The following article by Luis López Valpuesta appeared in Spanish on July 12, 2024 at Infovaticana.
The Roman Dicastery of Divine Worship has ordered the Archbishopric of Oviedo to prevent the celebration of a Traditional Mass in the Sanctuary of Covadonga. And apparently the reason(s) why this Church open to “everyone, everyone” of Francis is taking a decision that will undoubtedly disappoint the hundreds of young people who will gather in that beautiful Asturian locality has not been specified.
Therefore, I have allowed myself the audacity to make up for that strange silence, and here I expose fifty reasons why I think that the current Rome - so proselytizing and burning with zeal to evangelize the youth - has forbidden the Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Traditional Roman Rite in Covadonga.
We begin:
I. Since dialogue is the key word for understanding the Catholic Church of the last sixty years, the Traditional Mass does not have the dialogical character of the present one and also incorporates a rite that does not make room for the surprises of the Spirit so common in this springtime of the Church that we are living today.
II. It is not convenient that the new generations become radicalized in the Truth, because the modern world demands tolerant, flexible people, better liquid (Bauman) than dogmatic; preferably of weak thought (Vattimo) than of intransigent convictions.
III. Latin is as strange a language as Turkish or Mandarin Chinese, and has nothing to do with our culture and our world.
IV. The priest turns his back on young people, when they are the main protagonists of the Holy Mass. The Altar is important, but the people have rights.
V. The priest, from the beginning, says things that disturb the young people like “Judicame Deus”, because in the catechesis given to them today it is affirmed, actively and passively, that God does not judge but saves “everyone, everyone” (except for the rigid ones like Viganó).
VI. The Traditional Mass should be rejected for including prayers in the style of “in electorum tuorum jébeas grege numerari”, because in reality “everyone, everyone” is elected (except for the rigid ones like Viganó).
VII. Accustomed, as we are today, to “the boat”, to “together as brothers”, or to “wecannot walk”, young people no longer wish to return to the “Anima Christi”, to “Puer natus in Bethelem” or to “Christus vincit, Christus regnat”. Gregorian chants, despite creating a venerable atmosphere of mystery and unction, are not understood and it is convenient to turn to gentle and sweet melodies in the vernacular. Better for the young “A golden ear of corn under the sun...” than the classic Eucharistic chant: “Adore te devote, latens Deitas”.
VIII. Those silences so frequent in the Traditional Mass disconcert young people; God likes us to say/do things without stopping. Active life is better than contemplative, in spite of what the Lord proposes to Martha.
IX. In particular, the sepulchral silence of the priest during the Roman Canon, to then whisper with a deep bow on the Altar the Words of Consecration, is incomprehensible (although it is defended by some nostalgics with the argument that it introduces the faithful to an unfathomable, sublime mystery).
X. It is not proper of an adult faith to kneel or to receive communion on one’s knees, and even less so if we are dealing with young people. God wants us to be upright, and to speak to him as equals, among equals. Mature faith, please.
XI. To pray the prologue of John’s Gospel - and in Latin - after the benediction is inconsiderate of young people who wish to make the most of their leisure time on Sunday.
XII. So is praying three Hail Marys -and in Latin and on your knees- after the Johannine Gospel.
XIII. The same to recite the Salve Regina -and in Latin and kneeling- after the three Hail Marys.
XIV. Summa et seq. To recite the Prayer of St. Michael -and in Latin and kneeling- after the Salve Regina.
XV. And, in addition to the above, it makes no sense to invoke St. Michael after the blessing because never as today has our world been so free from the presence of the devil (if he exists). In fact, the most prestigious theologians (and even the General of the Jesuits himself) are clear that he is not a real being.
XVI. Risk of damaging the knees of the faithful by prostrating themselves so much.
XVII. There is no doubt that substituting the organ for the guitar at Mass has contributed decisively to the fact that in modern celebrations we only see young faces.
XVIII. The Offertory of the Traditional Mass is long, it looks like a Eucharistic Prayer and, above all, it sounds a lot like a Sacrifice (something incomprehensible in the XXI century). Simplicity above all. It is more appropriate and ecumenical to read aloud the prayer/blessing of the Novus Ordo, even if it is more Jewish than Christian, as everyone admits.
