Year End Report

I feel that I owe you a status report on the Society of St Hugh of Cluny. What have we been doing over the last nine months? As you have probably realized, our Society had been in semi-hibernation since February. The coronavirus panic has shut down the events in which the St. Hugh of Cluny Society specializes: splendid liturgies and lectures by great speakers – often traveling to the New York area from outside the United States. The Covid-19 crisis has stopped all this. For example, a presentation on the new phenomenon of Catholic “integralism,” which we had scheduled for October, had to be cancelled. The same was true for our annual Mass at the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy. (The festival, of course, had been cancelled as well!) Thus we have been reduced to the role of  commentators on developments in the Church – locally and in the world.

The picture we see is a sorrowful one.

The Covid-19 wave of hysteria, stoked by the media, has shut down or drastically restricted access to the Mass and the other sacraments. Until the very recent past, the pope and the hierarchy have abjectly yielded the secular powers in all their demands. We have no idea how much of the Catholic church will in fact reopen after the current restrictions are lifted. We do not know to what extent the finances of the church have suffered irreparable damage.

Next, this summer a wave of street violence on a level unseen for decades, again instigated by the media and condoned by local governments, swept the United States and even Europe. Statues of Catholic saints and heroes were toppled as  prominent targets of a semi-official campaign to eradicate an anathematized “Western civilization.” For,  as Catholic apologists of the past were so eager to point out, the very concept of the West (or “Europe”) is inseparable from the Church. Again, the clergy largely abdicated their role.

Within the Church, a self-proclaimed Catholic, on track to become the next President of the United States,  advocates virtually unrestricted abortion privileges, rejecting the pro-life witness of so many over the years. The bishop of Rome and most of the hierarchy seem comfortable with his position. The decades-long agitation for the “seamless garment” sham has brought forth its inevitable result: the abandonment of Christian principled opposition to abortion.

In Rome, the Pope makes ever more radical utterances in every conceivable forum and functions more and more as an establishment political figure. At the same time, he seems to be trying to damp down a furious schismatic/ heretical wildfire in Germany-which he himself had unleashed. The Vatican’s restrictive rulings on this front (and on a few others) have, up till now, been largely ignored, while in contrast the pope’s radical declarations (for example, on homosexuality) are eagerly endorsed by the media. Meanwhile, by any objective criteria, the Church is in structural and demographic collapse, rocked by a never-ending series of scandals. Pope Francis very recently tried to extricate himself from one of the latter (the McCarrick affair) primarily by indicting Pope John Paul II (whom, after all, he himself had canonized).

Indeed, an overarching theme of the entire year is the complete irrelevance of the Catholic Faith to the controlling powers in Western society and even the majority of the population. The Church truly is “nonessential”- as is frankly acknowledged by most of the Church’s leadership. In fact, the Catholic religion, as such, started attracting major media attention again only when the Democratic candidate for the presidency started wearing rosaries and appearing “devout” as a transparent political tactic. This seems to be the foreseeable end of “ mainstream” Catholicism: inoffensive folklore combined with blind obedience to a conformist Church leadership entirely immersed in secular affairs – both amid the unstoppable decline and fall of the institutional Church.

Yet despite all the disappointments, ominous trends, and tragedies in Church and state, locally and world-wide, Traditionalist Catholics have so much to be grateful for as this year ends. Just in our Society’s restricted field of operations Catholic Traditionalism is flourishing as never before. A glance at the schedule of Traditional Masses for any recent holyday, as reported on our website, is the best evidence of that. Every fresh outrage of the Vatican or the American hierarchy generates a new wave of converts to the old rite. For more and more people realize the truth of what has always been the  Traditionalist understanding:  that liturgy, morality and theology form an inseparable whole. Consequently, Catholic Traditionalism, which can never be reduced to some kind of  “Anglo-Catholic” or “ ritualist” liturgical sect, grows in attraction as the only real alternative to a disintegrating establishment. For example,  in the current crisis, most (regrettably, not all) Traditionalist parishes have put first the spiritual needs of the faithful over compliance with ever-changing rules and restrictions of dioceses and governments. In so doing they demonstrate once again that it is the Traditionalists, not the establishment conformists, who are the truly “pastoral” churchmen!

We are so grateful to our loyal contributors who have continued to support us even though our main mission may have been temporarily  suspended. In the meantime,  we have of course continued our website. In view of a campaign currently being waged by a well-known traditionalist site against certain online celebrities, I feel obliged to state that the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny itself only pays for the comparatively minor costs of hosting and maintaining the site and nothing further. The overwhelming bulk of our expenditures relates to the financing of the events we sponsor.

Speaking of our online presence, I am always surprised and gratified by our site’s popularity with the friends of Catholic Tradition – and also with our enemies. Indeed, the latter are extraordinarily diligent readers, delving months into the past for the evidence that they seek. (St. Hugh of Cluny is not unique in this regard; Rorate Caeli also serves as a gold mine for these prospectors). As always,  “Conservative Catholic” clergy are particularly prominent in such activity. Both friends and enemies will be happy to hear that we intend to ramp up our online activity.

We are confident that over the course of the next year the Society of St.  Hugh of Cluny will be able to resume its usual activities with even greater success.

I wish all of our members and readers a blessed and holy Advent and a Merry Christmas!
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