Two years after Traditionis Custodes30 August 2023|Sermons
August 30, 2023Sermon from Fr. AlphonsusRedemptorists normally avoid giving polemical sermons.
However, because we recently passed the second anniversary of the motu proprio of Pope Francis entitled
Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition), I thought it prudent, if not necessary, to speak about this for the good of your souls, and also to give you some encouragement.
There is much that could be said, but I’ll keep this sermon short.
For more information, you can go to the sspx.org website.
I’ll briefly go through a few questions, and try to give short, simple answers to them.
What was the point of Traditionis Custodes?In short, Pope Francis essentially nullified Benedict XVI’s own motu proprio of July 7, 2007. Benedict had admitted that the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated (or forbidden), and allowed any priest to offer the Tridentine rite. Benedict’s motu proprio was by no means perfect (among other reasons, because it did not acknowledge that the crisis in the Church is due to a change in doctrine); but Pope Francis now makes it difficult for priests to offer the Traditional Mass, and forbids It from being offered in parish churches.
How does this affect those of us attached to the SSPX?It doesn’t. We continue serving God the way He wants us to serve Him – by transmitting to future generations the uncorrupted Traditional Catholic faith and liturgy, whole and entire.
So if it doesn’t affect us, why should we be concerned with Pope Francis’ motu proprio?If we truly love the Catholic Church, we will feel deeply for this new wound of disunity inflicted upon our Mother by none other than the Pope Himself.
But doesn’t Pope Francis say that it is the Traditional Mass that has become a source of disunity?Yes, and the Pope is wrong about this. Unity is based on Truth. The Tridentine Mass and the Traditional Catholic magisterium unite, because they are based on God’s Truth.
Whereas it is the Novus Ordo rites and the conciliar magisterium which disunite, insofar as they are not based on Truth but on neo-modernist errors.
But Pope Francis says that the Novus Ordo is the “unique expression of the law of prayer of the Roman rite”.Again, the Pope is wrong.
Archbishop Lefebvre referred to the Novus Ordo as an “illegitimate”, “bastard” rite.
Cardinal Ottaviani famously wrote his Intervention to show that “the
Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated … [at] the Council of Trent.”
Can the Novus Ordo Mass be valid?Yes, certainly. But just because something is valid does not make it good.
Is the Novus Ordo Mass pleasing to God?Inasmuch as it is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ to His Father, yes; but inasmuch as it is a protestantized and watered-down rite, no. And that is why we must avoid it.
So is Pope Francis’ motu proprio pleasing to God?No, it is very displeasing to God. God wants the Novus Ordo Mass to be eradicated, and the Traditional Mass restored. But Pope Francis is doing exactly the opposite of God’s Will.
And yet, God is all-powerful, and He will bring a greater good from this great evil.
But isn’t the Pope infallible?Only under very specific circuмstances. Not every word that falls from a pope’s lips is infallible. A motu proprio certainly is not. Moreover, this motu proprio is not even a legitimate law. As St. Thomas Aquinas says, “An unjust law is no law.”
Pope Francis is abusing his power. And in the Acts of the Apostles we are told that we must
“obey God rather than men” – even if that man is Pope.
Is Francis really Pope?St. Alphonsus de Liguori says that one of the reflex principles of moral theology is that we must presume the legitimacy of an authority until proven otherwise.
In other words, we must presume that Francis is Pope, and act accordingly. Just because a Pope is a bad Pope, doesn’t mean he isn’t Pope.
To show our disgust, should we stop praying for Pope Francis?No – quite the contrary. We must pray to God to soften his heart so that he will finally give up his neo-modernism and embrace the fullness of Catholic Tradition.
But can we criticize the actions of Pope Francis?There are times when we may criticize a Pope; indeed, there are times when we must.
When St. Peter was causing scandal to the early Christian converts from paganism, St. Paul tells us that he
“resisted him to his face”, because what the first Pope was doing was wrong and harmful to the Church.
Likewise, while we must always respect the authority of the Pope (which comes from God), we can and sometimes must criticize his actions when they are displeasing to God and harm the Church.
Our criticism of the Pope comes from love – love of God’s Truth, and love for the Pope’s soul.
What is the devil’s part in all this disunity?The devil is afraid. He knows the power of the Tridentine Mass, the power of the preconciliar magisterium, the power of truly Catholic catechisms. He sees that people of good will in the Novus Ordo are beginning to take steps towards Catholic Tradition. And so the devil is angry, the devil is afraid.
Why has God allowed this to happen?We can mention three reasons in particular:
First, God wants us to have a greater appreciation for our Traditional Catholic Faith, our Tridentine rite of Mass.
Second, He wants us to increase our love for the Church and for the Pope – though not for his neo-modernist errors.
And third, God is giving a wake-up call to the good souls in the so-called “indult world”: He has allowed this to happen so that they will realize the depth of the crisis in the Church; He wants to bring them all the way into the fullness of Catholic Tradition.
So what can we do about this situation in the Church?First, we must humble ourselves before God. If we have been given the gift of our Traditional Catholic Faith, the gift of the Tridentine rite of Mass, it’s not because we’re special or great. It’s entirely due to God’s Goodness. As St. Paul says,
“the weak things of this world has God chosen to confound the strong.”Second, we must respectfully resist the errors of Pope Francis. And by doing this, we will please God.
Third, we must dedicate ourselves more and more to the service of the Church.
Pope Francis, in his introductory letter to the bishops, says that to belong to the Church, we must belong not only with the body but also with the heart. And this is true – but not in the way
he means it.
Tradition is the very heart of the Church, where the Holy Ghost lives and breathes.It’s the neo-modernists who are on the peripheries of the Church, suffocating from lack of grace and of doctrine.
And that’s why, if we truly love those Catholics who are perishing in the desert paths of the Novus Ordo, our charity will want to go out to them and help them rediscover the Tradition that they’ve been deprived of for over 50 years now: as St. Paul tells us,
“The charity of Christ urges us.”We cannot be indifferent to the plight of the Novus Ordo and indult Catholics who are languishing for lack of genuine spiritual sustenance. Modernism cannot satisfy the soul; the happy-clappy abuses might tantalize the senses, but they leave the soul dry.
We must help them – by our prayers, by our sacrifices, by giving them good answers when they ask us questions, like “Why are you traditionalist Catholics?”
Finally, to encourage you, we can quote the Commonitorium of St. Vincent of Lerins, which he wrote in the 5th century: “What if some novel contagion infects the whole Church…?
Hold fast to Tradition, which cannot be seduced by any deceit of novelty.”
Remember: we already know the end of this story. The devil already lost when Jesus Christ died on the Cross. We know Who has won this battle and this war. And that’s why we can have an unshakable hope, confidence and trust in Him Who died for love of us.
Let’s go to the Blessed Virgin Mary, God’s Mother and ours, and ask her to protect the Church, the Pope, and Catholic Tradition. +
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