XIX. The Confiteor is recited twice , somewhat cruel because the young man is repeatedly reminded that he is a sinner.
XX. The Roman Canon, apart from being too long, privileges the Roman martyrs (as if they were the holiest among the saints, inadmissible localism), and on top of that it says strange things like “atque ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi”. But did we not agree that we were “all, all” saved (except the one in question)?
XXI. The young man is denied to pray in voce the Our Father. Only the priest does it in its entirety. Pure and simple clericalism.
XXII. Regarding the Our Father, the young man only recites orally the “sed liberanos a malo” while the rest of the prayer is pronounced by the priest.
XXIII. More so. In the Our Father of the Traditional Mass, the Lord is not asked to deliver us from “evil” (abstract term) but from the “evil one” (concrete reality), and we already know that, as modern theologians (and the General of the Jesuits) assert, the devil is a pure symbol.
XXIV. It is better to accept that Jesus is spiritually present in the Assembly by the fact that several are gathered in his name, than to assume a mystery as great and incomprehensible - and that divides Christians - as Transubstantiation. Ecumenism above all.
XXV. The young Catholic is very clear that if a Pope imposed the New Mass and abrogated the old one, it is well done, because Popes never make mistakes as the history of the Church since St. Peter shows us unequivocally.
XXVI. The Mass, above all, is a banquet, a feast, a synaxis... and for that reason the priest must watch, dialogue and, if necessary, even make jokes. Above all, good vibes, which attracts many young people.
XXVII. The traditional Mass is sexist because women are asked to cover their heads with a veil.
XXVIII. And it is not inclusive because only men and consecrated persons serve at the Altar.
XXIX. It makes no sense for the priest to wear a maniple and biretta. Too much differentiation, excessive clericalism.
XXX. The Traditional Mass is inconsiderate of the laity of both sexes because they cannot recite the Readings, much less affirm from the lectern, at the Mass for the Dead, the unquestionable certainty that the deceased is already in Heaven.
XXXI. Young people, who are much more aware of prophylactic rules than their parents, know that Communion in the mouth is an unhygienic practice, and it does not matter that we are receiving the Savior of the world himself. Hypothetical contagions must be avoided above all.
XXXII. For young people it makes no sense to kneel when the Mystery of the Incarnation is cited in the Creed –et homo factus est-. A mystery like any other.
XXXIII. The same case. It makes no sense for young people to kneel when in John’s Prologue the Mystery of the Incarnation -et Verbum caro factum est- is recalled. A mystery like so many of our faith.
XXXIV. The “Kyrie Eleison-Christe Eleison” is recited nine times (five by the priest and four by the faithful, who sometimes lose count).
XXXV. Sometimes the national anthem is played during the Elevation, which is improper, since most young people of our world are multicultural, progressive, their homeland is the world and they feel detachment towards their own which has given them all that they are.
XXXVI. The regular faithful of the Traditional Mass are usually nostalgic old people and “pickles in vinegar” (priceless expression of the current Pope) and it is a pity that so many young people, who are increasingly attending it and seem so happy, could end up like them.
XXXVII. The young Spaniards, who know many Protestants thanks to the Erasmus, know that they dislike the Traditional Mass and judge more positively the Modern Mass (which they can attend without complexes because of the obvious resemblance with their Lord’s Supper). Above all, good feeling with everyone.
XXXVIII. In the Traditional Roman Rite one never hears prayers expressing the conviction that “all mankind shall enter into thy rest”, but the assurance that there are elect and non-elect, as well as strong exhortations to pray for our salvation and that of others, and to persevere in the faith, unnecessary things apparently since “everyone, everyone” is saved (with the exception of the aforementioned).
XXXIX. The altar boys are mistreated by being made to carry the Missal, which weighs a hundred pounds, from side to side.
XL. It is extravagant for the priest after the consecration to join the fingers that have taken the Body of the Lord. The scientific world in which young people have been educated rejects such superstitious gestures.
XLI. To affirm that the Mass is above all a true and authentic Sacrifice is incomprehensible to modern man and even more so to the young. Why does anyone have to be sacrificed if “everyone, everyone” is saved (well, except one)?
XLII. It is violent and inexplicable that the priest, during the lavatory, mentions the “viris sanguinum” and asks, in the face of them, for protection from the Lord. It does not bring good feelings for the young people.
