In Francis' World ‘traditionalism’ is ‘infidelity’ to the Catholic Church and Vatican II

Pope Francis has made his most direct attack yet on faithful Catholics in his homily during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on October 10, marking the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Using a passage from St. John’s Gospel – “Do you love me? Feed my sheep” – Francis launched his attack on traditional Catholics. Extraordinarily ironic, given he is directly responsible for the closure of Traditional Parishes like the Shrine of Christ the King in Chicago, thereby literally and directly starving his flock of the Sacraments. It is when Pope Francis uses Scripture to justify his outrages I feel most aggrieved. 

In this homily, the pope said “we are always tempted to start from ourselves rather than from God, to put our own agendas before the Gospel,” he decried those who wished to “retrace our steps.”

The pope consistently seems to miss the whole point of traditional Catholic worship which accentuates the transcendent nature of God. As he is always praising Protestants, perhaps his hatred of traditionalism comes from a personal preference of imminence in worship? If this is indeed the case, it makes his words extremely hypocritical as they are born of his own personal preferences, ignorant of any metaphysical understanding.

The pope continued: “Yet let us be careful,” he said, “both the ‘progressivism’ that lines up behind the world and the ‘traditionalism’ – or ‘looking backwards’ – that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity.” It is so hard to see - with his globalist agenda of no border migration, climate emergency, LGBTQI inclusion - exactly how the pope is not a leading exponent of the "progressivism" he criticises here.

Francis styled both “traditionalism” and “progressivism” as “forms of a Pelagian selfishness that puts our own tastes and plans above the love that pleases God, the simple, humble and faithful love that Jesus asked of Peter.”

This is one of his favourite insults, "Pelagianism", and by it I think he means putting our own liturgical preferences first is a way in which we seek to effect our own redemption. This seems to me a projection and a misinterpretation. Traditionalism seeks to remain faithful to the teaching of the Apostles. Progressivism seeks to destroy it. Traditionalism is faithful to the "democracy of the dead"; the Church Triumphant: It values what has always been valued and cares for it as a great treasure passed down to us from predecessors; fathers and mothers who cared so deeply about it that they were prepared to give their own lives to protect it and to pass it down to us. Francis may not care for this treasure, but does he really have the right to condemn it in the pejorative way he so regularly does? Does he have the right to remove it? To stop others from enjoying it? From making use of it?

Praising the Council for its actions, Francis stated that it “rediscovered the living river of Tradition without remaining mired in traditions.” He told the assembled congregation not to be concerned with being “on the climb” towards heaven, or with attempts to “shepherd yourselves.” Rather, Francis urged a rejection of everything in the service of fraternity. I have no idea what he means.

The pope continued: "How often, in the wake of the Council, did Christians prefer to choose sides in the Church, not realizing that they were breaking their Mother’s heart! How many times did they prefer to cheer on their own party rather than being servants of all? To be progressive or conservative rather than being brothers and sisters? To be on the “right” or “left,” rather than with Jesus?"

Of course, it is Pope Francis who is factionalising the Church by promoting ideologies at odds with Apostolic teaching while literally banning more traditional Catholic worship.

When I saw this tweet from leading papal tailgater Austen Ivereigh, I could only wonder at the irony of the pope's comments which have set cardinal against cardinal and bishop against bishop.

Semper Fidelis, the famous Latin motto of the US Marine Corps meaning "Always faithful" stands alone as a demonstration of the utter incomprehensibility of Pope Francis' words here. But this is not unusual; we have grown used to a pope who's comments are often strange and at odds with Catholic thought and teaching. The damage being wrought by this man is extraordinary as he damages the Petrine office showing those who we should be calling to Catholicism that there is no point: there is no stability or permanency about what we teach, there is no guarantee from the Chair of Saint Peter. Lord deliver us!