It has been a wild ride since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis.
Several times already, after making some commentary, I have been accused of ‘attacking’ the Pope. This has risen to a new level with my post on liturgy and humility in response to the asinine and divisive comments of Cardinal Mahony.
But here is the interesting thing. Many of the lines that I tweeted were things I wrote months ago for a possible post on liturgy but never published. When I wrote them, they would have seemed obvious and boring and 100% in line with Catholic thinking and the Pope.
But since I published them them this week, the are perceived by some as beyond the pale and an outlandish attack on the Pope. Same lines. Different month.
There is something very un-Catholic about that, Catholic in the universal and timeless sense. How can my comments seems like boring and obvious orthodoxy one month and an attack the next.
Something is profoundly wrong when the winds of change can blow so swiftly through an immutable institution of God’s own making.
Suffice it to say, if my comments seem like orthodoxy one month and an attack on the Pope the next, what is clear is I am not the problem.
March 17, 2013 at 3:28 am
"Something is profoundly wrong when the winds of change can blow so swiftly through an immutable institution of God's own making." Yep.
Scott Wo
March 17, 2013 at 3:43 am
Interesting times ahead indeed I believe. By his fruits we will know him.
March 17, 2013 at 3:44 am
Yup. This all gives new meaning to the smoke of Satan entering the Church.
Our Lady, Mother of the Church, ora pro nobis!
March 17, 2013 at 3:53 am
The problem is that people read too much into every little detail, because they anxiously seek validation from someone they barely know.
This reminds me of "Life of Brian," when the messianic Jews watch everything Brian does, and exclaim, "It is a sign!"
As the old lady says, Follow the gourd!
March 17, 2013 at 3:56 am
These are sentitive times, and if anything you write sounds even remotely like a "Trad" then retaliation will be swift and merciless. Your last three paragraphs made me smile only because those are the very sentiments us trads have been asking each other for years. For what its worth i favorited and retweeted your tweets and thought your article was right on. Unfortunetly, i'm all too familiar with what a real attack on the Pope looks like and what you wrote clearly wasnt. But emotions and sentiment rule the day, and thats just the way it is.
March 18, 2013 at 1:15 am
No one owns the Tradition of the Church. It is either followed or not followed.
March 17, 2013 at 4:22 am
I am not even a Traddie but I'm worried, everything is so politically correct; And the mainstream Catholic media is reverberating with "humility", but all I see is someone not assuming the office but asserting too much of himself into the office.
I sense the loss of beauty and I am not talking about garbs and rituals. I appreciate though the "trappings" because the personality of the indivual becomes lost and the Divine comes into focus.
I think though, he will make a lot of people happy because he is humble and will not offend anyone's conscience.
Lord, I am sorry for saying this, and I pledge allegiance to the Catholic Faith and her teachings.
March 17, 2013 at 4:27 am
Such a charge against you is completely unfounded. Why are sincere Catholics committed to the whole Deposit of the Faith who express concern or dismay over certain things Pope Francis has done/not done in respect of liturgy, etc., being intimidated by such accusations, rather than the issue raised being addressed? This seems to have happened to many such faithful, sincere Catholics? These are Catholics who would defend the papacy against its enemies, to the death. What's going on?!! I hope this irrational and unjust behaviour on the part of some is short-lived. Don't be intimidated.
March 17, 2013 at 4:45 am
I said it on Fr.Z and I say it here. I blame Anthony Quinn for all of this. Bring him to me…
-kford
March 17, 2013 at 8:04 am
Perhaps what you're experiencing is 8 years of pent-up emotion from those who were not lovers of the Benedictine reforms and who believe their time has come again.
I think that, despite the good intentions of Pope Francis, the snares of the papacy and all they entail will inevitably limit what he is able to do.
When you have the next bundle of documents to read and sign, the next head of state waiting outside your door, the next encyclical to think about, the next cardinal seeking an audience, the next balcony appearance, the next public audience, there won't be a lot of time left to travel on a bus.
I have a hunch the papacy will not be quite what many think it will be, albeit liturgically more spare.
I have two concerns currently: that the Ordinariates may be left to wither and that some local bishops will use the moment to discourage their priests from celebrating the TLM.
As for Card. Mahony, it seems like a desperate "get out of a monastery" attempt and you were perfectly entitled to call him out. One may respect the office but not the man.
March 17, 2013 at 11:37 am
It has seemed to me that some of the time a lot more emphasis was placed on style than substance. We expected a lot of Benedict, he very slowly delivered on some of it, but his was not a monarchial papacy that kicked out the bad guys, and overrode the liturgical clowns to reinstate the SSPX over everyone's objections, despite what he chose to wear. I love Pope Benedict, and I appreciate the things he taught and did, but I also know that I was profoundly disappointed that he was unable to seize the day and make bigger restorations. He allowed people to remain in place who continued to commit greater sins against the liturgy we've seen from Pope Francis. The bishop of Rochester, NY, for example, who allowed women homilists. That is not a rumor, I actually attended a Mass in that diocese where that happened on Palm Sunday several years ago (under Pope Benedict!).