XLIII. It is even more violent and inconceivable that the priest, before reading the Gospel, asks for the purification of his lips in the same way in which God purified those of Isaiah, nothing more and nothing less than with coals. Nor does it make a good impression on young people, when they read in surprise the rubric of the Missal.
XLIV. It is equally inappropriate that the Latin “Sanctus” speaks of a “Deus Sabaoth,” “God of hosts.” It disturbs the perpetual peace in which our world lives, on the way to the attainment of paradise on earth. Better translation than the original: “God of the universe”.
XLV. Simili modo is more appropriate the Spanish version of the “Gloria” than the original Latin “Gloriae”, because here we speak of “pax hominibus bonae voluntatis”, while in Spanish we wish peace “to the men whom the Lord loves”. That is to say, to “all, all”, thus making no difference whether they have good or criminal intentions.
XLVI. In fact, the faithful are obliged to carry a Missal in order to understand the prayers of the Mass. And is it not better to have their hands free to give peace, to applaud when necessary, to raise them to heaven when the priest demands it in the New Mass, or to hold them to their foreheads when the aforementioned modern priest makes some liturgical innovation, changes prayers capriciously or preaches some nonsense in the sermon?
XLVII. At the moment of the consecration of the Traditional Mass some arcane words are introduced -mysterium fidei- which the most expert exegetes affirm that they were not pronounced by the Lord although they are included in the Canon by virtue of a very ancient Tradition. In any case, good for Paul VI for taking them out of the formula of consecration. Surely the Protestants and other heretics thanked him for it.
XLVIII. The faithful of the Traditional Mass do not shake hands, kiss or embrace each other at the moment of the “pax Domini”, when young people love sentimental effusions!
XLIX. In the traditional Mass, the priest is a man anointed by God to offer sacramentally the same and unrepeatable Sacrifice of Christ, to forgive the sins of the people and to lead them to the homeland of Heaven. Now he is/should be a “liturgical animator” and a man at the service of his community, who is as good for the broken as for the broken.
L. In reality, the forty-nine reasons that, with a certain ironic nuance, we have given so far are mere excuses. The real reason for the refusal is another, but alas, it cannot be officially recognized by Rome. Although we are certain that it obsesses her.
Rome knows that every celebration of Traditional Mass is an amendment to the totality of the twisted intellectual and volitional ways of our world, to which our beloved Catholic Church has been progressively and inexorably joining since the 60’s of the last century. And in deciding on this “pastoral” option, it assumed its high cost: the path of progressivism is not linear but spiraling, like a tornado that turns on itself and opens up, absorbing everything in its path, widening its destructive power in such a way that the errors are not left behind but accumulate, becoming more and more serious.
And it is a tragedy that we, the faithful, have been inside this hurricane for so long, dizzy with novelties and scandals that never cease, and all because some enlightened ones decided one day that it was convenient to dialogue and get along better with the world, incomprehensibly forgetting who their prince was. That is why it has been providential that many Catholics have discovered the Traditional Mass, the most powerful countermarch to escape from this chaos of darkness, as if it were the sun itself that rises ad orientem. A sun whose warmth dissipates the most insidious tornadoes and which truly “laetificat juventutem meam”.
Why then does Rome cruelly persecute the charism of these faithful Catholics? Why this panic to rehabilitate with honors the Mass of always (which should never have been abrogated), when the fruits it generates in Christian families and in priestly vocations and consecrated life are so fruitful and lasting? Are their pupils so smoked by the smoke of hell (whose irruption into the Church was denounced by Paul VI, directly responsible for the disaster) that they do not realize that today it has reached such a height as to obscure the solid doctrines of religion and morals in which we Catholics have always believed, and reduce the liturgical mystery at times to the level of a farcical operetta? Are they not ashamed of themselves when they contemplate so many young people, mostly students, who beat them by a landslide in faith, hope and charity, and point them in the only right direction? How long will they continue in the sostenella y no enmendalla? Do they intend to continue in this way until the light of the last Tabernacle of the world runs out and darkness takes over everything?
There are many questions, but I have a deep conviction: the moving fidelity of the young people of Asturias and everywhere to the Traditional Mass are the first fruits of the most decisive reconquest. Covadonga is today a powerful resistance, as Chartres was yesterday, against this world in the grip of Satan. There will be defeats and martyrs, but the guarantee of victory has been given to us by our beloved Captain when he assured us that “the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church”. Maranatha!
