"Reading the Papal Tea Leaves" - an interesting article by George Neumayr, whose conclusion is, "Francis’s papacy may not so much move the Church into the future as back to the recent past, circa 1970."
It is a good article, except for one point. He writes, "Reports on his compliance with Benedict’s authorization of wider use of the Traditional Latin Mass are conflicting, but it is safe to say that he was less than thrilled by it."
There are no conflicting reports on this, Mr. Neumayr. There are people who used one mainstream media article published in 2007 to spread misinformation or disinformation about the fact, as we explained in details here. Summing it up: in 2007, when Summorum Pontificum was issued, the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires complied with... Ecclesia Dei; however, it was a once-a-month hybrid mass, with a chaplain handpicked by the then-Archbishop, a chaplain who, among other things, imposed the readings of the 1970 lectionary (the ABC book) and other alterations - a mass that was naturally rejected by the faithful, and finally discontinued. Other isolated priests who tried to implement Summorum on their own were told to stop. And the current situation, unheard-of in most of the largest dioceses of South America, is of a diocese with not a single Traditional Latin Mass celebrated by a diocesan priest. The closest diocesan TLM in the city of Buenos Aires is available if one crosses the line out of the city proper into a neighboring diocese.
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| Y los libres del mundo responden... |
One only has to search "Bergoglio" or "Argentina" in our archives to know how much and how often we have covered the Church in Argentina. As early as 2006, our first full year, we were discussing how the Argentine Episcopate, led by then-Cardinal Bergoglio, got into a mighty struggle against the Holy See on the subject of the appointment of new bishops - the Holy See favoring more "conservative" candidates, the Episcopal Conference the more "liberal" ones. One can gather our opinion of then-Cardinal Bergoglio from that post, it is a stable and well-researched opinion, something altogether different than a spur of the moment.
Those who first heard the name "Bergoglio" from the mouth of Cardinal Protodeacon Tauran have no idea what they are talking about: we stand by all our posts on the matter, including the dozens of posts on the Argentine Church, led by then-Cardinal Bergoglio. Even John Allen Jr. is finding out things about the then-Cardinal (like his apparent support for same-sex "civil unions" as an alternative to same-sex "marriage") by reading The New York Times in March 2013!... And, of course, as we mentioned above, when prompted to respond regarding our most disputed assertion - that the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires had never been friendly to the Traditional Mass under the then-Cardinal, that only imitations of it were ever made available by the Archdiocese, and that it became a Summorum-free zone under his watch -, we proved it mightily.
The Bergoglian pontificate, and the considerable changes it will bring, will not catch us by surprise - nor our more attentive readers: we are glad to oblige, and to have "read the tea leaves" avant la lettre, even while reminding all that "past performance does not necessarily indicate future results"... We are praying for His Holiness, always.
[This post is also a warning to critics that we do not regret anything, and that they will not push us into silence. But there are things that are much more important than this ideological battle some have been fighting but in which we refuse to engage: our own souls, our loved ones, the upcoming Holy Week... All these things take precedence... As our older readers know, this blog has always been as much about devotional material and support for Traditional communities and events as about current affairs: now that the papal succession is over, we can finally return to a more devotional side - there are, after all, 2012 years of prior Church life to report! We really do not need to speak all the time: events will speak for themselves. More about this in a future editorial note.]
The Bergoglian pontificate, and the considerable changes it will bring, will not catch us by surprise - nor our more attentive readers: we are glad to oblige, and to have "read the tea leaves" avant la lettre, even while reminding all that "past performance does not necessarily indicate future results"... We are praying for His Holiness, always.
[This post is also a warning to critics that we do not regret anything, and that they will not push us into silence. But there are things that are much more important than this ideological battle some have been fighting but in which we refuse to engage: our own souls, our loved ones, the upcoming Holy Week... All these things take precedence... As our older readers know, this blog has always been as much about devotional material and support for Traditional communities and events as about current affairs: now that the papal succession is over, we can finally return to a more devotional side - there are, after all, 2012 years of prior Church life to report! We really do not need to speak all the time: events will speak for themselves. More about this in a future editorial note.]
