The breaking news: New Vatican document tightens restrictions on traditional liturgy
In a document released December 18, the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) has tightened restrictions on the use of the traditional Latin Mass, and banned the use of traditional rituals for Confirmation and Ordination.
The CDW also rules: that a priest who celebrates Mass in the ordinary form on a weekday cannot also celebrate the traditional Mass on the same day; that a diocesan bishop requires Vatican approval before giving permission for a newly ordained priest to use the traditional rite; and that any celebration of the traditional Mass in an ordinary parish cannot be incorporated into regular parish schedule.
Pope Francis's restrictions are in direct opposition to the clear intent of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. These clarifications of Traditionis Custodes in this new document are a plain rejection of the latter's "mutual enrichment" and generous encouragement of what is, after all, the patrimony of the Church.
Our friend Fr. Mankowski SJ, who suddenly passed away last year, was as far as I know, a staunch supporter and practitioner of that avis rara, "the reverent Novus Ordo."
Phil and I were remembering recently that nevertheless, he used to call the Traditional Latin Mass "the seed corn."
Now just think about that. Let it sink in. As time goes on, I find this a prophetic characterization, and perhaps one that offers hope. I think he understood that death would come, at the end of what might be thought of as a "bad planting season." At the turn of the new one, the stores of the Church would have to yield up their hidden treasures for new growth to occur.
My family and I are so devastated by this most recent assault on our heritage as Catholics. We are members of the Ordinariate, however many of our friends and family are TLM folks, and I'm so angry for what is being denied to them. These types of decisions come from men who don't have children and don't understand what a young, human person needs. My kids don't even register the rare (and ever rarer) NO we attend as Mass--or even "church." And it isn't because I haven't verbally tried to explain, they just SEE that the NO isn't taken very seriously and that it's not a worthy form of worship, and is often in rather ugly (if not outright disturbing) buildings. I can't explain enough to rationalize it to them, so I don't try anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm rambling. But this document is a big, big problem and I am not sure what is about to come of all of this in terms of the Roman edifice surviving. Which Catholics do our hierarchs think are still having children? Not even sure at the moment if I care whether the Vatican exists in 20 years or not. Our bishops are stomping hard on their own future.
I agree with everything you say!
DeleteOf course, men without children, if consecrated and faithful to their consecration, receive the grace of state to rule wisely for all, especially for children! But the contraceptive spirit is on this batch, for sure. Young people everywhere don't even have the chance to learn about faith, so desolate is the landscape.
And in the Ordinariate (which I have been close to in the past) also has something to fear... who knows where the hammer comes down next...
The threat to the Ordinariate is definitely on our minds. :(
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