From Monday March 27, 2023 to Easter Sunday April 9, a billboard campaign in favor of the Tridentine Mass appears in Rome.
In a press release, those responsible for this campaign declare that they want to publicly demonstrate their “deep attachment to the traditional Mass at the very moment when it seems that its extinction is being programmed: out of love for the Pope, so that he may be paternally open to the understanding of these liturgical “peripheries” which for some months have no longer felt welcome in the Church, because they find in the traditional liturgy the full and complete expression of the Catholic faith in its entirety.”
The period chosen for this poster campaign is not by chance. Indeed, according to the German-language site Summorum Pontificum of January 13, 2023, and reposted by the German site katholisch.de and the Swiss agency cath.ch on January 26, a new Apostolic constitution would further limit the possibility of celebrating the Tridentine Mass.
This constitution might be published during Holy Week, on the occasion of the anniversary of the promulgation of the constitution Missale romanum of Paul VI (April 3, 1969) establishing the Novus Ordo Missæ.
The organizers of this campaign belong to the Italian blogs Messainlatino and Campari & de Maistre, and to the associations National Coordination of Summorum Pontificum and San Michele Arcangelo.
In their statement, they quote Benedict XVI: “What was sacred for previous generations remains sacred and great for us too, and cannot suddenly be completely forbidden or even deemed harmful.”
And to add: “The growing hostility towards the traditional liturgy finds no justification either on the theological level or on the pastoral level. The communities that celebrate according to the Missal of 1962 are not rebels against the Church.
“On the contrary, blessed by a constant growth of the faithful and of priestly vocations, they constitute an example of unshakable perseverance in Catholic faith and unity, in a world increasingly insensitive to the Gospel, and in an ecclesial fabric increasingly subject to disintegrating thrusts.”
They insist, underlining the contradictory attitude of the Roman authorities: “In the Church today, where listening, welcoming, and inclusion inspire all pastoral action, and where ecclesial communion is to be built ‘with the synodal method,’ these people of ordinary faithful, of young families, of fervent priests, nourish the confident hope that their voices will not be stifled, but welcomed, listened to, and seriously considered.”
“Anyone who goes to the ‘Latin Mass’ is not a second-class believer, nor a deviant to be re-educated, nor a weight to be shed.”
This initiative has the merit of bringing the dispute to Rome, before the Pope and the Curia. But we must remember that the current Roman attitude has its source in the Council and its texts. Thus, on March 19, Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, affirmed: “The theology of the Church has changed.… Previously, the priest represented all the people from a distance, but today it is not only the priest who celebrates the liturgy, but all the people.”
For the cardinal, the followers of the Traditional Mass are opponents of the Second Vatican Council, which is why it must be restricted, even abolished. And it is true that the Traditional Mass is opposed, by nature, to current deviations. This is why the defense of the Mass goes hand in hand with criticism of the Council.
(Source: Comité directeur de la campagne d’affichage – FSSPX.Actualités)
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