[Catholic Caucus] “Saint Peter’s square is empty while the ancient rite sees a boom”: Luisella Scrosati

The Corpus Christi sneak-procession at the Vatican and the total flop of the event organized by Card. Gambetti: five hours of performances, yet another declaration, and the square as empty as the chatter about "human fraternity," prove that the faithful are looking for something eternal and go to other sources to drink. Such as the realities related to traditional liturgy, whose vitality should raise more than a few questions.

In Rome they didn't even notice Corpus Christi. The Pope is in the hospital, so no procession. On closer inspection, it seems there was a procession, starting at the Teutonic College and arriving at the Vatican Gardens. But, precisely, no one noticed. Neither the organizers nor the Vatican media put their souls on the line to show the world that the Divine Sacramental Presence is the heart of the Church. A sneaky procession, presided over by Msgr. Josef Clemens, Cardinal Ratzinger's former special secretary, because evidently the cardinals had no time to waste, and one on St. Peter's square Thursday morning.

Already last year, there was no solemn procession "because of the limitations imposed on the Pope by gonalgia" and "because of the specific liturgical necessities of the celebration," the Vatican Press Office explained. As if the Pope had to walk the entire procession! And to say that Pope Francis had moved the solemn procession from Thursday to Sunday evening for pastoral reasons, presumably to allow more people to participate.

Instead, there was plenty going on at St. Peter's on the eve of Corpus Christi Sunday. For the First Vespers of the Solemnity? Nope. World Meeting on Human Fraternity, gentlemen; and complete with a "hashtag": #notalone. A hashtag, however, that jinxed the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and the factotum of the day, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti (the one who allowed the Vatican Basilica to become the stage for nudists). Yes, because in reality not only was the Pope not there, since he was haloed in the hospital, but there were also very few people there. Despite the narrowing of shots to the front rows, a few photos from above the square were shot. Result? A total flop. Four sectors set up, of which one remained entirely empty and the others filled by perhaps only a third.

Almost five hours of talks, performances, videos, and the signing by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, of the Declaration on Human Fraternity, yet another sheet of empty, overblown words, where -- fortunately -- the name of Our Lord does not even accidentally appear: "Every man is my brother, every woman is my sister, always. We want to live together, as brothers and sisters, in the Garden that is the Earth. It is the Garden of fraternity the condition of life for all." Amen. And as if that were not enough, Cardinal Gambetti, for the occasion, turned the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica into a refreshment center, with "ecological" benches made of wooden pallets (see here): a madhouse.

And while St. Peter's emptied, Masses in the ancient rite exploded with children and young families. The impression left by the Paris-Chartres pilgrimage two weeks ago continues to shake the French Catholic world. The daily La Croix gave space to an interesting reflection by Jean Bernard, a contributor to La Nef newspaper, who notes how "many observers, including those in the big media, were struck by the fervor and faith of the pilgrims, in total contrast to the general desolation of the Church in France, paralyzed by the abuse scandal."

The vitality of this reality was well known even years ago in Rome. Bernard recalls that a cardinal, present at the Plenary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on January 29, 2020, had called for a sudden restriction of the Ancient Rite, precisely in the face of the success of those pilgrimages. The following year Traditionis Custodes saw the light of day, and the result was a further increase in the number of participants, to the point of being sold out. And everything suggests (continues the French journalist) "that not only will the traditional Mass not disappear, but [...] it will continue to grow, both in absolute terms and in relative terms, taking into account the gradual abandonment of a certain number of ordinary rite parishes."

Seminaries related to the ancient rite in 2022 recorded 95 new French entries, up from 65 the year before. In contrast, diocesan seminaries are in agony, registering one or no new entries, with the "peak" of the Paris seminary, with two new entries. Also very much alive is the reality of the Communauté Saint-Martin, which is not tied to the ancient rite but can boast of fine liturgies and serious formation for the priesthood; today it has more than 100 seminarians.

Common sense and openness of mind and heart would like us to try to understand these signs: where too much that is merely human encroaches on the horizon, there are more and more defections; where, on the other hand, the primacy of God, of adoration, of eternal life is sensitively experienced, life not only revives, but overflows. It is not a matter of ideologies, but of survival. When you see a long crowd of thirsty people going in one direction, it means they have found water there.

A priest of the Paris diocese, Fr. Luc de Bellescize, understood this very well and expressed it even better: "Young people have nothing to do with the old fratricidal wars. They yearn for beauty and truth. They thirst to have their souls elevated and turned to the Lord. They thirst for a demanding word that truly loves them, that invites them to free themselves from everything that binds man to the bondage of sin. They long for purity, freedom and silence." And this they find in the beautiful liturgy, "a reflection, though always imperfect, of the liturgy of Heaven, of the song of the angels prostrating themselves before the eternal Trinity, the infinite beauty of God."

Man is called to contemplate, to enjoy this glory for all eternity. All other works, though dutiful, noble, and necessary, will cease. The heavenly liturgy will never cease. The human heart is made for it, a truth that explains the ineradicable attractive force of the "beautiful" liturgy; an attraction that is even stronger when the water cisterns around us, built by men, now offer only putrid sewage and drought. And the deadly boredom of empty speeches, such as those organized by Gambetti.

The ancient liturgy offers two other great attractions. The first: since the late 1960s there has been a whole race to uproot man, or rather to eradicate from the human heart the sense of belonging to a history, an identity, a living tradition. The youngest find themselves bewildered, disoriented, tremendously alone, without history and therefore without a future. Why reproach them if they throw themselves into a liturgy that knows how to offer them a clear belonging, a solid rootedness, a language that puts them back in communication with their grandparents, with their ancestors, with the great family of saints of all times?

And then the ritual. We have not yet understood the lesson of Josef Pieper or even the more recent and "neutral" lesson of Byung-Chul Han. Ritual form, precisely because it is stable, repetitive, useless (in the sense that it is not aimed at the utilitarian), and majestic, has a precipitous ability to shape and unify. Ritual forges a shared world, a world other than the one that overwhelms us every day; it interrupts the chaotic and overwhelming flow of chronological time, of haste, of busyness. So why rage against a rite that is capable of this? Why not recognize that the ancient rite has an extraordinary ability to heal narcissism, which folds us in on ourselves, making us turn to God? A power to heal our world from that lacerating and sad atomization that grips it?

The explanation for the miracle of the ancient rite and the failure of the Meeting on Human Fraternity is all in that oft-repeated phrase of St. Irenaeus (yet all too often stripped of its second half): "The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God."

I attend a Latin Mass in Milwaukee every Sunday. It’s standing room only at St Stanislaus 8, 10 or 12 doesn’t matter. Packed with young families, lots of kids. Lots of folks in their 20s-40s. Meanwhile in the local parish with the NO Mass, it’s desolate, depressing, with music stuck in the 70s. Doesn’t take a Phd to see the future.

Following the stunning success of the Chartres pilgrimage, wonders what Bergoglio’s next move will be? To triple-down on the pogrom? Or at some point, does he realize that, ultimately, the the TLM contingent is a force within the Church that he is in fact powerless to stop? That his draconian restrictions do little but backfire? Sadly, I don’t expect him to wise up.

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