Why They Are Taking Away Your Traditional Latin Mass

Photo by Sergiu Nista on Unsplash

The past week has been buzzing with rumors to the effect that Leo XIV has instructed the Dicastery for Divine Worship to issue “extensions” on the TLM whenever bishops ask for them. In this way, as Kevin Tierney explains, he has begun the practical repeal of Traditionis Custodes, however long its actual replacement with a better policy will take.

And yet… even if the rumor is true (the nuncio to Great Britain has affirmed it with a classic non-denial), it still means that the fate of the TLM is left entirely to the local bishop; legally the situation remains worse than it did under John Paul II’s 1988 indult. Nothing prevents anti-TLM bishops from continuing to shut it down, as we have seen most recently in Detroit, Charlotte, and Knoxville (to name only the most notorious). Worst of all, the vicious lies and theological errors underlying Traditionis Custodes—a document whose claims entail what a French author refers to as “latent schism”—remain official and operative.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

Very often people will ask, as I myself asked for years: “Why in the world would the Church’s leaders persecute some of the most faithful Catholics—those who form the TLM communities?”

The answer is not an agreeable one, but sometimes we must take bitter medicine in order to get well. Truth can be the bitterest of medicines. And of all the sicknesses in the Church, denial of reality is one of the most widespread and most unacknowledged. When this sickness is not diagnosed, the sufferer cannot take the steps he needs to take in regard to spiritual diet and exercise.

Here, then, is my answer to the question with which we started.

The reason the Church’s leaders persecute the most faithful Catholics is that, broadly speaking, the leadership of the Catholic Church on earth at this time is dominated by a network of active homosexuals and theological modernists. They are not always the same people but they rely on, and receive, one another’s support. We all know individual good bishops or cardinals but such exceptions are a controlled opposition, with very limited mobility. The more they act or speak out, the more ostracized they are, and sometimes they can even be canceled, as priests are canceled lower down.

Now, let us consider the enormity of the evil represented by each of these forces. Homosexuals reject the first principles of natural law. Modernists reject the first principles of divine revelation. Together, they reject the foundations not only of Christianity but of religion as such, and therefore of morality.

Their “religion,” if such it can be called, is one of self-actualization and self-regard—a secularized inversion of the Christian mission to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Theirs is the fashionable subjectivism and flexible relativism of the postmodern West, where “anything goes”—except, of course, traditional faith and morals, for this faith and these morals would eliminate them, possibly even in the old-fashioned method prescribed by pre-modern popes who did not think the death penalty “inadmissible.”

This false religion, combined with unlimited vanity and lust for power, explains why much of our senior leadership is hell-bent on erasing the TLM from the Church and uprooting the communities that grow around it.

Thus, when people exclaim—baffled by Traditionis Custodes and its ongoing implementation—“But look at how the TLM attracts young people! Look at the large families and numerous vocations!,” they are exactly missing the point. It’s precisely because of this fruitfulness, not in spite of it, that its enemies want to crush it. The more fruitful it is, the more furious they will be.

Nor is it hard to see why. The more children you have and the more vocations your community nurtures, the more you are destabilizing the leadership’s hegemony and diluting its ideology. Young people in particular are not supposed to care about tradition, beauty, transcendent meaning. Youths are supposed to be predictable rebels against human and divine order. After all, that’s what would qualify them to be useful participants in the synodal process.

You can easily see through the “sodomodernist” arts of deception by asking a question you’re not supposed to ask. If traditional Catholic communities are being shut down because they “reject Vatican II and the reformed liturgy,” why, then, are the vastly larger number of Catholics who reject vastly more things and more serious things—from Humanae Vitae on contraception, to Evangelium Vitae on abortion, to Mysterium Fidei on the Real Presence, to Familiaris Consortio on the need for the civilly divorced and remarried to abstain from marital relations (the list could go on, and note that these truths are taught infallibly by the universal ordinary Magisterium)—why are THOSE Catholics not being pursued even more vigorously with canonical penalties, separated off into ghettoes, and finally liquidated? Why is a rite of thundering orthodoxy and majesty that existed in the Church for at least 1,600 years impermissible, intolerable, doomed to extinction, while the vast majority of new Masses are allowed to be at loggerheads with what Vatican II itself said about the liturgy, allowed to be done in neverending violation of laws, norms, and customs of one kind or another that are still “on the books” but might as well not exist?

The answer is simple: such Catholics and their Masses do not pose any threat at all to the homosexuals and modernists, the chaplains of secularism and the euthanists of Western civilization. In fact, secularized Catholics are their trophy—the desired outcome of decades of deconstructing Catholicism into a this-worldly program.

