Chance of the calendar: three days after the interview at the Vatican between the President of the United States and the Sovereign Pontiff on October 30, 2021, a book putting into opposition the figures of the Pope Emeritus and the current Roman Pontiff, has just been published in the United States.
From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’s War: Catholics Respond to the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes on the Latin Mass is a compilation edited by American traditionalist Peter A. Kwasniewski, from Angelico Press.
According to the author, this book “does not intend to present arguments ‘for’ and ‘against,’ but offers the reader a variety of criticisms of this deeply reckless and non-pastoral decree, which suffers from inconsistent doctrinal foundations, serious moral and legal flaws and impossible ecclesiological implications,” says Peter Kwasniewski.
Mr. Kwasniewski actually wants to oppose a supposed Pax Benedictina, the fruit of the motu proprio Summorum Pontifcum promulgated by Benedict XVI in 2007, to the attitude of the current Roman pontiff, deemed belligerent in many ways.
Thus gathered into the book are seventy critical interventions on the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which had been published in different countries, in various publications and languages, from July 16 to September 20, 2020, mainly in England and the United States, where the opposition of the conservatives to the Argentine pope is the strongest.
Thus we find the liturgical contributions of five cardinals – Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Leo Burke, Gerhard Müller, Robert Sarah, Joseph Zen – porporati whose opposition to Pope Francis on various subjects, both doctrinal and pastoral, has been amply demonstrated.
Texts signed by several bishops and archbishops – Hector Aguer, Thomas E. Gullickson, Carlo Maria Viganò, Rob Mutsaerts, Athanasius Schneider – are also included.
More anecdotal, one even finds, translated into the language of Shakespeare, the text of the article signed last August in the columns of le Figaro by Michel Onfray, entitled “Ite Missa Est,” where the philosopher contrasts Benedict XVI to Francis.
But it cannot be said that the authors mentioned have encouraged the publication of the book. In fact, last November 4, Cardinal Robert Sarah regretted that his name was next to that of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
As opposition between U.S. conservatives and the current Roman pontiff tends to harden, a new book compiling a series of critical articles against the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes has just been published in the United States.
