Traditionis Custodes: Dispatches from the Front

On July 16 Pope Francis started a war.  Regardless of the specific provisions of his motu proprio, all Catholic Traditionalists, as such,  have been declared enemies of the Church. They are deprived of all liturgical rights and are to be segregated from the body of Catholics. The bishops of the Catholic Church are, in practice,  empowered to tolerate or absolutely prohibit the Traditional Mass  –  in their arbitrary discretion. The ultimate objective is the total disappearance of the Traditionalists. At the Vatican further measures accompanying Traditionis Custodes (“TC” – by this term I also include the Pope’s cover letter) are reported to be in the course of preparation: restrictions to be imposed on the Ecclesia Dei orders, and even more restrictive regulations implementing TC. 

It is a war not just against “groups” (the contemptuous terminology of TC) but families, young children, diocesan and religious priests, seminarians, established parishes and dedicated congregations. It is a struggle against a movement that is spread, to a greater or lesser extent,  over the entire world.  This conflict will also be played out in religious communities,  schools and even individual families. It will even spill over into the “conservative” Novus Ordo realm, given the close ties of every kind that exist between the adherents of that tendency in the Church and the Traditionalists.  

Everywhere there’s a sense that a boundary has been crossed, that the Church has moved into new and uncharted waters. War does have the advantage of clarifying issues and power relationships,  of advancing from mystification to reality. However,  the “fortunes of war” are inherently unpredictable. A nation, like France in 1870,  may enter into war, as its prime minister at that time,  Émile Ollivier, said, “with a light heart.” So did all Europe in 1914,  Germany in Russia in 1941, Japan at Pearl Harbor later that same year, and the United States subsequently in Vietnam, Iraq  and Afghanistan. In all these cases, the confrontation that emerged was unimaginably different from the assumptions governing at the beginning. The Roman Catholic Church will shortly be experiencing the same.  

Moreover, Pope Francis has declared his intent to conduct that most difficult of martial undertakings, an aggressive war of annihilation. As Martin van Creveld points out, such a war, by leaving the enemy only two outcomes: victory or extinction, dramatically solidifies his will to resist regardless of what his previous political or military weakness may have been.  In this respect, TC is the “Operation Barbarossa” of the Church. 

So far, the Traditionalists have stood fast. With a few exceptions, the laity have not yielded to anger, panic or despair. Nor have they surrendered to the establishment, even though confronted by a hostile papal will. Quite rightly, they have “stayed the course,” letting the hierarchy take the first steps. Public prayers and recitations of the rosary have multiplied. According to my observations  – as well as those of several other informed observers – attendance at local Traditional masses has actually increased. And this jump in attendance in the “off-season” of Summer is not just due to the revived piety of the Traditionalist communities! For one consequence of TC and the resulting uproar is that, among those Catholics who actually practice their faith,  many more people have now heard of “Traditionalism” and wish to experience what all the fuss is about. From what I know,  the clergy who celebrate the Old Mass  – in the New York area overwhelmingly diocesan priests – have also calmly, collectively and with dignity defended their adherence to Catholic Tradition. 

The hierarchy are the designated enforcers of TC. So far,  the bishops fall roughly into two camps. In those dioceses where there is a significant Traditionalist presence the policy so far generally has been to preserve the  status quo. Perhaps this is because such bishops have had the opportunity over the years of working with Traditionalists and thus cannot share the indictment set forth in TC. More cynically, these bishops realize that they would be the real point men of Pope Francis’ war and foresee the adverse  personnel, finance and media consequences that an all-out attack on a substantial Catholic community might entail.  For example, in one diocese in the New York area with which I am familiar more than 10% of the diocesan priests celebrate the Traditional Mass. if we counted only active priests that percentage would be greater.  I should add that in some prominent dioceses neither the bishop nor the Catholic media has made any mention of TC at all up till now – testimony to its explosive nature. However, it is also true that  major and minor incidents of harassment have occurred in certain of the “status quo“ dioceses – like the cancellation of a Pontifical Mass in Washington DC.

In the other camp are those dioceses where Traditionalist Catholics are few or where the bishop is more fanatically ideological.  Here drastic restrictions or even prohibitions on the Traditionalist Mass have been immediately and summarily  imposed. Fortunately for most Americans, such dioceses are more frequently found outside the United States and especially in the Latin world. Some of the harshest anti-Traditionalist measures,  moreover,  have been taken in regions, such as the Czech Republic or Central America, where the Catholic Faith is in complete collapse.  Is it not strange?  For a Catholic bishop to prohibit masses, expel religious orders, prevent pilgrimages and shut down parishes – as did the communists and anticlericals of yore – is now a badge of loyalty to the Pope!

