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Published originally in two parts in the February and March 2003 issues of The Angelus, this conference given December 19, 2002 by the SSPX's Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, Missouri.

The liturgical zoo

It sounds laughable at first when I say that some in Rome are starting to recognize something has gone wrong in the Church, but that’s really where we are. It seems unbelievable to hear it, but we are there. A certain number recognize that the Church is in a disaster, in a catastrophe, but you won’t find much when it comes to solutions being offered. The authorities are helpless. They are stuck in a system. For decades they have convinced themselves that "Whatever we do is good." Now they see that it is not good, but they don’t know how to get out of this system, to say how it can be repaired. It is a gridlock, as if they were saying to themselves, "It is not good, but is good." They don’t want to put themselves in question so they avoid addressing possible solutions. I can give you one example.

Cardinal Ratzinger speaks about the altar, the Mass. He agrees that the table, the priest facing the faithful, is not good, that it has never been so in the Church. Liturgically, it is nonsense, he believes. These are very, very good, strong statements. The solution seems very simple, doesn’t it? If the table is wrong, let us return to the altar as before. But is that what Cardinal Ratzinger will advise? —He responds, "No! It would be too much trouble! It would cost too much! So let’s put a cross in the middle of the table and that will stand for the mystical East!" That’s his solution. That’s typical of the reasoning in Rome to address its problems, to solve the crisis which is becoming more evident to it. The authorities see there is a crisis, but they don’t want to use the right means to solve it. We are still here. I might say, we are stuck here! Currently, there is no conviction that tradition is the right way. They see the fruits; they even say the fruits are good! They say the Holy Ghost is there! (Not too bad!) But, they don’t say, "That’s the way to go." Instead, they say, "Tradition is a way amongst other ways."

Their perspective is pluralism. Their thinking goes something like this:

Oh, look, if we have progressive people who do silly things as members of the Church, then we should also have a place for those who like tradition – a place in the middle of this circus, of this zoo, a place for dinosaurs and the prehistoric animals

- that’s our place(!) - "But just stay in your zoo cage," they will train us,

You can get your food - the Old Mass; that’s for the dinosaurs, but only for the dinosaurs. Don’t give that food to the other zoo animals; they would be killed!

That is why we cannot reconcile where this mentality is prevalent. The availability of the Old Mass extends beyond us; our concern regarding it is not exclusive to only the Society of St. Pius X. In any case, we have the Old Mass, don’t we? If we make an agreement by which Rome permits the Old Mass to us, it is not even an agreement because we already have it. What the Society wants is that this Mass, a common good of the Church, become again a common good for all Catholics, and not just a particular good of any particular group. No, it belongs to all Catholics; all Catholics have a right to it, not only us.