“The world is in flames and Catholics are arguing about which way the priest faces.” An exasperated Facebook friend posted this the other day. Other friends complained that traditionalist Catholics waste their time and energy arguing their right to use the old rite when the Church needs to be out in the world sharing its message and caring for others. Some cheered Francis’s Traditionis Custodes because it would make those people get out of their cosy communities and do something practical for the world.
Just stop complaining, go to the regular Mass at your local parish, and get on with your work, was their attitude. We often don’t see the point of things we don’t care about. It’s human nature. But we ought to try to see the point when we have some connection with the people who do care about those things, as mainline Catholics have with their traditionalist brethren.
Some traditionalists are insular and ingrown and uninterested in the corporal works of mercy.
They deserve the respect, plus they might be right. In fact, my exasperated friend explained why the traditionalists were right to care, not that he meant to.
My friend and his allies were correct about some traditionalists. They are insular and ingrown and uninterested in the corporal works of mercy. The commitment sometimes expresses a reactionary resentment against the modern world. They retreat into what they think a safe space among the like-minded. Some flirt with schism, especially the louder ones, who show a disturbing hatred of Francis. Some I’ve dealt with express a creepily social Darwinist view of society and like current Republican orthodoxy more than Catholic social teaching.
But not all of them, by any means. Several of my younger friends go to the Latin Mass parish in our diocese, and they’re model human beings. Many of the crankier ones, I think, react the way they do because the hierarchy has abused them for decades, while coddling and even promoting Catholics who dissent from Church teaching and even flirt with schism from the other direction. People who keep getting kicked will either curl into a ball or kick back.
If the world is in flames, as my exasperated friend said, we should get the firemen to the fire right away.
The other side doesn’t really come out looking better, when so many of them just fight online, which means they’re also insular and ingrown and uninterested in the corporal acts of mercy. They invoke the needs of the world as a weapon against the traddies, but I’m not sure from observation how many of them actually care about the needs of the world. Beyond voting Democratic, that is, and writing Facebook posts supporting redistributionist political policies.
If the world is in flames, as my exasperated friend said, we should get the firemen to the fire right away. Obviously. The captain who keeps the firemen in the station till every fireman has shined his boots and can recite the rules down to the last comma, lets homes burn down and people burn to death.
But think about the nature of firemen. We can send them out because they’ve been trained and because they keep learning and practicing. It matters what they learn and practice.
Those who care which way the priest faces and which rite we use know that Christians must fight fires in a world aflame. (Most of them. Every group has its obsessives and extremists and weirdos.)
The traditionalists believe that the Extraordinary Form provides the best training and practice and the most rest for the Catholic living in the world. Much better training and rest than the Ordinary Form, they think. They believe the old rite helps people grow in holiness, which means it helps them better serve others. One can easily disagree, but they’re not obviously wrong. They deserve the chance to show this, and the rest of us would benefit from their example, and some from their practice.
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