Now we have a Pope who seems to have a very different style. His theology appears to be very much in line with Pope Benedict's, and there are a lot of people hoping that perhaps he will take a harder line with the pro-abort politicians, the bishops who want to cater to the gay rights crowd, clean up the messes that Pope Benedict was unable to manage. I suspect that just as the expectations for Benedict were so high he was unable to accomplish them, that there will be people with disappointed expectations this time.
I think that it's possible and preferable to look for the positives instead of listening to rumors, many of which may well be styled to lead traditionalists into a trap (which unfortunately a lot of them have fallen into). After all when is the last time before now that any of us actually listened to anything Cardinal Mahoney had to say?
March 17, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Ignore the trolls, and keep up this good and necessary work, Patrick.
God bless you.
March 17, 2013 at 12:36 pm
Anon, read The Spirit of the Liturgy by then Card. Ratzinger. There was no chance he was going to "seize the day and make bigger restorations" to the liturgy, that would run counter to everything he believes about the nature of liturgy and what went wrong after the Council.
March 17, 2013 at 12:56 pm
I was really surprised when I saw how people were taking that post. All I could think was about what a jerk Mahony is.
The response from certain members of the Church who are more traditional has made people paranoid and I think some are tilting at windmills now in an attempt to defend our new Pope from anything they vaguely see as an attack. It is disturbing… I thought your intent in writing the post was pretty clear.
March 17, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Mr Archbold,
I like your blog, but this is one of the most confused arguments I have read to date. The Church has the authority to change Disciplines, but not Doctrines. Pope Francis can change those "stylistic" elements he has changed without our assent and without being "not Catholic". If it were otherwise, Latin in the liturgy would be terribly "not Catholic," as the language of the Mass was changed to Latin from Greek (how could Greek be fine one month, and Latin the next!) The same is true for celibate priests, Filioque, etc – examples multiply endlessly.
Now I'd love to see SC actually implemented correctly, as the Council Fathers intended, as much as anyone. I support Latin, chant and polyphony only at Mass, ad orientum worship, incense, etc. but, oddly enough the Holy Spirit and the Princes of the Church didn't elect me Pontifex Maximus. Instead they elected Francis.
The only thing "not Catholic" is sitting in judgement on te Church rather than treating her as Mater et Magistra, as our Living teacher. Protestants can't agree about anything, not even sola file and sola scriptura, except the idea that each Protestant ultimately decides for themselves what is "Not Chrstian" instead of listening to the Church. Catholics defer to the Magisterium left by Christ, not just when it is easy, when the Pope and you (or I ) happen to agree, but even when, especially when, the believer and the Church disagree. That is when the rubber hits the road, the testing ground to see if you are " not Catholic" when it really comes down to it. Otherwise you stand with Luther, denouncing the pope as anti-Christ (the smoke of Satan) and quarreling with everyone until you are an ecclesial community of one.
Pax tecum.
March 17, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Nathan,
That is patently silly.
March 17, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Dear Pat,
Don't let the bas(eball)s get ya down. Your series of mini-observations on the liturgy are exactly right, especially the one about how the poor especially deserve richness in the Mass.
I think that while our Holy Father Francis wears ordinary clothes beneath his vestments, he wears a (metaphorical) hair shirt beneath his ordinary clothes. Those three layers are a matter of first doing one's best for God and the faithful in his public office, then, secondly, not obsessing with one's self at anytime, and, finally and very, very privately, accepting suffering in silence and humility.
March 17, 2013 at 1:23 pm
I loved all your answers to cardinal Mahony. They are beautiful, fantastic.
Do not pay too much attention to reactions in the internet. A lot of people know nothing or misinterpret the text.
March 17, 2013 at 1:26 pm
By the way, I enjoyed your pst on Card. Mahoney, who was obviously and cowardly attacking Benedict.
March 17, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Very well said.
This is a shallow, reactionary, and terribly time-bound way of reacting. It's happening all over the Internet.
In part, I think, it due to febrile brains in overdrive thanks to the all-too instant nature of digital information gathering and opinion forming. But in part, it is also a testament to the poor formation of Catholics for whom the "magisterium of the moment" has replaced perennial dogma and praxis.
We have become a rootless and restless people.
March 18, 2013 at 1:12 am
This is a very good description of this phenomenon. It is the dictatorship of relativism having infiltrated to all parts of the Church.
March 17, 2013 at 1:34 pm
Mr Archbold,
If I may be so bold as to ask, which part is patently silly? Paragraph 1, wherein I point out that the Church may change disciplines, not doctrines? Paragraph 2 wherein I hope SC will be implemented as written? Or paragraph 3, wherein I point out that Catholics listen to the teachings of the living Church, not their private judgements as the final authority on matters of faith and morals?
Pax tecum.