Yep, it’s another TLM-Friends blog entry. Hope your Lent is off to a good start. A couple of tidbits:
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TLM in the News. Not All the Coverage is Friendly. Or even rational, for that matter…
La Croix International, which bills itself as “The world’s premier independent Catholic daily,” published an article this week titled “Pope begins phasing out the Old Mass, just as Vatican II intended.“
Yeah…we know what you’re thinking. We don’t know which Vatican II document demanded the liquidation of the Traditional Mass either. But there it is.
Here’s an excerpt from the La Croix International article:
Catholic traditionalists attached to the Old Latin Mass have their rosaries beads in a knot again over Pope Francis’ latest move to strictly curtail use of the Tridentine Rite, the complex and heavily rubricized ritual that pre-dated the liturgical reform mandated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
The pope on February 20 ordered the Dicastery for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (DDWDS) to publish a rescript that says bishops must get Vatican approval before they allow priests in their dioceses to celebrate the Old Mass.
The new rescript and a DDWDS letter to bishops in December 2021 were issued to help clarify and properly implement Traditionis custodes, the “motu proprio” Francis published in July 2021.
That text reversed Summorum Pontificum, a “motu proprio” from 2007 in which Benedict XVI invented the novel idea that there could actually be “two forms of the one Roman Rite” — one called extraordinary (pre-Vatican II) and the other ordinary (post-Vatican II). This theo-linguistical sleight of hand basically allowed for the perpetuation of a rite that had been completely re-ordered and reformed.
If the stuff you just read left you scratching your head, you’re not the only one. EWTN commentator Raymond Arroyo tweeted “Where did Vatican II call for the “phasing out” of the Tridentine Rite? And why did JPII and Benedict XVI ,who were there, miss that intention? This is not serious.”
You can read La Croix’s rather odd take on things for yourself at: https://international.la-croix.com/news/letter-from-rome/pope-begins-phasing-out-the-old-mass-just-as-vatican-ii-intended/17367