by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla
Pope Francis has famously said that a true priest should have the smell of his sheep on him. Those may be the best words that have come from the mouth of this pope, at least so far. Those words should be taken to heart by those career priests who have never tasted the stew of parish life, many of whom wander around the corridors of the Vatican bureaucracy as well as those in the bureaucracy of diocesan headquarters just talking to each other. No lambs, no smell.
The bishop who is the administrator of the diocese of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Vásquez, has just announced that celebrations of all Traditional Roman masses will cease in the diocese. This includes not only the five parish churches where that Mass has been celebrated for some years but also in the cathedral of the diocese. The announcement was made after he asked the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome how he should proceed with this situation and then received the response from those shepherds in Rome. The one bone thrown to the flock in Tyler was that the Traditional Roman Mass could still be celebrated at the parish staffed by priests of the Fraternity of St. Peter -- for now. This is how the pastoral priesthood operates at the centers of power in Rome.
Obviously, Bishop Vásquez does not seem to be in tune with the synodal approach now in some vogue in the Catholic Church, where conversation and exchange of ideas between bishops and laity are not only encouraged but may be the work of the Holy Spirit. Surely, he as a bishop understands the pastoral necessity, before appeal to Rome, of speaking to those in the diocese who are attached to worshipping God in the form of the Traditional Roman Mass, which form has grown in the womb of the Church for nearly two millennia.
I do not know how the bishop has proceeded before he contacted Cardinal Roche. But I should have thought that as a bishop, even in an awkward situation, he would have had conversations with the flock in the five parishes and the cathedral where the Traditional Roman Mass was celebrated for some years. These conversations take time and patience and must originate in a love for Christ’s Church and for His flock. The bishop would have met some ornery “rad-trads” who deny that peace which passes all understanding. But he would have found that the great majority of those who choose to worship God in what Pope Benedict called the “Extraordinary” form of the Mass -- which was never abrogated -- love that form of the liturgy because they love Christ and find Him in the beauty of the Traditional Roman Mass. Many of these people when on vacation worship God on Sunday in the Novus Ordo form. There they worship God and receive the Body and Blood of Christ. But they are fed more deeply in the Mass of Catholic Tradition.
Dare we hope that Bishop Vásquez visited and listened to this part of his flock before asking Rome “how to proceed”? When Cardinal Roche opened the missive from the bishop, was he overwhelmed with the smell of the sheep?