I have been heartened by the amazing outpouring of commentary on TC – mostly sympathetic to Traditionalism and from a broad spectrum of Catholics (and non-Catholics).  It is hard to single out individual contributions in such a bountiful harvest. But are we really surprised that one of the earliest and at the same time most “theological” analyses came from the hand of Michel Onfray, a French atheist? If someone had told me in 2005 that the quintessential “conservatives” Amy Welborn and George Weigel one day would be writing in defense of Traditionalists I would have considered him mad – yet both now have given us perceptive contributions. In the context of their names I might also cite Rod Dreher (now Orthodox). The “traditional”  experienced advocates of the Old Rite or at least of Catholic Tradition have of course been outspoken. I might mention, among many others, Cardinals Burke, Zen and Sarah; Martin Mosebach; Fr. Hunwicke; Bishop Athanasius Schneider; and Peter Kwasniewski. Even certain major progressive Catholic media such as katholisch.de, the house organ of the ultraliberal German Catholic Church,  have been decidedly ambivalent on TC,  with articles criticizing the Motu Proprio appearing in these forums. Perhaps one reason for their reserve (and that of certain progressive clerics)  is that TC  took most of them completely by surprise too.  

The pro-Traditionalist reaction has not been confined to the Catholic media: articles defending Traditionalism have appeared on the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times!  Cardinal Sarah’s powerful essay appeared in Le Figaro in France and Michel Onfray’s in Figaro.fr.  I look forward to a publication of an anthology of these contributions, each of which illuminates the issue from a different perspective and the whole representing a veritable encyclopedia of Traditionalist belief.  It will be an invaluable reference  for Catholic Traditionalists – or for the curious outsider who wants to discover what motivates these people.

We ask ourselves: what has prompted TC? I do not believe for a minute that it was occasioned by the Traditionalists’ “rejection” either of Vatican II or of the validity of the Novus Ordo.  In most Traditionalist communities and events I hear little or nothing on these subjects. Rather,  99.99% of the recent criticism of the Church has related not to Vatican II, but to the actions and initiatives of Pope Francis over the last eight years: his management of the Vatican with its unending series of scandals, Amoris Laetitia, his treatment of the Church in China, the “Amazonian” synod and Pachamama, the mishandling of the ongoing sexual abuse crisis, the pope’s ambiguous response to the Synodal Path in Germany, his intervention in the abortion debate in the United States – to list only some of the “highlights” of his papacy. The overall tendency can be summarized as a return to progressive radicalism in theology, morality and politics –  to an understanding of Vatican II and its liturgy as a clean break with the Church’s past. 

Opponents of all these developments soon made themselves heard. Traditionalists represented only a minority of these critics. But it is true that, consciously or not, those who object to one or all of these policies start to gravitate to the Traditionalist movement – even if they do not at first become committed Traditionalists. This is because Traditionalism represents not only liturgical, but also moral and theological continuity with the Church of all time.  As a result of these controversies, initiated by Pope Francis, Traditionalism paradoxically received a new impetus.  

But the expansion of Traditionalism is not just because of conflicts over fundamental issues at the highest level of the Church.  A  growing number of families found Traditionalism the best practical way to live the faith, to raise their children as Christians and to experience stability, beauty and community in the Church.  The same can be said of the growing number of young priests who celebrate the Old Mass for they have discovered in Catholic Tradition a fuller priestly life.  These younger clergy are found not only in the Ecclesia Dei orders and Traditionalist monasteries – which, at least in the United States, have to turn away aspiring seminarians for lack of space. They include graduates of the diocesan seminaries and members of the “establishment” religious orders, who have discovered Traditionalism  – often in the face of bitter hostility from their superiors and bishops. In most cases,  these priests have had no objections in principle in celebrating the Novus Ordo when that is appropriate.  In the case of this younger rising generation of priests and the laity, moreover, Catholic Traditionalism has not been a legacy from the past, but an entirely spontaneous and freely chosen expression of the Faith.

This vitality contrasts with the irreversible decline of the official Church and its institutions. Only 20-30% of Catholics regularly practice the faith in the United States  – and these statistics are excellent compared to Germany or France. In more recent years  “non-practicing Catholics” turn more and more frequently into outright nonbelievers.  In addition,  in the United States, and to much greater extent in most of Latin America, there is steady hemorrhaging  to fundamentalist Protestantism. The establishment has discovered no answer to the crisis of vocations. Nor has it been able to put its finances on a sound footing or end the relentless pressure of lawyers and prosecutors on the sex abuse front. 

The contrast, at least in the developed world,  between the progress of the Traditionalist movement – despite its limited absolute numbers – and the ineffectiveness of the official Church  was growing ever greater. For just the very existence of the Traditionalists is eloquent commentary on the failures of the institutional Church. The youth and spontaneity of the Traditionalists contrasted more and more strongly with the centralization, bureaucracy and ever-growing average age of the clergy, religious and laity in most of the establishment Church. And the celebration of the Old Mass was spreading from the nations where it had been “traditionally” strong (like the United States) into new territory (like Italy).  Moreover, as we have seen, Traditionalism serves as a focus for those deeply disturbed by the dire non-liturgical problems in the Church. For all these reasons, the leadership of the Catholic Church, instead of addressing the causes of its underlying problems, has now launched a campaign with the ultimate aim of eliminating the Traditionalist movement entirely.

