TRADITIONIS CUSTODES—WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

by Fr. David J. Tokarz

For those addicted to “Church gossip” (OK, I admit I’m one of them), this document, published last week, has stirred up a series of hornets’ nests. What is it all about, and why was it promulgated?

          Ironically, this decree from Pope Francis to limit the current usage of the Missal of 1962 (mistakenly sometimes called the “Extraordinary Rite”) is really nothing more than a return to the original limitations and guidelines established by Pope St John Paul II. But if we are intended to use the Missal of Pope (St) Paul VI, what is the reason for all this?

          Both John Paul (and later, Benedict) granted concessions to groups of people who claimed attachment to the “old Mass,” and they resented the revision and translations of the novus ordo, as they called our current missals. FYI, conspiracy theorists’ use of this Latin term is an attempt to tie Vatican II theology with one-world order/Masonic intentions: recall the Latin phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum [sic] on the “Great Seal” of the United States and on our currency). But no: Vatican II and the “new Mass” were NOT a part of any conspiracy theory.

          Both John Paul and Benedict were desirous of avoiding a schism (a radical split in the Roman Catholic Church) over the liturgy, and so both were willing to offer this concession in hopes of taking away what was thought to be the major issue of anger among clergy and laity who did not want to give up the older form. Sadly, this turned out to be a miscalculation, and Pope Benedict especially came to realize this. Attachment to the Missal of 1962 was a symbolic banner that actually signaled rejection of most, if not all, of Vatican II—especially openness to the modern world, ecumenism, relations with Jews and other religions, and separation of Church and State in the name of religious freedom.

          Now there are groups of “traditional” Catholics who not only insist on the older rite, but (contrary even to the expanded permissions of Pope Benedict) refuse entirely to engage in the current rite of the Mass—even in point-blank defiance of their bishop (this example is in France). So Pope Francis is trying to rein in the renegades and restore sole competence for permitting these liturgies to the local bishops. Again: this was the process outlined in the original permission granted by Pope St John Paul II. So Pope Francis is not an innovator or a reactionary—he is trying to avoid what one theologian wrote as a breaking out into the open of a division that has been quite alive under the surface for some time. In the times immediately after Vatican II, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was the leader of the so-called “traditionalists”; today, that mantle (and cappa magna) has fallen to Cardinal Raymond Burke.

          I write this because of the ancient principle of the Church: Lex orandi, lex credenda: the way we pray reveals the “what” in which we believe. If we cannot worship together, do we believe together? And is there any more important way of worship (spoiler alert: no) than our celebration of the Eucharist?

          We are in the mid-way point of the Mobile Archdiocesan “Year of the Eucharist and the Parish,” and we are in the beginning (this weekend) of the insertion of John 6 into the Gospels of the next several Sundays. We want and need to be united—in faith, in service, and in worship. We cannot afford to have disingenuous attachments to the past be a smoke-screen for rejecting the Church of the present and the future.