Pope Francis has criticized traditionalist Catholics who seek to “safeguard the ashes” of the past, saying the global church’s centuries of tradition are not akin to a container for preserved objects but instead like roots to be drawn on for future growth.

In a press conference aboard the papal flight back to Rome after his three-day visit to Romania, he singled out Catholic “fundamentalists,” who he said have a nostalgia for “returning to the ashes.”

“Tradition is the guarantee of the future and not the container of the ashes,” said Francis.

“Tradition is like roots [of a tree], which give us nutrition to grow,” he explained. “You will not become like the roots. You will flower, grow, give fruit. And the seeds become roots for other people.”

“The tradition of the church is always in movement,” he said. “The tradition does not safeguard the ashes.”

Francis did not specify in his remarks whom he had in mind while speaking of Catholic traditionalists. But the pontiff has come under criticism during his six-year papacy from a vocal minority of Catholics, including some cardinals, who have expressed concern that he has not been clear in enunciating some of the church’s teachings.

The noose is getting tighter. Are you for Tradition or are you with the so called Papacy of Francis? The choice will have to be made by each and everyone of us. The days of straddling the fence are over.

Have fun with you new friend SSPX and FSSP.

I honor those ashes. Those ashes are far more Superior than the ashes of the vatican 2 church.

If Catholicism is universal and crosses over time and space, then why would safeguarding ashes be sometime to hold in disdain? 

I was at a Novus Ordo lecture one time and a modernist, pantsuit-wearing nun said that someone brought up the Council of Trent with her.  She said aloud to those attending the lecture that "we're five hundred years past the Council of Trent" and the crowd busted out laughing as if the Catholic Church of the past is to be treating with mockery and derision (although these Novus Ordites were all laypersons so they literally bathe in modernism every minute of their day).  I sat there saddened and wondered if I should raise my hand and say "Well now, wait a minute, the Council of Trent is 1500 years newer than Our Lord and Our Lady."

Pope Francis' comments regard ashes brings that to mind.  Isn't the Catholic approach to preserve what has been handed to us?  And wasn't it the Masons who brought us cremation so we could turn something into ashes?