Gregory Dippipo at New Liturgical Movement nails this latest move in the war against traditional Catholicism by Pope Peron:
Secondly, with permission, I share a reflection written by an Italian friend, followed by an elaboration of my own.
“The pontificate of John Paul II produced a generation of Wojtylian priests, that of Benedict XVI a generation of Ratzingerian priests. The current pontificate has inspired no such school or movement. Gentlemen of a certain age, who had already taken hold of positions of power, have consolidated their power, but there is no ‘Bergoglio generation.’ This pontificate, with all its hangers-on, must recur to the use of force as its solution to the traditionalist ‘problem’, a force which conquers, but does not convince (vince ma non convince): repression and censure. Does the new rite as understood by Pope Francis, Abp Roche or Andrea Grillo inspire art, the spiritual life, or vocations? No? Fine, then we shall forbid the old one, and Ratzinger’s whole understanding of the problem. A senile, Brezhnevian Church, paralyzed and sterile, which continues to repeat the slogans of the 1970s ever more tiredly, will end like the power of the Soviet Union ended.”
Does this seem overly harsh? Within a bit more than 3300 words, Abp Roche (who is, after all, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and is supposed to know this stuff) refers more than ten times to the post-Conciliar rite in one way or another as the fulfillment of the will of the Second Vatican Council. It is as if even the most cursory reading of Sacrosanctum Concilium did not reveal the post-Conciliar rite to be the complete overthrow of that document. It is as if no further research had been done on the liturgy in fifty years, revealing the scholarly premises of the reform to be erroneous at best, and its methods fraudulent. It is as if the reform had borne any of the fruits looked for in the first paragraph of Sacrosanctum Concilium. Far be it from me to suggest that it is also as if he were trying to convince himself of something which he knows in his heart of hearts not to be true.
It is easy to be discouraged in circumstances such as these. Do not be discouraged. Before many of you were even born, “aggiornamento”, the “updating” of the Church, had degenerated into a desperate, exhausted attachment to the childish novelties of the 1970s, and “collegiality” into heavy-handed papal crushing of an ecumenical council. The appointment of the bishops as “guardians of the tradition” has met the same pathetic fate in less than six months. The post-Conciliar revolution is dying and afraid, and so it has struck out and done harm. It will continue to strike out and do harm, but every time it does so, it confesses its own failure, weakness, and fear. When it is gone, by the grace of God, you will still be here, and so will the most authentic expression of the Roman Church’s lex orandi.
Do, then, as my Italian friend suggests: “Have patience and trust in God, and put a good bottle of champagne in storage, to be opened on the day of liberation.” It will come, later than we hope for, but sooner than we expect.
Go
here to read the rest. When people in power are clearly losing a battle of ideas, the temptation to rely on brute force can be irresistible. Ostensibly this is all being done to protect the unity of the Church. Like most statements of the current pontificate this is mendacious. The Church in Germany is in virtual schism while the Pope is focused on people who prefer the traditional Mass, a preference protected by his immediate predecessor. Unity is a fig leaf for the fact that the Pope simply hates anything that smacks of traditional Catholicism and/or conservatism. Thus he plays Pope Canute in his final days, turning the clock back to 1965. A fitting likely end to a sterile, useless, time waster of a Papacy. Heckuva job Conclave of 2013, heckuva job.
