In the wake of rumors of shutting down the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in Chicago and confirmation of a crackdown on traditional sacraments and the Mass in Washington, D.C., it’s time for traditional Catholics, laity and clergy, to get very real, quickly.
To set the stage, let’s imagine a conversation between a priest who celebrates the TLM and his modernist, anti-TLM bishop:
- Bishop: So, you’re going to have to stop celebrating the TLM and only preside over novus ordo Masses, hmm-k?
- Priest: Why? I have been celebrating the Mass of the Ages since my ordination, and Pope Benedict said it was never abrogated?
- Bishop: Because Pope Francis said so.
- Priest: But this is the Mass that saints since at least Pope Gregory in the sixth century up to Padre Pio were celebrating. It’s the Mass martyrs to the faith literally lost their lives for. It’s the Mass Pope St. Pius V in quo primum said could NEVER be changed or abrogated!
- Bishop: Well, that’s all out the door now because Pope Francis says we need unity and the Mass Fr. Bugnini drew up in the 1960s with all the different vernacular languages and built-in-options for the priest expresses that unity. Plus, the Protestants really like it, they helped develop it after all. Don’t you care about ecumenism?
- Priest: But both history and my conscience tells me the TLM is the Mass I should be celebrating and is consistent with Church teaching, custom and practice basically since back to the time of Christ.
- Bishop: Yea, but Pope Francis says otherwise. Don’t you understand that, or do you need some mental health treatment?
- Priest: As an obedient son of the Church, I guess I will just have to do what Francis wants. Sign me up to concelebrate the disco music themed mass with Fr. Bob next week at St. Paul VI parish.
This imagined dialogue may be a bit of an exaggeration, but probably not by much. Basically, what’s going to happen now is the modernists will use the stick of obedience to force compliance. Or, at least they will try to.
While it is easy to blame heretical prelates and their minions for attempting to destroy the Church, being truthful with ourselves requires us to man up and refuse to hide behind a false shield of obedience and watch the criminals burn Christ’s Church to the ground.
What Does Obedience Really Require?
Let’s define terms first. What is obedience? Fr. John Hardon, S.J. (a good Jesuit) defines obedience as:
The moral virtue that inclines the will to comply with the will of another who has the right to command. Material obedience is merely to carry out the physical action commanded; formal obedience is to perform an action precisely because it is commanded by a legitimate superior. The extent of obedience is as wide as the authority of the person who commands. Thus obedience to God is without limit, whereas obedience to human beings is limited by higher laws that must not be transgressed, and by the competency or authority of the one who gives the orders. As a virtue, it is pleasing to God because it means the sacrifice of one’s will out of love for God (emphasis added). (Modern Catholic Dictionary, Real Presence Association.)
Like other virtues, the exercise of obedience operates in the mean—between excess and deficiency. If you fail to obey a legitimate authority giving a legitimate order, then one is committing the vice of disobedience. On the other hand, if one mindlessly follows the commands of a human authority that contradicts that of a higher authority, such as God, one is committing the vice of slavish or false obedience.
This is basic Catholic teaching—a teaching consistent with the Church fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Pope’s, etc. Aquinas teaches us:
“[T]here are two reasons, for which a subject may not be bound to obey his superior in all things. First on account of the command of a higher power… Secondly, a subject is not bound to obey his superior if the latter command him to do something wherein he is not subject to him.” Summa Theologiae, II-II, Q. 104, Art. 5.
This means we should not slavishly follow orders of a superior, even if that superior is a legitimate and valid Pope (which I don’t think Francis is):
“If a future pope teaches anything contrary to the Catholic Faith, do not follow him.” (Pope Pius IX, Letter to Bishop Brizen)
Now, you may counter, “that nothing like this in the history of the Church has happened. How could so many bishops, archbishops and even Francis all be wrong about the liturgy and surly we must be in the wrong if we were to defy all of these Church authorities.”
But St. Vincent of Lerins answered this as early as 445 A.D:
“What then should a Catholic do if some portion of the Church detaches itself from communion of the universal Faith? What choice can he make if some new contagion attempts to poison, no longer a small part of the Church, but the whole Church at once? Then his great concern will be to attach himself to antiquity which can no longer be led astray by any lying novelty.” (Commonitory)
In other words, when it seems like everyone in the Church, even those with apparent legitimate authority, ask you to violate God’s commands or Church teaching, then the remedy is to stay faithful to what the Church always taught and avoid novel ideas (think Modernism!)