Now  the Church does not exist in a vacuum but always is situated in a concrete historical context. It is, after all, no coincidence that Vatican II took place in the same decade as did the student revolts (of 1968 in Europe, earlier in the United States)  and even the Chinese “Cultural Revolution.” These were all movements of massive change emanating not from the grassroots or the revolutionary masses but instigated and led by institutional leadership or a privileged elite.  Similarly, the secular background of TC is the rising totalitarian tide in the United States and Western Europe evident, at the latest, since the 2016 United States presidential elections. It involves the consolidation of all the institutions of Western civil society (government, law , education, business etc.) into a unified bloc with a defined ideology  (ecology, anti-covid, movements of social revolution summarized  as ”woke”). Enemies,  dissenters or those who simply remain silent are demonized in the media, censored, subjected to punitive consequences regarding their business or employment, compelled to confess their “guilt” or undergo reeducation and, in some situations,  physically threatened. Even more so than in the 1960’s,  it is a “revolution from above” of the rich and the powerful. 

These tendencies of course influence the Vatican, especially given its eagerness to please the secular media and economic powers of the West. Indeed, the Vatican has been in direct contact with the secular leaders of some of these specific initiatives  which the Church has endorsed or at least benevolently tolerated. So in a sense TC can be seen as the transposition into the Catholic Church of the West’s current “totalitarian moment,” sharing its insistence on external unity as an absolute value and its demand for unquestioning adherence to the ruling establishment. Some of the confrontational rhetoric of the letter accompanying  TC and of the motu proprio’s defenders is even identical to that of the secular establishment:  the need to combat with punitive measures “divisive,” “ideological,” “aggressive” extremists who “endanger unity” and “expose (the Church) to the peril of division.” 

In a sense,  TC should encourage Traditionalists, for the Pope has singled out them and the Traditional Mass as the one true alternative to the current regime and its ideology. This time of purgation may also be helpful for us, because despite its successes, all was not well in the movement. The real problems were not the anti-institutional zealots active on the internet or elsewhere. On the contrary,  the real difficulties resulted from the ever-greater integration of the Traditionalists into the structures of the establishment with all its associated defects.  Traditionalism, for example,  has not at all been immune from instances of clerical sexual abuse. The celebration of the Old Mass, if it occurred in a parish, remained very much contingent on the attitude of the pastor – a change in leadership often brought drastic consequences for the community given the different theological “universes” that the clergy often inhabit today. 

Certain Traditionalist orders and organizations gradually slipped into a fantasy world regarding the benevolence of the institutional Church,  their influence on it and their insight into its doings. Others, imitating the practices of groups like Opus Dei,  tried to resurrect the pristine, intact, pre-Conciliar world by a highly selective reading of Vatican actions and documents (e.g., by emphasizing Pope Francis’s 2021 “Year of St. Joseph”). Then, there were those who tried to tone down Traditionalism, to censor sermons and conference speakers, and to control public perceptions of reality – all in the fond hope of obtaining the favor of bishops and mainstream religious orders. I don’t know about Traditionalists’ alleged hostility to “the Council,”  but I can certainly testify to the animosity that could crop up in dealings among the Traditionalists and pseudo-Traditionalists themselves in the two years prior to TC.  I would hope that the new hot war can at least alleviate these grudges and make the Traditionalists refocus on their foundational principles.  For we will all now be forced to work together for the sake of a cause much greater than ourselves and need to put aside the petty grievances of the past.  

I’ll conclude these reflections with one more historical thought.  William Lind has observed  that just when the established order deems everything to be fixed,  settled and secure and the future looks predictable, history goes off in a wildly different direction. So it was in Europe in August 1914. We see the same phenomenon unfolding in Kabul in these very days. Lind,  drawing on an obscure book by a minor British novelist of the 1930’s,  calls this God’s Fifth Column. His  message Is that the structures of Church and state that we assume to be so solid as to stand forever can collapse with amazing speed. 1)

We do not know what the future may bring for the Church and for Traditionalism.  And neither does the Vatican. What we do know are the very great graces we and our families have received by adhering to the fullness of Catholic Tradition. We also know that Someone else is at work whose active will is usually left out of our calculations. Therefore I would recommend prayer and patience and trust that God, who does not lead anyone who trusts in Him astray,  will take care of things in ways now unforeseeable by us.

1. Lind, William, “God’s Fifth Column,” The American Conservative (July 17, 2021). Of course, in hindsight, everyone claims the eventual historical outcome to be obvious!