Motu Proprio Watch: Big, Bad, Backward Ben

Get used to it folks, because this is only the beginning.
Time magazine has an article on the expected “Motu Proprio” titled “A Step Backward for Pope Benedict?”.
Remember, this is just a preemptive strike and when the document is released the coverage will be much worse. Some excerpts, Emphasis and [Comments] mine:

Two years into his papacy, Benedict XVI may be about to reclaim his reputation as a no-holds-barred traditionalist. Thanks to Benedict’s thoughtful manner, Church progressives had believed that the man who was once the hard-line Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would cut some slack on areas of doctrinal contention — using his intellectual heft and traditional credentials as necessary cover. But as Benedict turns 80 on April 16 and marks two years as Pope on April 18, the once hopeful progressives have all but given up their fantasy of Benedict the Reformer.
….
In the coming weeks, the Pope is expected to release a document that would allow the more widespread practice of the traditional Latin Mass, which was all but shelved with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

A significant part of any Pope’s job is to manage questions of doctrine and discipline. Benedict’s “no wiggle room” approach is increasingly seen in the context of his great battle to defend Catholicism on its historical home turf of Europe

In fact, the one major disciplinary about-face expected is this coming document on the Latin Mass, a concession to the [cue dramatic music] ultra-conservatives.

And so on…

Big, Bad, Backward Ben is about put the Church back into the dark ages. He has really been pretending these last two years and it was only a matter of time until the PanzerKardinal re-asserted himself.

Actually, in a few months I have a feeling that we will look back at this Time article and marvel at how mild it was compared to all that came after it.

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