Though it border on the sinful, perhaps for presumption, I confess that I wish I possessed the kind of intellectual and moral authority to be able to speak a word and clear the air in the present situation of controversy in the Church. Even without reference to the Supreme Authority in the Catholic Church, there seem indeed to be different camps and partial positions which have people pitted against each other and pointing fingers of blame at others they accuse of questioning the legacy of the Second Vatican Council or perhaps of espousing a neo-modernist agenda which perverts the faith and, well intended, the legacy of the Council (this to name only two factions or positions on the broad spectrum of conflict, which resembles less a field of battle and more a free for all).
I found this short video (Here) quite articulate, even if strident, in grounding the defense for recourse to adherence to the tradition over and against the Novus Ordo experiment of 50+ years. I understand the reserve of NLM, but it is indeed time to throw in the towel and look again with a bit more detachment at what the Council Fathers had hoped to achieve in championing a pastoral agenda at the Council and at which they may just have failed miserably.
There is something to be said for the advice that old, retired archbishops should just hold their tongues and keep their heads down... Living longer and having memories does not necessarily give one an edge or additional perspective on things. Let me however weigh in on the side of tradition and offer two examples of where I see older and experienced as indeed better: the first being rather innocuous and the other not so much. In doing so, my intent is to cast something upon the waters, regardless of its probable failure to contribute to easing the pain and division. I hope not to be hurtful in my description of the second case.
Just recently, I happened on a video explaining the revival of the practice of women and girls veiling in church. The presentation was very well done but seemed to go way beyond my childhood experience simply of both veils and hats as being just that, a head covering. The young lady in the video made no mention of the white round doilies I remember especially in elementary school, which small girls and young women tended to wear once they graduated from baby bonnets. At least in our part of the country, dress hats far outweighed in popularity the veil, and I doubt if few in my mother's generation would be able to address the topic of color-coding veils by the occasion: white, black, blue or beige. I never saw veils in the liturgical colors of red or green, let alone purple, when I was a child.
Just the other day, young Dr. Taylor Marshall made an attempt in a video to wrap his head around the absolute hatred nurtured by Pope Francis against the tradition. Marshall sort of questioned or insinuated that maybe it could be traced back to an incident from his childhood or youth recounted by the pope in a children's book, in which he recounts falling down on the altar in front of everybody with the big missal. The good doctor seems oblivious to the fact that most scrawny little ten-year-old boys took a tumble on the altar. He also seems oblivious to the fact that the default position of a goodly number of people over 80 years of age is still one of virulent hatred against the tradition. They drank the "cool aid" of post-conciliar iconoclasm, wreck-ovation or whatever you want to call it. No doubt the urgency of the pope to press his agenda of hardnosed repression is fueled by the realization that the most virulent anti-traditionalists all have one foot in the grave. People my age and younger, if they are not neo-modernist supporting the agenda of rupture with the past, then they do so for opportunist motives, as seems evident in the case of some bishops and cardinals whose only stake in the game would be their quest for prestige or power. In his wisdom, with Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI had all but succeeded in taking the sword out of the hands of the last diehards of the revisionist crowd, leaving hope for the recovery of those with no stake in the game and who did not understand that the Church lives in continuity with its past, rooted in the historical figure of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Do we find ourselves in the Church in a dark place and since when? Or maybe, why do so many people seem to prefer darkness to the light? Sinfulness is certainly a key factor. It is preposterous to attribute to the Council the intention of making of Christ's Church a sort of Starship Enterprise venturing out where no man had gone before. That is fantasy and has nothing to do with regular life and human culture, and even less to do with the mission entrusted by Christ to His Church.
I seem to have lost my courage for now to press the matter further. Let me repeat my appeal for the recovery of a genuine shepherding stance, which would live and let live. Until we can figure out how to do it, we need to foster the traditional Mass and Sacraments, traditional catechism and custom, in hopes of affirming and strengthening Catholic family life and promoting virtuous living. You might say that without pressing, repressing or the violence typical of the late '60's and '70's, I am hoping that younger generations might have the opportunity to be won over by the goodness, the beauty and truth of that fixed point in our turning world, which is light and life already for those who have discovered it.
Lord, save us from our enemies and restore us to grace!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
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