Knocking on doors

There is never a dull moment in the current Pontificate, as Joseph Shaw explains

I write only a few days after the death of George, Cardinal Pell, which followed swiftly on the heels of the death of Pope Benedict. Of more local interest is the death, which preceded them both, of my predecessor as Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, David Lloyd. Requiescant in pace: they and all those who have died recently.

Pope Benedict’s death has been followed by the publication (so far, in Italian) of the memoirs of his long-term secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, which, as one commentator put it, settle a lot of scores. Cardinal Pell’s death was followed by the revelation that he was the author of a memo, signed ‘Demos’, circulating among the Cardinals, which is also very hardhitting. It is particularly focused on financial mismanagement and failures of legal processes in the Vatican.

Cardinal Pell’s comment on the widespread use of phone tapping in the Vatican inspires my choice of cartoon for this issue. Is the Vatican playing out a cheap Dan Brown plot-line, or are its most senior members paralysed by paranoia? There is never a dull moment in the current Pontificate; it is salutary to remember that the issue of the Traditional Mass plays only a small part in these dramas.

The Latin Mass Society, like other Catholic organisations and apostolates, has to navigate storms over which we have little discernible influence. It is occasionally said that the ancient Mass would be officially tolerated more easily if the Catholics who support it were quieter, or better people, or just different. I think this exaggerates, or at least misunderstands, our importance. What has been essential is that over the decades since the Traditional Mass was supposedly banned in 1970, we have continued to exist, as an identifiable group, still asking for it from priests and bishops, and still knocking on doors in Rome: politely, of course, but willing to be a little tiresome if necessary. This meant that when the psychological moment presented itself for a concession to be made on the ancient Mass—in 1984, 1988, or 2007—there were still people to whom it could be made. No future pope is going to liberate the Traditional Mass if demand for it has disappeared. In the meantime, if we irritate some people by our very presence in the Church, as perhaps we do, that’s too bad.

David Lloyd represented the generation of Catholics who knew the traditional Mass when it was just the normal Mass, the generation who had it taken from them. There would be no movement for this liturgy today if that generation had all been happy about the change, or, if unhappy, had decided not to make a fuss about it. We owe an incalculable amount to those who did not let the matter slide: for being a bit awkward, for mentioning that embarrassing thing no one was supposed to mention, for not settling down and accepting what their betters had decided for them.

David was a fighter and a gentleman, a man of determination and good humour, ready alike for hard work and for the enjoyment of homely pleasures. Please pray for him.

Few of his generation are left today, but what they created, in the Latin Mass Society, lives on. Like the founders of our movement, we are today motivated by a love for the Church, since the ancient liturgy is the noblest monument of the Church’s doctrine and spirituality. Whatever the future may hold in terms of policy towards the older liturgy, its preservation depends on the steadfastness of the Catholics attached to it. While we survive, with God’s help, the Mass we love cannot be erased.

“Careful, careful. This part of the city is chock full of undercover agents.”

From: Cracks in the Curia or, Brother Choleric Rides Again, by Brother Choleric (1972)