“Now the serpent was more callidior (clever, cunning, sly, crafty) than any of the beasts”
–Gen 3:1

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It will be rough sailing now, but it’s at last come to this. Time to pay the piper.

Remember – there are only two kingdoms.

New Motu Proprio – A Sick Game

The full text of Francis’ new Motu Proprio, Traditionis Custodes, is here.

Yes, it’s bad. Worse than many expected.

It aims to permanently ensconce the idea that the Novus Ordo Missae (NOM) – that unholy and aberrant 1960s invention of disjointed committees staffed by modernists, heretics, and worse – was ordered by Vatican II and is henceforth “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”

In short: Destroy the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Dissent will not be tolerated.

The plan is simple:

1. Convince Catholics that they have enjoyed an “exceptional privilege” in offering the TLM over these last several decades (which is itself a lie, inasmuch as the TLM is the lex orandi of the Roman Rite, a Mass which enjoys its own perpetual validity of immemorial custom, per Trent and Quo Primum all the way to Ratzinger and Summorum Pontificum).
2. Remind Catholics that the mark of their Catholicity is obedience to the bishops, the “guardians of tradition” (which is true, inasmuch as the bishops are themselves faithful to the tradition – which is generally not the case today)
3. Command every priest to obtain special permission from the bishops to celebrate the TLM (something even Benedict XVI emphasised as never having been, nor ever being required, in view of this Missal’s own perpetual validity, inherent to itself)
4. Command every priest to publicly testify to the validity and legitimacy of the NOM, whether by signed statement or publicly offering it themselves. Tell them this is the precondition for their continued canonical status.
5. Gatekeep the further outgrowth of any priests and communities exclusively devoted to the TLM and all that it stands for (which is to say, Catholicism)

See, if you want to be considered an obedient Catholic, you will do as the bishop says. Always. And if bishop says that the Latin Mass is a divisive, boutique phenomenon that you have hitherto enjoyed on His Excellency’s good graces, but that now he can no longer tolerate it – then you’d better say yessir.

You wouldn’t want to be disobedient, now, would you?

Sound familiar?

“The very holy virtue of obedience is today the extremely powerful weapon that our enemies, who pretend to be our friends, make use of against what we were, to put up in its stead, what they have decided to have us become.”

Marie Carre, Aa-1025

Yes, all this is effective immediately. It will now be “disobedient,” whether sooner or later, to celebrate the Mass of our Fathers without paying homage to the New Paradigm. They are closing the doors.

In the face of an ecclesiastical hierarchy that now condones all manners of heresy and immorality in the public sphere, and yet sees fit to take special measures against faithful Catholics who cleave to the Mass of Ages, the Mass of the Saints, the Mass of our fathers, one is reminded of St. Basil’s observance in the 4th century:

Only one offence is now vigorously punished–an accurate observance of our fathers’ traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into deserts. … Joy and spiritual cheerfulness are no more; our feasts are turned into mourning: our houses of prayer are shut up, our altars deprived of the spiritual worship.

-Ep. 243

CALLING ALL CATHOLICS

Why would the hierarchy display such unmitigated prejudice against the Roman Mass, the Mass offered on every continent for so many centuries, if Francis and his apparatchiks were not destroyers? More to it–why require public testimony of obeisance to the Novus Ordo (in its most current iteration, that is)?

Does one need any further evidence that the NOM is the ritual expression of a New Religion?

It is time for traditionally-minded clergy, and indeed all Catholics, to act. You will have no canonical recourse in this firestorm. Our Lord, Our Lady, and all the saints and angels must be your strength.

Traditional orders and their individual priests must make informed and immediate public statements.

Diocesan priests devoted to the TLM must demand meetings with their bishop.

Burke and the other “good guy” cardinals and bishops must do more than whine in journal articles. Occupy Rome. Demand public audiences. Ask Benedict XVI to give a public video statement about his feelings on Francis’ evisceration of his own document. File canonical and civil injunctions for damages against the man occupying the See of Peter.

For all the rest of us: Inundate chanceries with letters, calls, processions and prayer protests. OF COURSE pray and fast. But at this point, who’s not doing that?

Strap on. Put some skin in the game.

Who now will fight for the Mass of our Fathers?