I tend to avoid liturgy debates since I am not an expert on such matters. But I’ve been reading and watching the fallout from the Pope’s radical and drastic choice to limit and even eliminate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. I expressed my thoughts on the Latin Mass in an earlier blog, and share a few articles below I found good summaries of my thoughts on the matter.
I agree with George Weigel; I too am “a Novus Ordo man” who enjoys a reverent Mass in English but who also loves the earlier forms of the Mass. Weigel wrote an article entitled “Liberal authoritarianism and the traditional Latin Mass” where he says “The recent apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes is theologically incoherent, pastorally divisive, unnecessary, cruel — and a sorry example of the liberal bullying that has become all too familiar in Rome recently.”
You can read his review and comments on the Pope’s recent decrees HERE.
Cardinal Raymond Burke also posted a review of the Pope’s Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes (Custodians of the Tradition). As a canon lawyer, Cardinal Burke expounds brilliantly on the decree from a legal and historical perspective, challenging the Pope as to the legality and prudence of his letter.
The title of the article in Catholic World Report is “Cardinal Burke questions Pope Francis’ authority to eliminate the Traditional Latin Mass”. You can read it HERE.
By the way, stay tuned for my video later today of our sold-out group at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe where Cardinal Burke will be celebrating Mass for us, sharing dinner with us and giving a talk. I suspect this liturgical debate will come up in his talk this evening.
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Pope Francis certainly has the authority to ban the Traditional Latin Mass; whether or not it would be a wise thing to do is debatable.
While I, too, am fine with the Novus Ordo Mass as long as it is celebrated with reverence, I think it was mean-spirited and unnecessary for Pope Francis to take this action with questionable authority to do so.
From https://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2021/07/breaking-pope-francis-officially.html?fbclid=IwAR1hJz24k-c8choJfXDKVyfghMaIxwjADSq0nxbRv278x-lnJjQ2RxPpY2g&m=1
But if we need to invoke canonized pontiffs to establish legitimacy of rites, let’s examine Quo Primum, authored by Pope Saint Pius V just a few years after the Council of Trent ended. From the third paragraph: “Let all everywhere adopt and observe what has been handed down by the Holy Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher of the other churches, and let Masses not be sung or read according to any other formula than that of this Missal published by Us. This ordinance applies henceforth, now, and forever,..” (Emphasis mine) Please read the entire thing, which happens to be an Apostolic Constitution, as opposed to a Motu Propitio. Pope Francis cannot overrule that.
Guess I have to agree with Bill912.
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