Fr. Wacko Progressive Condescending Dinosaur (aka Fr. Richard McBrien. I know name calling is often considered immature at worst and bad form at best, however I contend that name calling, when accurately and creatively done, ought be considered a public service.) writes in the Tidings lambasting the motu proprio and anyone who desires the traditional Latin Mass. Oh, to be sure, we have the typical insults and condescension. Fr. Obnoxious writes “[it] has stirred some measure of debate within the Roman Catholic Church, especially in letters-to-the-editor and on blogs written by individuals who seem not to have day-jobs.” Right Father. We should leave the commentary to those who really have no day time responsibilities, liberal academics. Leaving that aside, I wish to take issue with Fr. “I doth protest too much” claim that nobody cares about this issue.

The overwhelming majority of Catholics, however, are apparently unaware of, or have already forgotten, the July 7 papal letter, entitled Summorum Pontificum (Latin, “Of supreme pontiffs”). Indeed, those who attend Mass regularly would never prefer Mass in a language other than their own.

Those who do claim to prefer the Latin Mass, whether Tridentine or Novus Ordo (that is, in keeping with the reforms of Pope Paul VI), constitute a tiny minority of the Roman Catholic Church, which is not to say that they have no right to speak their minds about the matter or to take advantage of the concessions which the Vatican has offered them.

But if such Catholics are under the ages of 45 or 50, they have little or no hands-on experience of the pre-Vatican II Mass. It is a mystery how one can be nostalgic for something one had never experienced.

Fr. Angry Hippie goes on at some length defending fellow dinosaur retired auxiliary Bishop Emil Wcela who wrote a piece about the TLM (Which I wrote about here) of equal mendacity and condescension.

The point that both Fr. Stegosaurus and Bishop Gasosaurus are so desperate to convince you of is that, (paraphrasing)”There is only a very tiny group of right wing, wild eyed, jobless, pajama wearing bloggers who even care about this topic. The overwhelming vast whopping majority either don’t know or don’t care about this subject and would never attend the traditional liturgy even if you paid them.”

Hmmm. Were that the case, why would these Cretaceous era cranks be writing multi part series in leading progressive publications on a topic about which no one cares? Once again, hmmm? (To be fair, these publications often expound upon topics of little interest.)

Frankly, I think Father doth protest too much. The simple truth is that these dinosaurs have looked to the sky and seen the approaching meteor. Unable to deal with their impending extinction they howl at the meteor (all the while claiming it is just a pebble, no worries) and curse the little traditionalist mammals that are destined to inherit their position at the top of the food chain. Evolution is a bitch.