[Catholic Caucus] Leo invokes 1970s talking points to defend Vatican II’s liturgical revolution

A quick glance at Leo XIV’s August 12 audience on the liturgical year suggests it was a run-of-the-mill catechetical lesson.

But a closer look reveals that his address on the Second Vatican Council’s document Sacrosanctum Concilium is cloaked in decades-old modernist talking points.

Looking at the meat of Leo’s address, it becomes clear that his emphasis on the Eucharist, the Resurrection, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, along with his citations of Dom Prosper Guéranger and Pope Pius XII, are nothing more than a thin Catholic veneer.

While Leo quoted Pius XII’s Mediator Dei to explain how Christ remains living in His Church, it was only the prelude to introducing synodal concepts.

“In this assembly, the Christian community makes visible its communion with the Lord and bears witness to its belonging to Christ,” he remarked, saying nothing about the sacrificial nature of the liturgy.

“The liturgical assembly is in fact fulfilled through the active participation of brothers and sisters,” he added, failing to note that the Mass is a propitiatory act offered by the priest alone and is in no way dependent on the “active participation” of the laity in attendance.

While it is laudable that Leo noted that a “solely virtual presence” is insufficient, his address was saturated with the synodalese that has become the norm under the two most recent postconciliar papal claimants. For instance, according to Leo, the liturgical year is “not a static representation of past events, but an encounter with Christ himself.” Our “active participation” can “help us to enter ever more deeply into the reality of belonging to Christ.”

Leo further depicted the Church’s prayer life as a ceaselessly-evolving reality. “The liturgical year should thus be understood as a constant renewal of the work of salvation which Christ accomplishes in history,” he said.

Tragically, Catholics have grown so accustomed to this nonsensical and nondescript garbage that they forget that typical language pertaining to the Sacred Liturgy revolves around adoration, sacrifice, propitiation, grace, worship, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The abandoning of this sort of terminology has been one of the hallmarks of the wicked liturgical revolution set into motion at the Second Vatican Council.

In his other recent catechesis on Sacrosanctum Concilium, Leo endlessly repeated words and phrases such as “renewal,” “progress,” adapting to circumstances, and the Church’s need to “grow” and “develop,” while schizophrenically insisting upon fidelity to tradition.

What Leo is doing is constantly trying to square a circle by using traditional references through the linguistic framework of the Council and its aftermath. Traditionalists would do well not to fall for his efforts and allusions to Guéranger and Pius XII, and recall that the controlling vocabulary he is using remains that of renewal, participation, assembly, and encounter — the sort of language that has been used to justify liturgical experimentation and other abominations for more than half a century.

The synodal process relies on the degradation and corruption of language as the vehicle for rational thought. The result of this is often a mess of gobbledygook, in the documents and official statements of the synodal meetings. It’s as if a collective madness has infected the Church, disorienting everyone and leaving Catholics confused and disheartened. It is no coincidence that up to 90% of baptized Catholics do not attend Mass anymore. They’re lapsed and on the path to adoring the world and themselves. The bishops are clueless and oblivious to the extreme danger. Considering the lifestyles of a good number of them, they couldn’t care less. There will be a severe judgement for them.
A tragedy. Lord, return quickly!

THE TRUTH OF THE NOVUS ORDO STORY FROM ITS VERY ENTRAILS! The French philosopher and writer Jean Guitton was the closest lay friend and key confidant of Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini). Their intellectual and spiritual relationship lasted for decades, allowing him to capture the pontiff's intimate thoughts in fundamental works of 20th-century Catholic literature that today are left in oblivion, hidden due to the revealing nature of their content.

Paul VI and Guitton met in the 1930s; it was a very close and public friendship. They maintained deep correspondence and constant meetings for more than 27 years. Thanks to his great closeness with the Pope, Jean Guitton was the first layperson invited to actively participate in the sessions of the Second Vatican Council.

In 1967 Guitton wrote a book titled Dialogues with Paul VI: It was a revolutionary work, marking the first time in history that a Pope openly dialogued with a layperson for a book. In 1979 he wrote another book; Paul VI Secret after the Pope's death, this book compiles Guitton's personal notes on the pontiff's confidences, doubts, and sufferings.

Jean Guitton's statements about the history of the Novus Ordo Missae (the New Mass promulgated by Paul VI in 1969) are rarely mentioned, rather concealed, and this is because, as the Pope's closest and most intimate lay friend, they carry particular and immense importance.

During an interview broadcast on French radio on December 19, 1993, Guitton stated the following about the liturgical revolution with the creation of the Novus Ordo Missae and the reasons for its creation, which his friend, Pope Paul VI, had confided in him:

"...Paul VI's intention was to make the Mass as similar as possible to the Calvinist worship, making Protestants feel comfortable with the new Mass. It was designed with the intention of eliminating everything that identified the Mass as unequivocally Catholic, everything that gave it a character of Sacrifice, everything that harmed Protestants. To make the Mass seem more like a fraternal gathering, a dinner among brothers..."

Jean Guitton also acted directly as a mediator and messenger for Pope Paul VI with Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre. Both Paul VI and, later, John Paul II entrusted him with the mission of interceding with Monsignor Lefebvre to try to stop and close the seminary in Écône, Switzerland.

Guitton goes so far as to admit in his book that, deep down, Lefebvre was right in defending that the truth of the Church cannot change.

On another occasion, Guitton asked Paul VI why he did not grant an exception or concession to maintain the Traditional Apostolic Mass in Latin for those who requested it; Pope Paul VI responded sharply:

" That, never! (...). The so-called Mass of Saint Pius V has become—as can be seen in Écône—the symbol of condemnation of the Council. This is something I will never accept, under any circumstances. If I consented to this exception, the entire Council would be called into question. And, consequently, its apostolic authority."

Paul VI's sharp response appears in the work "Paul VI Secret" (Paul VI secret, originally published in French in 1979). In this text, Jean Guitton meticulously compiled the detailed notes, diaries, and correspondences from his private meetings with the Pope over 27 years of deep friendship.

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[Catholic Caucus] Leo invokes 1970s talking points to defend Vatican II’s liturgical revolution

'The liturgical assembly is in fact fulfilled through the active participation of brothers and sisters,' he said during an audience.

In his other recent catechesis on Sacrosanctum Concilium, Leo endlessly repeated words and phrases such as “renewal,” “progress,” adapting to circumstances, and the Church’s need to “grow” and “develop,” while schizophrenically insisting upon fidelity to tradition.