The key to understanding our situation

To sum up: there’s a lot of “the world” in “the Church” right now, especially in its leadership, which is constantly speaking the language of, and shaking hands with, worldlings who follow the prince of this world. And for that reason, nothing that’s happening should surprise us: “If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18–19).

My analysis explains the constant flow of evidence documented from the early 2000s about clerical sex abuse, its connection to homosexuality, and its elaborate coverup.

It explains the complicity that came to light in the McCarrick network (which, by the way, is still humming along).

It explains how a somodite like Jeffrey Burrill could become the general secretary of the USCCB—and would undoubtedly have become a bishop—had he not been caught by journalist-initiated private investigators using the gay hookup app Grindr, and why he is now a pastor of a parish (!) instead of doing penance till death in a remote monastery. It explains how Burrill is “in good standing” and with access to children, while priests of impeccable zeal and orthodoxy have been canceled and even threatened with laicization simply because they refuse to give Holy Communion in the hand—even when their flocks, having been well catechized, are perfectly fine with receiving in the mouth only. (I am describing here priests I know personally.)

It explains why the notorious serial abuser and blasphemer Marko Rupnik is still in active ministry, with well-substantiated allegations sliding off him like eggs from teflon.

It explains why Fr. James Martin gets away with confirming openly gay ABC anchor Gio Benitez, whose “husband” Tommy DiDario acted as sponsor — and why, when Bishop Strickland had the courage to stand up at the November USCCB meeting and say in front of all the US bishops that something like this “needs to be addressed,” he was met with silence and the meeting proceeded on as if nothing had happened.

In a recent interview, Msgr. Nicola Bux rightly says “the Church cannot change Revelation” and that, consequently, the Italian Bishops’ Conference cannot approve homosexuality. He is correct, objectively speaking. But the people who are pushing for these changes are perfectly well aware of the traditional view that faith and morals cannot change—and they want to change them anyway. Why? Because they are not believers. The sooner we stop pretending they are, the better.

You will not be able to make sense of any of this until you see the bigger picture that I have tried to sketch.

A further thought: heretics, laxists, sodomites, love their own kind and promote and protect each other unscrupulously, for, indeed, those on the left are expert at putting aside differences to unite for their goal of overthrowing what is good and holy. They despise the orthodox, observant, and straight, unless they can control them through false appeals to obedience. They know, deep down, that if we ever become dominant, we will drive them out like vermin (in saner times, such people were burnt at the stake). There can be no peace beween Christ and those who reject His kingship. “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:15–16). They take special delight in manipulating the “obedient,” the gullible, the cowardly, whom they use as fronts if they cannot succeed in corrupting their morals. They rely on a network of useful idiots to implement their policies.

This, too, is why the local Novus Ordo priest who “says a reverent Mass” is also controlled, even when his heart is with the traditionalists. To the extent that he remains under the thumb of the network described above, he is not part of the resistance, but part of the establishment. He may find it repugnant, he may nearly have a nervous breakdown trying to balance obedience and conscience, but so long as he has not yet decisively gone on the path of tradition and moved away from the corruption, he is, to that extent, fostering its continuation. Sometimes, priests like this will eventually come out alive on the other side of the valley, they might even be favored years from now with the victory of tradition — but this can by no means be guaranteed. Sometimes, instead, they will be shredded into mere shadows of what they were; they might fall prey to the temptation to join the dark side, or just to give up. There are serious risks in “going rogue” and there are risks no less serious in going along to get along.

But then, has the Church failed?

“If your account is true,” someone might object, “how can you still believe that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail’? Doesn’t it seem, on your account, that the Church has losts its indefectibility—its freedom from error, its freedom from deviation—and the Faith has been disproved?”

Not so fast. That would be a massively exaggerated conclusion.

We are living through, or better, suffering under, the mysterium iniquitatis, the mystery of iniquity at work (see the Second Letter to the Thessalonians). It is always at work among us, until the end of time; but we know there have been and will be ages in the Church that are darker than others, and we are living in the darkest of all, in terms of doctrinal confusion, moral perversion, and liturgical devastation.

Truth be told, everyone is suffering in this new Dark Ages. The same mystery of iniquity is at work among the Eastern Orthodox, in their fragmented, separate, ethnophilic churches riven by deep theological disagreements, their official toleration of repeated marriages and sins against the sixth and ninth commandments, their cycles of caesaropapism, and more.

To come, then, to the major objection: How can Our Lord’s promise in Matthew 16 be considered true if the Church on earth at this time is such a disaster?

Our Lord guarantees the Church but two things: the transmission of the orthodox faith (at least in such a way that it remains knowable and uncontaminated, in spite of whatever heresies and confusions may arise from time to time), and the giving of sanctifying grace to those who have faith, who pray, and who receive the sacraments. This is what the indefectibility of the Church consists in: that the true faith abides, and that grace is ever available through the channels Christ instituted.