Just because someone with hierarchical authority teaches or commands something, that does not necessarily mean it equates to the Church’s teaching or that it must be followed. If it is inconsistent with what we already know to be the Church’s teaching, then we are not being disobedient at all by ignoring such a command. Rather, we are being obedient to the teaching of the Church, the deposit of faith, handed down to us from God.
The Traditional Latin Mass Cannot Be Suppressed
Remember, there are several ways we can be confident that the Church teaches that the TLM can never be suppressed. First and foremost, Pope St. Pius V made this abundantly clear in Quo Primum:
“We grant in perpetuity that this Missal is hereafter freely and lawfully to be used, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty or censure…No one whosoever is permitted to alter this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, indult, declaration, will, decree, and prohibition. Should anyone dare to contravene it, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. (Quo Primum, 1570)
Even if Quo Primum was never issued with such explicit clarity, we know that what it pronounces is true simply because the TLM has been and is THE Mass celebrated by the Church dating back to Pope St. Gregory in the sixth century and even before that. St. Robert Bellarmine explains:
“Traditions are properly called Ecclesiastical which are certain ancient customs begun either by prelates or by people, which little by little with the tacit consent of the people obtained the force of law. And indeed divine traditions have the same force as divine precepts, or divine things written in the Gospels; and likewise unwritten Apostolic traditions have the same force as Apostolic written traditions, as is asserted in the Council of Trent… Ecclesiastical traditions have the same force as written decrees and constitutions of the Church.” De Controversiis, Book IV, Chap. 2.
It’s simply hard to imagine, and would defy all common sense, that a liturgical rite, the core of which has been celebrated consistently since the beginning or close to the beginning of the Church itself, for 1500 to 2000 years, does not constitute an ecclesiastical tradition that maintains the same force as written decrees and constitutions of the Church.
Father Chad Ripperger in his book, The Binding Force of Tradition, explains that sins against Tradition are numerous. When we ignore such binding traditions, we commit sins again faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice and religion.
Don’t Kill the Latin Mass with False Obedience
With this background in mind, how are we supposed to respond when an arch-heretic Modernist like Wilton Gregory or Blasé Cupich attempts to suppress the TLM? If you ask most post-Vatican II, liberal or conservative Catholics, they will tell you that obedience requires that you accept it, comply and pray for better days.
There is only one problem with that. How is this attitude not contrary to the virtue of obedience, which demands resistance in the face of an unjust order? Or perhaps worse, how does this not make one an accomplice to Gregory’s and Cupich’s plan? At some point, we have a duty to stand up and not just complain, but resist.
The reason these wretched people get away with killing off the Roman Rite of the Mass is because lukewarm, effeminate and weak-blooded professed Catholics allow them to. In the name of obedience, they excuse themselves from the doing the tough work of standing up to bullies and confronting them. They use obedience as an easy way out of conflict, even when they know the command is unjust.
I suspect there are a lot of reasons for this. First and foremost is money. Many lay people make a living off the Church with the consent of their Bishops, and they don’t want to jeopardize that income. They also shy away from conflict because the anti-masculine modern culture trained us to just accept unjust laws and commands. We saw this play out in spades with the COVID crisis, where so many clergy and lay people just accepted without any hesitation unjust commands from government agents to shut down church buildings and even the sacraments.
But what we must absolutely remember is that God is not just watching what Cardinals Cupich and Gregory do. Oh yes, they will get their just deserts. But He is watching how WE respond.
Are we contributing in any way to the suppression the Mass of the Ages through our inaction, silence and slavish compliance with unjust orders? Are we putting worldly fame and fortune above the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass—one of the greatest gifts and sources of grace God Himself gave us?
Do you think for one second God doesn’t care how we respond to this? It’s OBVIOUS we are all being tested. Do you think He will excuse the vice of slavish obedience when it comes time to our particular judgment? Will He ignore the sins against faith, hope and charity when we pretend like the binding force of tradition does not exist?
No, my friends. The problem is not only with Wilton Gregory and Blasé Cupich. The problem is also with those who blindly comply with their orders, refuse to fight back, and take the easy way out when such unjust, evil commands are imposed. Don’t be an accomplice to evil. Don’t hold the door open for the wolf to ravage the sheep. It won’t go unnoticed.
Be sure to check out more sources on this topic. Dr. Peter Kwasniewski just wrote a book on this topic. Also check out Fr. Dave Nix’s recent post, which discusses Dr. Kwasniewski’s book. Also listen to this important video from the SSPX on obedience.