“Responses to the Dubia”

The second phase of Pope Francis’ war of annihilation against Catholic Traditionalism, unleashed by Traditionis Custodes,  was launched Saturday by the Congregation for Divine Worship.  The “Responses to the Dubia” of the prefect Arthur Roche aim to reduce the practice of the traditional liturgy to a bare, temporary minimum. In most cases only the Mass will be permitted. The ministry of traditionalist priests is to be surrounded with restrictions intended to maximize their difficulties.  The traditionalist faithful are to be separated from the rest of Catholic life and be officially reduced to second-class Catholics. In parishes they are to be segregated; their masses are not to be listed in bulletins. The Responses reach the level of outright lunacy in prohibiting the preparation of “lectionaries” (missals?) with translations of the readings of the traditional rite! (One wonders who the target of this measure is or how it is to be enforced.)  

It is difficult to adequately express the unprecedented monstrousness of these papal actions.  An entire section of the Catholic faithful – families, priests, schools,  seminarians, monasteries, parishes –  is to be suppressed, to be forcefully deprived of their traditions and sacraments. And these Catholics were not operating unofficially or in a legal gray area, but pursuant to repeated explicit and solemn papal authorizations and encouragement (including actions for the benefit of the FSSPX faithful). Indeed, the FSSP and the IBP, among others, were specifically created as papal initiatives. These communities have been active and growing for more than 30 years.  Now all these promises and commitments, these rights and this history are supposed to be summarily abolished simply by the declaration of Francis. 

Certainly the Ecclesia Dei communities are an obvious target of the new measures, as was the case of the Responses’ “trial  balloon,” the October 7 decree of the Vicariate of Rome. For if new ordinations in the traditional rite are prohibited,  as is the ministry of most of the sacraments , what is the sense of having a community of Traditionalist priests? In particular  this is so if, as we have read,  these communities are shortly going to be placed under a “commissariat” regime that will require declarations of adherence to Vatican II, the celebration of the Novus Ordo etc. The first reaction to the Responses is from the FSSP, which has declared it inapplicable to their community in view of the rights granted on their foundation in 1988. 1) 

“As pastors we must not lend ourselves to sterile polemics, capable only of creating division, in which the ritual itself is often exploited by ideological viewpoints.” 2) Thus, those who unleash a war hypocritically warn against division. And following Pope Francis, the Responses insinuate “ideological”  motives to traditionalist Catholics. But did not Soloviev say that someone who mocks another man’s prayer sins against the Holy Ghost?  “There is no intention in these provisions to marginalize the faithful who are rooted in the previous form of celebration; they are only meant to remind them that this is a concession to provide for their good….” 3) So the traditionalist Catholics are going to be manipulated and “converted” by brute force. This,  in the name of a Council that prattled on about the freedom of man. And all in a document released the week before Christmas. Rarely has the contempt of the institutional Roman Catholic Church for its adherents been so clearly exhibited.

But Pope Francis’s war against the liturgical tradition of the Church does not take place in a vacuum. In this year alone,  he has intervened directly to clarify that a Catholic politician can actively seek to advance unlimited abortion rights and remain in the best of standing with the Church. He has directly endorsed a homosexual rights organization that had been repeatedly subject to various ecclesiastical censures and made their materials a resource for a synod he is organizing. And in Italy he has launched an aggressive campaign to force implementation of an expedited annulment procedure – virtually a Catholic “no fault divorce” – which he had promulgated in the wake of Amoris Laetitia.   In doing these things, Pope Francis has, de facto or de jure,  repeatedly and directly contradicted the statements and acts of his predecessors (not to mention Holy Scripture). Thus, Traditionis Custodes and the Responses form part of an overall campaign to overturn Catholic tradition.  

What should be the response to the “Responses”? In a sane (or moral)world I would expect the hierarchies to completely ignore them. After all, wasn’t this the fate in most dioceses of the indults of John Paul II, of Summorum Pontificum and of its implementing regulations? Does not the Catholic Church in Germany provide much more recent examples? Just in the last year in Germany, Vatican documents on the merger of parishes, same-sex marriages and blessings, and lay leadership of parishes have been publicly denounced and ignored. And the German church has reiterated it will continue down its synodal path regardless of anything “Rome“ may say about it. Pope Francis has accepted all this and to some extent even adopted these positions as his own.

But I would expect much more from bishops. I would expect them to raise their voices and join with the FSSP to expressly reject the injustice of these rules as they apply to the Ecclesia Dei communities and beyond that to Catholics in general. There come times when all of us – and especially those in positions of authority – are required to speak out “loud and bold.” For to be silent in the face of manifest injustice is to endorse it.  St. Augustine teaches that in this world the good men will be punished with the wicked:  “because they loved the sweetness of this life, they neglected to be bitter to the wicked.” A Christian cannot  “ignore the duty of teaching and admonishing and sometimes even of rebuking and correcting sinners.” 4) The first reaction of the FSSP to the responses, however, indicates that the Ecclesia Dei communities may be taking a more forceful stance than their timid response to Traditionis Custodes had led many to believe.

As for the traditionalist laity and priests – it is for me a sorrowful experience to see these younger people reliving once again what the Catholics of the 1960’s underwent: denigration of their beliefs, abolition of their traditions and lecturing by a conceited and contemptuous clergy attempting to “force (them) to be free.”  I expect, though, that the traditionalists of today are better equipped to face this adversity. After all,  most traditionalists have come around to that way of life not by absorbing the practices of a surrounding milieu but by a conscious process of understanding and development. ( how very conciliar! ) Many have made a long series of sacrifices to attend the traditional  mass and to give their children a Christian upbringing. The same holds true for the many priests who have come to traditionalism against the will of their seminaries and bishops. Moreover, the persecuting side is a shadow of its 1965 predecessor. The Catholic cults of the papacy and of blind obedience to authority lost their grip on most traditionalists long ago – the actions of the current Pope have dramatically accelerated that process.  

Regardless of the actions of the hierarchy, however, traditionalists should begin to plan now to assure the holy sacrifice of the mass, the availability of the other sacraments and the support of traditionalist priests. What form these actions take will be dictated by the intensity of Pope Francis’s war and the reaction of the bishops. In at least one diocese so far, negotiations have been initiated by local Catholic laity with the FSSPX.

Yes, because of the actions of Pope Francis, this Christmas will be unhappy for many. But the many beautiful dawn masses we are experiencing about us this month should give us hope. The greatly increased attendance at tradionalist masses I have seen everywhere also is a sure sign that the persecutors have only drawn attention to the truth and beauty of the traditional faith. And as the Christmas holy day itself teaches us, the greatest Light arises out of midst of darkness. I do not know how long this war will last, or what the casualties will be. I do know the result of the struggle: truth  – the constant tradition of the Church – in the end will triumph. 

1. https://fssp.com/statement-dec-18/
2. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2021/12/18/0860/01814.html#ing
3. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2021/12/18/0860/01814.html#ing
4. St. Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans (R.W. Dyson, editor and translator) at 13-14 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998 (2017 reprint))