[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Kasper Responds to Pope Francis’ New Motu Proprio on the Mass

The German prelate told the Register some Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass have turned Pope Benedict XVI’s earlier efforts at reconciliation into division.

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Walter Kasper has said he believes the “overwhelming majority” of Catholic faithful are firmly against the Traditional Latin Mass and that some of its adherents scandalize them by believing it’s the only true Catholic Mass and rejecting the Second Vatican Council “more or less in its entirety.”

In a short commentary given to the Register on July 22 in answer to several questions about Pope Francis’ new apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of the Tradition) that restricts celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, Cardinal Kasper said he believes some faithful who attend the older Mass have turned Benedict’s efforts at reconciliation into division, and so struck at the “very heart of the unity of the Church.”

Although he acknowledges the dangers to unity from the Synodal Way of the German bishops — a process he said recently he is “very worried” about — he sees “hope for reasonable solutions and reforms” that “are possible only on the basis of Catholic faith witnessed especially by the Second Vatican Council.”

“You say that there is a growing number of faithful who want the “old rite,” but it’s my experience that the overwhelming majority of the faithful are firmly against it. I know many people are scandalized when they come to St. Peter’s in Rome early in the morning and see that on many altars priests celebrating the “old Mass” without any altar boy and no participation of the faithful. They turn to the empty basilica and say: “Dominus vobiscum”, “Orate fratres” etc.

Does the Cardinal not wonder why the churches with the mass of St Paul VI are becoming more empty whereas the churches with the mass of St Pius V are becoming more crowded?

I believe this was the primary reason the French Bishops started to rail against the Tridentine Mass.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.