jesuit rediscovers the Tridentine Mass, says it for a few years and is forever changed.
The collapse of the clergy forces the young priest up the Jesuit hierarchy. While I don’t know if the change in the Jesuit priest was lasting, I see it as a prototype of what may happen in the future. The young priests open to Tradition will largely do two things: Stay in the priesthood, climb the hierarchy. Time is on their side and while the Neo-Modernists et al panic as they try to snuff out the Tridentine Mass and remaining Traditional Orders (SSPX, FSSP).
I think that Cardinal Fernandez’ “no negotiation and change to Vatican II” response to the SSPX is a reflection of this panic.
I think that they are right to be afraid and their fear is our hope. Eventually, the Neo-Modernists will again be censured. I don’t know if I’ll see the day, but I am confident that it will happen. Just like Summorum Pontificum’s vindication of the persecution endured by faithful Priests post-V2, that day will be a vindication of all those who held on to what the Church Teaches.
P^3
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