Is This Bergoglio's Last Hurrah? Will Traditionalists Wave the White Flag?

Yesterday was the Christmas Massacre coming from the Vatican. Supposedly responding to dubia (questions) about the implementation of the Motu Proprio, Traditionis Custodes, coming from a handful of bishops, the Vatican Congregation on Worship responded. My first question: Is this a setup? 

Think about the dubia from the cardinals with regard to Amoris Laetitia. We're still waiting for answers to those questions after, let's see, almost six years. But the dubia for Traditionis Custodes and the answers come only six months after publication! There's something rotten in the state of Vatican City. Are the rumors true that Pope Francis is terminally ill and not long for this world and is that what's spurring this latest smackdown? Hurry up and finish the demolition?

With regard to the dubia response -- it further weaponizes the motu proprio and extends the restrictions to include forbidding priests to "binate" or offer both forms of the Mass on Sunday, for example. It bans the extraordinary form for the sacraments of Confirmation and Ordination. Bishops may not ordain priests in the ancient rite. No priest ordained after July 16, 2021 may say the TLM without the express permission of the Vatican. (How readily is Rome likely to give it?) The head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Archbishop Arthur Roche is known to be antagonistic to the traditional Latin Mass. What next? You can read a summary here and watch a video from Catholic Family News at the end of the post.  

The responses to the eleven dubia were like fire bombs dropped on a city that's already been nuked. Were they made up at the Vatican? Fr. Z thinks so. Here's his commentary:

I’m dubious about the dubia...reading through the questions, I have a very hard time believing that these are actual questions that came from outside the Congregation, unless they were collaborations....I strongly suspect that the “dubia” were concocted inside the Congregation. I also do not believe for a nanosecond that the “survey” sent to bishops came back with even a sliver of evidence that something had gone awry with Summoum Pontificum. In essence, I suspect that we are being lied to. They are simply imposing their will. [We're getting used to that aren't we!]

One of the hints that this whole operation is disingenuous, that there is not a shred of pastoral concern for people, in this line from the response to a dubium about the use of parish churches for celebrations of Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum. They slithered in this line at the end of the answer:

There is no intention in these provisions to marginalise the faithful who are rooted in the previous form of celebration: they are only meant to remind them that this is a concession to provide for their good (in view of the common use of the one lex orandi of the Roman Rite) and not an opportunity to promote the previous rite.

...This is a blow upon a bruise. We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t grieve us. It is wrong to kick someone when he is down, but that is what they have done, with several kicks.

Father goes on to urge people not to panic, to go to Confession and pray, practice meekness, and stay calm:

We are just moving into a new phase… the middle game, perhaps, to use a chess comparison.

Next, instead of becoming despondent, you should now add rocket fuel to your efforts to bring other people to the Traditional Latin Mass. Build attendance. Build it, built it, build it.

Next, excel in the performance of works of mercy, joyfully and frequently.

In other words, go about the duties of your state in life. Be joyful and, as I've said in the past quoting from advice given to Anne Roche Muggeridge, "Never let the bastards drive you out!" 

The cartoon I used to start this article is accurate on the Vatican side of the barbed wire. The pope has been attacking and trying to mow down devout Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass for almost a decade. He's used ridicule and name-calling following Alinsky's 12th rule to, "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." 

But will traditionalists really wave the white flag of surrender? Not a chance! I'd have those traditionalists on the opposite side waving the flag of the Vendee and wearing the emblem of the Sacred Heart on their chests.

We're in a spiritual battle, but we need to fight smart. The Latin Mass will never disappear. In fact, I suspect the pope has just assured that many more will be attending Tridentine services around the country. Not only that, but this act casts a shadow on the Novus Ordo (ordinary form). 

The pope of unity can do all he wants to massacre the Latin Mass; he won't succeed. Like Gamaliel said to the Sanhedrin about the early Christians. If it's not from God it will disappear, but if it's from God, you will find yourself fighting against God.

One of my trolls was chortling this morning claiming the Latin Mass is finished. It reminded me of the pro-aborts' glee at Roe v. Wade. The battle was over those silly, murderous, feminists chortled. All of those crazy pro-lifers standing outside abortion mills would give up and go home.

Right!

Instead the battle for the unborn escalated and will continue until every baby is protected in the womb. The same will happen now in the Church over the Traditional Latin Mass. 

We have only just begun to fight!

Pope Francis took a wrecking ball to the Church the minute he mounted the chair of Peter. His attack on Church doctrine and Holy Tradition have marked him as an enemy of the faith. It's sad, but it's true. 

Il Papa is an abusive father. He might as well have given the commie salute when he came out on the balcony after his election. He might as well have told the crowd in St. Peter's Square that he was about to gut the Church, destroy the faith, and introduce pagan idols into the house of God. He's spent almost a decade talking out of both sides of his mouth as he undermined the faith. 

But it's in times of real crisis that Christ comes in power to save his people. At the height of man's malice, when humanity most deserved annihilation, God sent a Savior. Now, in this time of Church crisis,God will raise heresy hunters like St. Dominic and St. Athanasius who will preach boldly and clearly. And every one of us needs to study and be able to share the reason for the hope that is within us. We are the hands and hearts and minds of God. Let's act like it and practice the spiritual works of mercy to bring men and women to Christ through sharing the Holy Spirit's gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

"Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom." (Luke 12:33) But God doesn't promise to give us a Church building or a parish hall. We may find ourselves once again living like Catholics during the Arian heresy banned from the Church as the Latin Mass has been banned from parishes. Let us be comforted by the words of St. Athanasius:

What saddens you … is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith?

You know the answer. Don't fear...persevere!