As Attorney General Merrick Garland targets pro-lifers, Pope Francis takes aim at trads.
In an article in The American Conservative (1) Nora Kenney examines the parallels between the developing persecution of pro-life activists and Catholic traditional groups by the United States government and the ongoing war against traditionalists waged by Pope Francis and the Vatican.
Such coverage of the FBI crackdown on traditional Catholics has, however, been somewhat misleading. Despite the document’s shoddily sourced contents, the real government crackdown is not on those Catholics who attend the Latin Mass, but on those who still adhere to traditional Church teachings on bioethics and sexual morality. Of the groups mentioned in the FBI’s now-infamous document, only a handful actively promote the Latin Mass over the Novus Ordo—yet all are outspoken in their support of traditional Catholic reproductive ethics and rejection of contraception and abortion.
To make matters trickier for those targeted by the document, traditional Catholics will soon represent some of the only voices in American public life who still defend such values.
All of this is not to say that antipathy to the traditional Latin Mass doesn’t exist and that all the public wrath is simply abortion-related. Latin Mass antipathy does exist. It’s just that it’s not coming from the government.
It is coming from within the Church’s own hierarchy. Even if they wanted to, federal officials could never stem the celebration of the Latin Mass as effectively as Pope Francis can.
I do have a reservation regarding Kenney’s citation here of Ross Douthat for a classic statement of the “middle-between-two-extremes” self-understanding of establishment Catholicism. Ross Douthat claims the Vatican is engaged in a two front-war: crushing Traditionalists but trying more gently to restrain the German Church. Stated in this manner, Douthat’s characterization is blatantly false. Francis is not waging any kind of war againt the German Church. He obviously agrees with some or all of the objectives of the German Synodal Path; he disagrees with the mode of implementation the Germans are pursuing. But the pope clearly understands that the continuing radical push forward of the Germans creates the danger of rallying those forces within the Church opposed to the Germans’ theological and moral agenda. A reaction that eventually might turn against his own policies. Therefore, the pope doesn’t confront the Germans but seeks to co-opt their movement – which has the effect of spreading it throughout the Church worldwide.
Similarly, Kenney has identified that the Pope’s war againt traditionalism is increasingly running ino passive resistance:
But in America, muted signs of hope for those Catholics who favor the centuries-old liturgy persist. Quietly, bishops across the U.S. are turning a blind eye to some of the restrictive demands of Traditionis Custodes, and in some cases, even celebrating the Latin Mass with local traditional parishes.
This is fortunate for the continued existence of Catholicism in this country:
These Church leaders seem to understand a finding [Mary]Eberstadt emphasizes in her book (Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution – SC) namely that a “strict church is a strong church”—that social science proves unequivocally that churches that adhere to strict teachings and resist the urge to devolve into “Christianity Lite” are the only ones that survive in decadent ages.
In May, Pope Francis called these (Traditionalist) Catholics symptomatic of “a nostalgic disease.” But for those who hope for holy, orthodox, diverse priests who can offer spiritual guidance and inspiration as Garland tightens the screws on pro-life Americans, we can only hope the disease spreads.
- Kenney, Nora, “Cops and Popes and Latin Mass,“ The American Conservative (6/3/2023)
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