Above: Pope Francis presides over the funeral for his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Jan 5. 2023). Vatican Media.
Another year has passed since the worst document in Papal History was decreed based on misinformation and lies told about Pope Benedict and the persecuted minority of Catholics known as the Trads.
That’s us.
Remember where you were, and what you were doing when you heard the news that the Latin Mass had been suppressed again? When Summorum got the axe?
What did you think then? Was the Church going to implode? Did you doubt your faith? Did it bother you or not?
What did you feel? We all felt great sorry in our hearts that day. Let’s take a second to remember that day and examine ourselves.
I remember thinking: another day, another Vatican scandal. Groan.
I once heard the story of St. Teresa of Avila who was sleeping peacefully when she heard a demonic spectre appearing at the foot of her bed. She blinked awake and rolled over to see a terrifying demon manifesting itself to strike fear into her heart.
“Oh,” she said, “You again.”
And she rolled over and went back to sleep.
That’s how I felt when Traditionis Custodes struck on July 16, 2021. But I must confess that although I had this good attitude then, I am often filled with sadness at what I have to cover from the Eternal City.
We all are.
It’s so sad that this suffering has come down upon us and the Church. That the homage due to Almighty God is lessened by the destruction of the Latin Mass which gives Him greater glory.
And yet do we deserve the Latin Mass of forefathers? Surely not. It is not because of our merits that we fight this fight, but because God deserves the Latin Mass. And our children deserve the Latin Mass.
We have a duty to give our children the most reverent Mass possible, because we will judged before God as “the first preachers of the Faith” to our children (Lumen Gentium) especially of that “source and summit” (Ibid.) that is the Real Presence of Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Therefore we will fight this fight, though we are unworthy. St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us to give us a resilient heart to always treat these demonic spectres with your attitude of pious trust in God!
Papalist Failure
But let’s look at this for a minute: think about it. Because if we take a step back from that and consider what has happened and not happened, this is actually good news.
We reported last year on the one year anniversary:
At the time of this writing, according to TraditionisCustodes.info, 244 dioceses have responded to the Motu Proprio. Of these, only 26 (or 10.65%) have suppressed all the Latin Masses in their diocese. Another 37 (15.16%) have suppressed some but not all Latin Masses.
So compared to the first attempt at suppression [in 1969], we have a night and day difference. About 75% of bishops responded to the decree and refused to implement it. This does not count other dioceses which simply ignored it completely, like the massive dioceses of Los Angeles and New York City, which together include some two dozen Latin Masses (see here and here).
We of course remember that the premise of Traditionis Custodes was that a survey to the bishops returned negative results about the Latin Mass. Shortly after the Motu Proprio, Diane Montagna presented evidence that this survey did not have this negative result at all. One year later, the lack of any enthusiastic response from the bishops corroborates Ms. Montagna’s evidence.
So what has changed since then?
According to the latest stats from traditioniscustodes.info, only 17 more dioceses have even responded to Traditionis Custodes!
Compared to the first year, that’s only a 7% response rate! And of the responses, 175 bishops refused to suppress the Latin Mass, which is 67% of all responding bishops. So we have a slight drop of total bishops responding positively.
But let’s remember something: this is only from those bishops who have responded. The massive dioceses previously mentioned – Los Angeles and New York – have still ignored this unjust decree. How many other dioceses have ignored this decree?
This leads Peter Kwasniewski to conclude in his reflection on this:
The predicted and intended pogrom against traditionalists has largely failed to materialize.
There’s lots reason for this but I want to point out two of the most important:
This response manifests the beginning of the end of the regime of hyperüberultramontanism. Remember when Paul VI said “Jump” and every bishop in the world said “How High?” and suppressed the Roman rite without thinking? (I’m using hyperbole here, I know Lefebvre and others resisted, but that was the de facto situation). Again, like I said in the 1 year post last year, this is a night and day difference. It means the beginning of the end of this papalist regime.
The cultural and grass roots power of the Trad movement. Our movement could not be stopped by worldwide bishops in 1969, and it certainly has not been stopped and will not be stopped when most bishops refuse to do the same under Pope Francis!
It is quite clear now, in case you had any doubt, that the Trad movement and the Latin Mass will outlive Pope Francis and grow stronger as a result.
Fear not, brethren. This is the mustard seed.
T. S. Flanders
Editor
St. Alexius
PS: Let us offer up our sufferings that God may pardon our Holy Father Pope Francis for this awful deed, and bring him to repentance. Join the Crusade.