The practical effects of Pope Francis’ new Apostolic Letter will no doubt vary from place to place, but one thing is clear: at the highest level, the pastoral solicitude of Pope John Paul II and above all of Pope Benedict XVI, towards Catholics attached to the ancient liturgical tradition, has been replaced at the highest level of the Church by an attitude of suspicion, and even of hostility.
I started attending the Traditional Mass in 2002, and so I had a taste of life before Pope Benedict. Ordinary Catholics, even quite conservative ones, would literally recoil in horror when they heard that I was attending the ancient Mass, regardless of the fact that it had the approval of the local bishop and was celebrated by a priest in good standing in the Church. Ferocious attacks on us appeared in mainstream and, again, conservative Catholic publications. This continued for some time even after 2007, but as time has worn on it has become less and less of a problem.
You wrote: "Vatican’s publisher noted that it has no plans to reprint the reformed Missal in Latin". The hyperlink give there actually refers to an article from year 2007 and is about Missal of 1962. The reformed Missal in Latin is available in its 2008 edition: https://www.vaticanum.com/en/Missale-Romanum-Editio-Typica-Tertia-Emendata-2008-half-calf-edition
ReplyDeleteThinking about the harshness of Pope Francis over the TLM and it seems to me that his age has a lot to do with it.
ReplyDeleteTo a person of his generation Vatican 2 and the creation of the 1972 Missal were defining religious events but for anyone under the age of 60 Vatican 2 and the ‘New Mass’ are not issues to either accept or reject they simply exist and have always existed
The suggestion by Pope Francis that people like me who attend the TLM should be questioned about our acceptance of V2 is both unnecessary and offensive. Vatican 2 wasn’t Nicea or Chalcedon it didn’t define what is the faith and therefore there is nothing wrong with holding the view that the Church made mistakes in V2. By insisting on accepting V2 Pope Francis is simply reviving an argument that might have made sense in his youth but is pointless today