The Pope who deprives Catholics of the Sacraments & Mass

Some more difficult news broke over the weekend for Traditional Catholics. Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post out; I still feel it is important to post it, for the record.

Last Friday the bishop of Savannah, Georgia, posted a letter updating instructions on the use of the 1962 missal in the diocese. Bishop Parkes wrote to the Congregation for Divine Worship (now the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments) in mid-April to request permissions for specific parish churches in his diocese. In late May, he received a response from Rome containing the following:

The Mass according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 may be celebrated at the parish of Sacred Heart (*) in Savannah on a weekly basis until May 20, 2023.

The Mass according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 may be celebrated at the parishes of Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, St. Joseph in Macon and St. Anthony of Padua in Ray City on a monthly basis until May 20, 2023.

* In implementing the permissions granted by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, please note that the Mass according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 will no longer be celebrated at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist as of Sunday, August 7, 2022. As of that date, the Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart parish (1707 Bull Street, Savannah) at 1pm on Sundays. I am confident that Sacred Heart parish provides an appropriate and intimate place for worship and the parish leadership will be attentive to the pastoral needs of those who attend the 1pm Mass there.

I think it is pretty clear from this that Rome intends to completely suppress the use of the 1962 missal. It seems things are as bad as the worst predictions.

The vast majority of Catholics likely won't even be aware of this and will continue to go to their local parish and the novus ordo Mass as usual. However, I think this is important for a number of reasons.

1. I think one of the most worrying elements of this action is that it directly opposes the teaching of the previous pope, giving the justification that his approach has been tried and has failed.

2. It is a direct attack on the Mass and the Sacraments. It is not a directive against those who don't want to go to Mass or don't believe; it is an attack against those who do want to go to Mass and do believe. It doesn't make any sense to anyone who is interested in building the Kingdom. It only makes sense in the context of petty rivalries and internal factions, exactly the kind of in-fighting Saint Paul warns us against in Philippians.

3. Those who seek out the Traditional Latin Mass tend to do so because it is ancient: the rite our parents and their parents worshipped at; because it is reverent: there is a space for you to individually approach God as well as joining together in an intense way (see my report on this recent Dominican Rite Mass I attended where everyone in the congregation were synchronised in small acts of devotion throughout the liturgy).

4. Traditional Catholics are the ones (in my experience at least) who are fighting to be salt and light to the culture; who most take the teaching of Lumen Gentium seriously in this regard, going out from the Mass and bringing the Gospel to the world (see: Lumen Gentium n. 31). So you see this is about much more than what Mass you prefer, this is about the way we worship and how that informs what we believe and how we live. The Gospel matters, or it does not. I personally cannot reconcile Pope Francis laissez-faire approach to living the Gospel with Scripture and certainly not with Tradition or the Magisterium. I can't reconcile it with even any serious Protestant approach!

For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. ~ Phil 1:21-24

5. Traditional Catholics tend to be young, joyful, live heroically according to Church teaching, and have big families. They are the Catholics who most love the Pope. How painful then for them to be treated in such a way by the self-proclaimed pope of mercy.

6. There is an idea going round that the reason for Traditiones custodes is, basically, Taylor Marshall and Archbishop Vigano. Indeed, this was the thesis of an argument put forward by my friend Robert Nugent very recently, see his video here. But the reports we have tell quite a different story:

Read the full report here.

It makes much more sense to me, given the inward looking nature of this Pontificate, that the issue that provoked the moto proprio was a). Many more vocations for Traditionalist orders than for secular/ diocesan seminaries, b). The growing support of the youth for the Traditional Liturgy. The aging hippy boomer brigade are utterly convinced they are "down with the kids", so there clearly must be something wrong with any kids who reject their relativistic, jesuitical, sophistry for Traditional Catholicism, right?

7. A large part of the justification for Traditiones custodes is that the Traditional Latin Mass is not the Mass envisioned and taught by the Second Vatican Council. It is just blatant nonsense that the novus ordo is that Mass. Unconvinced? When studying the documents for myself I was struck by some of the extraordinary contradictions between the vision of the Council and what we have. To whit, this video presents an extremely credible synthesis of those facts as well as providing a great catalogue for many of the facts surrounding the creation of the novus ordo Mass:

Once you are aware of the facts, the history and the teaching, pretty much everything Pope Benedict XVI said makes perfect sense:

"In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place."

Anyway, back to the news story.

If the Savannah declaration wasn't enough, Fr. Z posted asking for prayers to avert a serious persecution. He later updated that post, as it was revealed that in Chicago, Cupich (Soapdish), voted "worst bishop in the US" in 2019, the bishop booed off stage at the pro-life rally in his Archdiocese, has told the members of the Institute of Christ the King in, that he is effectively shutting them down as of 1 August. This will be formally announced on Sunday at the Institute’s church on the South Side of Chicago.

The Shrine recently burnt down and Cupich kept the $2m insurance money and told the ICKSP to fund raise for restorations (according to this report by Dr Anthony Stine).

Lifesite reports that:

"the archbishop of Chicago had demanded for months now that the Institute signs a document with five or six points. Among the points they had to sign – each priest individually – was that the Novus Ordo rite is the only true expression of the Roman rite. This formulation stems directly from Pope Francis’ own document Traditionis Custodes, an explanation that makes it clear that the traditional Roman rite has to disappear altogether. Moreover, the Institute was also asked to accept a procedure, according to which the priests of the Institute have to ask Cardinal Cupich for permission to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass and that he might grant it for two years, but that he also could revoke that permission at any given time."

the penalties the Institute has been asked to sign mean that canons of the order cannot hear confessions of the faithful, except when traveling to the Institute’s other apostolates in the U.S. The Shrine is the headquarters of the Institute of Christ the King for the U.S. and serves some 400-500 faithful each Sunday who will now be deprived of the traditional Mass and sacraments.

The Pope is working with these dreadful, apostate bishops to deny faithful Catholics the Sacraments, while he works to defy canon law and doctrine to give the Sacraments to politicians who support and promote the murder of the unborn and to Jewish women!

The whole office of the papacy is about unity. Unity of faith and unity of profession. This pope works to undo unity, public contradicting his own Archbishops and bishops and settled Church teaching.

Father Z is now calling for all priests to offer Mass for Cardinal Cupich:

"Every priest who possibly can on 1 August should celebrate Holy Mass for the intention of Card. Blase Cupich.

In private… in public… TLM or Novus Ordo…. pray that God provides him with exactly what he needs for his own best good."