[Question:]{.underline} Has the Pope’s (September 2008) visit to Lourdes shown that he will bring about a return to Tradition?
[Answer]{.underline}: Manifestly not. To the contrary, he clearly showed that he was bending to pressure from the French bishops. On his way to Paris on September 12, 2008, he in fact replied to the French bishops’ objection to the authorization of the traditional Mass in July 2007 as a rollback on the reforms of Vatican II. He stated that such an accusation is “absolutely unfounded,” for “there is no opposition at all between the liturgy approved by Vatican II and the liturgy celebrated according to the old rite.” Although he admits that there is a difference---*“Certainly, there are different accents”---*the new liturgy is considered purely as a natural development of the old, which is a feature of church life in every century (cfnews.org).
All these affirmations can be proven to be false with a minimum of knowledge of the Liturgy. In the four centuries since Quo Primum in 1570, there has been no development in the Liturgy, if it not be the addition of new feasts and some minor rubrical changes. If developments existed beforehand, they were local changes, gradual addition of new prayers and new feasts, but they included no change in what the Mass really is---the unbloody renewal of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary---nor in the essential prayers of the Mass, the Canon. But the opposition between the New Mass and the traditional Mass is in what it is considered essentially to be---the New Mass is a memorial of the Last Supper, a celebration of the community, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and not a true propitiatory sacrifice, as is the traditional Mass.
If it is accepted that there is no opposition between the two rites, then the permission for the traditional rite cannot be interpreted as a turning backwards on Vatican II. In this Benedict XVI is faithful to the principle of hermeneutical continuity declared to the cardinals on December 22, 2005. This means that in interpreting all the changes in Vatican II, the principle of continuity must be accepted, namely that there is no rupture, no opposition, no contradiction, but simply development in the same direction according to the requirements of the present time. This a priori principle is used to justify all the changes taking place in the Church, and is certainly the basis for the labelling of the traditional rite as the “extraordinary form” and the new rite as the “ordinary form” of the same Latin rite. There is no real difference, except that the “ordinary form” is that which is most adapted to the present time, whereas the “extraordinary form” has some special beauty about it that some faithful appreciate.
This understanding in the mind of the pope is confirmed by his statement, in the same interview, that the 2007 motu proprio is but an “act of tolerance.” As everybody knows, tolerance does not reflect a right but simply an act of prudence by authority in allowing something it does not like in order to avoid a greater evil. In order to calm down the French bishops, Benedict XVI declared that this is his attitude towards the traditional Mass. We have to believe that he really means what he says. The consequence is that he does not accept that there is a right to the traditional Mass guaranteed by Quo Primum, for it is of the nature of an act of tolerance that it can be withdrawn. A second consequence is that if the motu proprio was only an act of tolerance, then it follows that it can be done away with, and that the traditional Mass could now be abrogated---although he admitted in 2007 that after nearly 40 years of suppression it had never really been abrogated.
Do not believe, then, that Benedict XVI believes that the traditional Mass is the building block for rebuilding Christendom in the 21^st^ century, nor that it is the basis for restoring all things in Christ. This was confirmed by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission in a September 16 conference marking the first anniversary of Summorum pontificum. In this conference he refused any kind of opposition between the traditional Mass and the new Mass: “The Eucharist should never become a point of contrast and a point of separation. What is more important: the mystery of God who becomes bread or the language by which we celebrate the mystery?… When we are before the greatest expression of love for humanity---the Eucharist---how can we fight?” (catholicnews.com). He has missed the whole point of how the New Mass corrupts the Faith and undermines the supernatural interior life of grace. It is precisely because we love the Holy Eucharist and we love the souls who strive to nourish themselves with It for eternity that we must fight against error, heresy, and naturalism.
The logical consequence of this position is that the use of the Motu proprio is only to be considered for exceptional celebrations and not all the time. That is why this cardinal, who is responsible for drawing up the Vatican’s rules for the implementation of the motu proprio, attacks those groups, communities, and individuals who have applied to his Commission for authorization to have not just one Mass a week, but every Mass in the traditional rite, and not just at one church in a town, but at every church. He says of such people, always asking for more, that they are “insatiable, incredible … they do not know the harm they are doing” (ibid.). Can Tradition expect any real help from such officials?
Further confirmation of this can be found in the pope’s promotion of secularism in his September 12 address to President Sarkozy (also well known for his promotion of secularism). The traditional Mass, being sacred, is inseparable from the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which every aspect of man’s life, individual and social, is directed towards the Most Holy Trinity, our last end, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is indifferent; nothing irrelevant. The denial of this is called secularism, which maintains that public, social, and political life has nothing to do with the divinely revealed Catholic religion. Saint Pius X called this “apostasy from God,” directly opposed to his plan for the restoration of all things in Christ.
The New Mass, by emptying out the sacred, by turning the focus away from God and towards the congregation, by its naturalist emphasis on the religious experience common to all men, is essentially secular. The obligation of submission to the Almighty, expressed by a true sacrifice, is removed, and replaced by the free expression of one’s communitarian religious experience. This secularism shows itself in the conciliar church’s positive embrace of the secular state, one separated from God in all its laws and principles, but which simply allows the freedom of all kinds of personal and group religious experience.
This is the secularism that Pope Benedict XVI called “healthy,” in a futile attempt to distinguish it from the secularism condemned by the Church in the 19^th^ and 20^th^ centuries. According to this concept of secularism, religion has a role, that is, all and every religion, and not specifically the supernaturally revealed Catholic religion. It is secularism, since there is no possibility of the secular, democratic state’s being morally bound to follow Catholic principles on any issue, from abortion and euthanasia to professing faith in the divinity of Christ. This is how the pope described the separation of Church and State, bound up as it is with the equal freedom of all religions: “It is fundamental, on the one hand, to insist upon the distinction between the political realm and that of religion in order to preserve both the religious freedom of citizens and the responsibility of the state towards them… On the other hand [it is important] to become more aware of the irreplaceable role of religion for the formation of consciences and the contribution which it can bring to… the creation of a basic ethical consensus within society” (cfnews.org).
In order to clarify the meaning of this “healthy” secularism, and to demonstrate that it is a purely naturalist concept, one devoid of the supernatural order of faith and grace, the pope explains five areas in which it is manifested by cooperation between Church and State. It is not in teaching the catechism, observing the commandments, incorporating Catholic moral principles into legislation, giving special influence and support to Catholic institutions. To the contrary, the five points of working together are a vague moral formation of the young; social justice; protection of the environment; human rights; and dialogue between different groups, overcoming old suspicions. If ever there was a program for naturalism, this is one. It is an evil secularism. It is the direct antithesis of the sacredness of the traditional Mass.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.