By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
We’ve heard much pontificating for quite a few years now about “mercy,” “tenderness,” and “seeking the margins.” We’ve also been lectured on the necessity of making a “mess.” Many of us have listened and tried to put these counsels into practice. Some of us were apparently making a mess but didn’t know it.
And many of us have followed these papal urgings without at the same time marginalizing or brutalizing some at the expense of others. One would think that’s the Christian way of going about it. This is the wrong way of making a mess, apparently.
Now, in the wake of the most cruel exclusion of the immemorial Holy Mass of our forefathers and saints, through the motu proprio issued last month by Pope Francis, we see that tenderness and mercy are selectively applied.
What was once sacred and necessary for everyone in the Church, we are told, is now excluded and necessary for no one. At the same time, however, moral teachings that were once universal and necessary are tossed aside.
Welcome to the upside-down Church.
Those who regularly thumb their nose at God by violating the Commandments and boasting about it, and those who champion them, are deserving of mercy and tenderness. One need only study the rise and papal lionizing of Fr. James Martin, SJ, to see how this works. He has enjoyed a meteoric career out of apologizing for those who live without apology for their flouting of the moral law — even naming it a political movement by perverting the word “pride” to describe it.
An archbishop rightly decried Martin’s scandalous inversion of Catholic moral teaching and the Pope reacted by rewarding Martin with a private papal audience and photos to prove it. Martin promoted a conference at Fordham University supporting sexual perversion and simulation of marriage among individuals experiencing same-sex attraction and the Pope hand-wrote a personal letter praising him.
On the other hand, Catholics who do what, and who pray how, everyone in the Church did prior to the 1960s are treated as pariahs. The harsh tone of the motu proprio and the slander against the many who have walked a very difficult line between accommodating the innovations of Vatican II, while at the same time supporting the teachings of Trent and earlier with which it concords, are saddening.
In my parish we have accepted the exemplary paternal and generous encouragement of our Holy
Father Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum and the tradition has grown from one usus antiquior Mass weekly into a daily practice. But we have done so without marginalizing those who retain an affection for the usus recentior.
We yet offer one Novus Ordo Mass on Sundays to accommodate them.†The fathers of the Second Vatican Council did not authorize a rupture, and the documents of the Council make clear that they did not envision a wholesale refashioning of the sacred liturgy. But a committee assembled after the Council twisted their intentions into placing ecumenism first and thereafter a cut and paste approach which failed to respect the organic nature of worship.
That initial disregard of tradition has grown into a cancer that afflicts the Body of Christ today in the crises affecting her within every cell of her being. The weaponization of Vatican II, often described as advancing the “spirit” of the Council over against the letter of the documents produced by it, is a war that splits and weakens the Church, undermining her witness and scandalizing the world.
Benedict XVI was a wonderful example of a gentle and loving father, indulgent in encouraging those who instinctively reach for the faith of our fathers as a sure source of salvation in times of uncertainty. The Holy Spirit is given room to lead where the Church encourages the flowering of all forms of prayer, the new as well as the old.
Our Lord Himself taught us how to seek Heaven and assist others in doing so:
“And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’” (Matt. 13:52).
The Church will always have what is old, dating herself as she does to her founding by Christ 2,000 years ago. Those who have done the hard work of accommodating the new alongside the old deserve praise, not blame.
Benedict set the good example of a master who brings out of the Church’s treasury the old as well as the new, without prejudice against either.
That would seem to be the way forward, without harshness in the name of the Council, wielding its name as a scourge against those who keep the Commandments, as well as respecting and observing all that Christ has commanded which was handed down by the apostles and their successors.
Those who worship according to Tradition are more likely to keep the other teachings of the Church, unlike so many who attack the Traditional Mass. As a group they are less likely to support abortion, use contraception, or disbelieve in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The same is not true of those who attend the new Mass.
Vatican II called for a new springtime of Catholic faith and witness. That springtime is flowering most vibrantly among our families who worship according to the venerable tradition of our Catholic forefathers. Why weaponize the Council against those who follow its teachings but retain serious reservations about the work of a committee assembled after the Council to advance a new liturgy?
Surely the Church is capable of surviving a debate about something as important as our public worship and primary source of grace in the Holy Eucharist. Why shut down the conversation?
We should never have any fear that the Holy Spirit will bless something unholy or not of God.†Many voices have been raised in these days in favor of leniency for those who prefer to worship in the traditional Catholic way. Expelling them from all our Catholic parishes does not seem to be the merciful and tender way for Catholic pastors to treat them. Such brutality only creates further marginalization in a world already suffering from much division and cruelty.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever:apriestlife.blogspot.com
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress