When will all the priests of the Catholic Church be free to celebrate the Tridentine Mass?
After Cardinal Hoyos and the Mass of May 24, we have news of an interview with Cardinal Medina, former prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship, which tackles the problem of the Tridentine Mass; this interview was given to the American magazine The Latin Mass.
It is clear that in recent years a growing number of cardinals have taken a stand. On several occasions, Cardinal Ratzinger has made scarcely veiled statements in favor of the Tridentine rite, particularly in his books. In an interview given to 30 Days, Cardinal Arinze the current prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship seemed to take up the assertions of Cardinal Ratzinger.
What these different statements have in common is an overly relativistic attitude to the Tridentine rite. For these cardinals it is only a question of making a reconciliatory step towards those who have what they deem to be a nostalgic attachment to an ancestral rite. The idea remains subjective, and that is not our intention: we do not feel so important that we would demand of the Church our own special rite. Our attachment to the rite is founded on its objective value: it represents the entire theology and spirituality of the Church. It can not be placed under a bushel and replaced with a novelty without undermining the preaching of the Catholic faith, and the whole of the sacramental order, the principal vehicle of salvific grace.
While waiting for this recognition of the rite, for its intrinsic value, we are pleased to note that the progressof the Tridentine Mass can no longer be a matter of indifference. The time of the policy of silence seems to be finally over; the highest authorities in Rome are obliged to take into account the growth of Tradition and the force it represents. The time is coming when those who wanted to confine the true Mass to the museum of Tridentine codifications, will have to step back and realize their mistakes, like Cardinal Medina who, we remember, intervened very forcibly against the Tridentine Mass in 1998, and who now admits that on the basis of my research, I can only conclude that the Mass of St. Pius V has never been abrogated. We thank him sincerely, especially as it takes humility to acknowledge ones errors, and we hope, that he will support us in the combat which is still to be fought.
Is the total freedom for all priests of the Catholic Church to use the old missal in sight? We can hope for this, while remaining profoundly
thomistic, well believe it when we see it! For the moment, Rome seems to be very much preoccupied with the reaction of the bishops. It is true that the head of the Church has to take into account the pastors of dioceses, who have big responsibilities towards the faithful. But is their opinion currently valid? Remember Cardinal Sterzinsky, who went to a Protestant church in Berlin on Ash Wednesday to receive his ashes from the pastor; or Cardinal Law, who went last November to the Mosque in Wayland for the Ramadan meal, declaring that he felt completely at home there; or the bishop of Orléans who publicly backed a blasphemous book full of obscenities. Alas, we could continue with this sorry list. If the Pope wants reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, he must take on his responsibility as head of the Church and disregard the recriminations of the bishops, who, if they were faithful to their mission of passing on the deposit of the Faith, would be delighted at such a public safety measure for the Church and the world.