Now, that is a minimum for human nature. Just as we can survive on bread and water and a bit of sleep in a cave, so we can survive supernaturally on the minimum; but this is not what Our Lord wishes us to have as a norm; He wishes us to have a certain fullness or abundance. That is why He inspired Christendom and all the treasures of Christian culture and Western civilization: as supports for us in our pilgrimage, as sources of joy and encouragement, as refreshment and consolation, as elevations of the mind and heart to the Beauty Ever-Ancient, Ever-New.

He may ask us for a time to be deprived of the clarity that should accompany the Magisterium and the probity that should accompany the conduct of clerics; these are evils we can tolerate but never approve, and He does the same. We may be temporarily deprived of certain sacraments or of the traditional liturgical rites He gave us in His Providence—but never in such a way that our salvation is imperiled or lost. He raises up men in every age to repair that which is broken and reinvigorate that which is weak.

The removal or eclipse or dilution of the fullness God desires for us, in this or that particular time or place, is not fundamentally destructive of either the Church’s claims or of the interior life of the soul. As we know, the Church has come and gone in different parts of the earth. Northern Africa was once a thriving part of the Christian world, and it was conquered by the Muslims. Today, Europe is being conquered again by the Muslims in slow motion, through immigration. That the Church will never fail until the Son of Man returns in glory does not mean it will not fail in Europe, or in a given diocese where the stewards have been negligent. Yet never will the Faith perish, never will the sacraments be extinguished, never will the life of holiness be rendered impossible.

East and West have developed complementary problems, as it were: the Christian East often betrays a pitiful lack of unanimity in dogma and morality while retaining immense liturgical riches, while the West is (comparatively speaking) strong in moral and doctrinal teaching—again, I refer to the great theological tradition and the universal ordinary Magisterium—but, at this time, extremely weak in liturgy. We obviously need both; we should not be sola doctrina or sola liturgia. And yet, we do see in the Roman Church that tradition is not dead, in spite of so many attempts of ideologues to suppress it. The tradition will continue. It will ultimately prevail.

Why am I so confident?

Let us never forget one of the basic lessons of the Bible: the wicked are doomed, because evil always consumes itself. I’ll cite two psalms that I pray regularly as part of the office of monastic Prime. First, from Psalm 7:

Rise up, O Lord, in thy anger: and be thou exalted in the borders of my enemies. And arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which thou hast commanded: and a congregation of people shall surround thee…. The wickedness of sinners shall be brought to nought: and thou shalt direct the just: the searcher of hearts and reins is God…. Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword: he hath bent his bow and made it ready.

Then, of the wicked:

Behold he hath been in labour with injustice; he hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity. He hath opened a pit and dug it; and he is fallen into the hole he made. His sorrow shall be turned on his own head: and his iniquity shall come down upon his crown. I will give glory to the Lord according to his justice: and will sing to the name of the Lord the most high.

Similarly, Psalm 9 declares:

The swords of the enemy have failed unto the end: and their cities thou hast destroyed. Their memory hath perished with a noise. But the Lord remaineth for ever. He hath prepared his throne in judgment…. And let them trust in thee who know thy name: for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord….

The psalmist leaves no doubts:

I will rejoice in thy salvation: the Gentiles have stuck fast in the destruction which they have prepared. Their foot hath been taken in the very snare which they hid. The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgments: the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.

The modernists, the homosexuals, the haters of tradition and the traditional rites of the Church, will be judged; indeed, they are already judged, and the horrendous lack of spiritual fruit they display is the first sign of it. Their iniquity will fall upon their heads. Their feet will catch the snare. They shall fall into the pit they have dug.

The Lord remaineth for ever. He hath not forsaken us; He hath not forsaken His Church. Her faith is the same as it has ever been. Her apostolic worship abides and bears fruit. It is for us to cling to Christ, to remain in His Church, to adhere to His teaching — and to receive, with humility, the graces He will give in the midst of our sufferings, united to His.

Further Reading

On the crisis in the Church:

How Did the Church Descend into a State of “Managed Decline”?

Understanding the Crisis in the Church: Insights from Three Readers

Bloodbath in Tyler: Why (and How) Traditional Catholics Must Resist the Suppression of the TLM

Spiritual counsel for those struggling with the crisis:

To a Friend, on Persevering in a Most Unholy and Unchristian Age

Spiritual Counsel for a Time of Ecclesial Crisis

On Obedience: A Letter to Catholics in Distress

Abandoning the Church Has No Appeal for Traditionalists