The following comes from a November 11 Catholic Culture article:
Cardinal-designate Blase Cupich of Chicago joined Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, as a presenter at a Vatican press conference on the publication of Nei tuoi occhi è la mia parola (“In Your Eyes Are My Word”).
The book is the first unabridged collection of the future Pope Francis’s homilies and addresses from 1999 to 2013, when he served as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The book also includes a new interview with Father Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of Civiltà Cattolica. During the interview, the Pope spoke about the importance of listening to others, as well as his method of preparation for his daily Mass homilies.
He also discussed the sacred liturgy. Crux reported:
Asked about the liturgy, Pope Francis insisted the Mass reformed after the Second Vatican Council is here to stay and “to speak of a ‘reform of the reform’ is an error.”
In authorizing regular use of the older Mass, now referred to as the “extraordinary form,” now-retired Pope Benedict XVI was “magnanimous” toward those attached to the old liturgy, he said. “But it is an exception.”
Pope Francis told Father Spadaro he wonders why some young people, who were not raised with the old Latin Mass, nevertheless prefer it.
“And I ask myself: Why so much rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something, insecurity or even something else. Rigidity is defensive. True love is not rigid.”
The Holy Father is a very wise man! His remarks on this subject should be considered with much reflection and prayer.
With all due respect to those who criticize the TLM these remarks are oxymoronic. Critics of the TLM are demonstrating themselves that which they (falsely) accuse others of, thus coming across as hypocritical. Why are critics of the TLM so rigid AGAINST the TLM? I am digging and digging. This rigidity is hiding something. Is it insecurity or maybe something else? Critics of the TLM seem to be defensive here. True love accepts and encourages the young people who love the Latin Mass. Christ encourages the young with a burning desire to attend the TLM. Dear Holy Father why are you buying into this nonsense and labeling them?
I think instead that Benedict XVI is a very wise man while the new reigning Pope is an Argentinean that only speaks Spanish and pidkin Italian that is lacking in the class and knowledge required for wisely ruling the Catholic Church.
Amen to that. Lacking in something that is called, reflection before speaking/judging others.
What I see as missing in the Norvus Ordo Mass is respect, humility. What I see now after attending the Latin Mass is a disrespect of the priest on the altar with his back turned away from the Tabernacle, it seems more like a protestant function than a Mass, if you look inside a Missal prior to 1962 you will find a lot of Prayers missing from the Mass especially during the Consecration. No one enters the Altar except the priest and altar servers who are attentive throughout the ceremony, heads are covered, kneel for communion, no one leaves Mass early, confession every Sunday before Mass. there is just so much reverence and participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We do not have the need to perform on the Altar or sing, or hand…
Rigidity may indeed hide something. But rigidity is not necessarily equated to the Traditional Latin Mass or those who attend it. That’s a false assertion. Especially when made after the one positing such definitive conclusions says he wonders why. (Try asking!)
Perhaps the “rigidity” is in the false perception that those who choose the TLM do so out of mere preference and not something more. So, absolutely, let’s dig, dig, dig. But let us all – to include the Holy Father – discern what it is that makes some so rigid as to put words and reasons into the mouths of others.
I’m hearin’ me some Roberta Flack, “Killing me softly with his words.” Or at least trying to.
Ann I agree with your first paragraph. The Church has a multitude of spiritual paths, including the Mass celebrated in the EF, all of which lead through Christ to the Father.Because one is drawn to one spiritual path or tradition or charism does not make one rigid, per se.
We do know, however, that there are people who are adherants of the TLM who insist that theirs is the ONLY way, or the TRUE way or the MOST beneficial way of receiving grace. There are adherants of almost every spiritual practice who say the same things about their path. I think this is the kind of rigidity the Pope is talking about. If so, I wish he’d make that point.
You know, “YFC,” your comments about the TLM and Catholic Tradition are quite transparent. You cannot successfully argue that the Church has a schizophrenic past, when its Tradition has grown in a mostly linear way over the centuries. No one — No. One. — can argue that the Novus Ordo represents anything historically Catholic. Our institution cannot survive if it continues to despise its own DNA.
Francis may be puzzled over Catholic youth and their yearning to learn the truth about their Faith, but that very fact provides an answer. They do not find the pablum dished out by their priests and bishops to reflect the glories of the Faith and its strength. The Pope simply wants a Latin American church of few rules, except “loving…
(Part Deux) ” . . . the smell of the sheep. He, and you, want a church of endless choices and no responsibility, hence no sense of sin. Nope, Christ did not say this in the Bible and the Church has not taught this, except in the infantile NewChurch. God gave us commandments; Christ gave us His Church. Rules are freedom, as they impart to us a sense of the divine: our poor Pope’s notion of “rigidity” is exactly wrong, as is his pandering to common immorality as somehow, ultimately, moral in God’s eyes. Fool.
St. Christopher, I will never forget the first day of the Novus Ordo Mass in our parish, in 1969!! When the Mass began, even little Catholic schoolchildren started to giggle, because— it was NOT as we had thought, it had NO RESEMBLANCE to our old Mass, and the priest’s new vestments also resembled a Protestant clergyman’s robes! And no altar boys, no Prayers at the Foot of the Altar– and a Protestant-type table altar, moved in front of our beautiful High Altar! The priest turned to face us, with a greeting from St. Paul– oh, what a shock, from then on! Continued…
Continued… Well, many people were very shocked, angered, and depressed! Of course, we later found out the story behind how our New Mass was quickly concocted, in Rome, with the aid of the Vatican II “Observers,” the Protestant scholars, under Cardinal Bugnini!! It hurt us greatly, that the Mass was treated so trivially, as if it had no meaning, no importance, for our Church’s great scholars to spend many years on improving it, or carefully translating it, into vernacular tongues Our Mass was treated like JUNK!! Centuries of history and scholarship, dumped and destroyed– all for modernism!!
On the first day of the New Mass, I and many others were so shocked, hurt, and angry– that on the way home, I made a vow to God, to always remember the sacredness and beauty of our old Latin Mass, and to pray daily, for its eventual return to our Church!
Christopher, I don’t have to make any such argument. That’s not at all the point here. The OF is the Mass that the Church has given to her people, and is a highly wonderful tool.
But I could make such an argument if I had to.
Wrong, “YFC”: The Novus Ordo is the Mass foisted on obedient Catholics by Paul VI and his minions. Second, the NO is seriously deficient, as noted by many, many Catholic writers, including especially Michael Davies (as well as Benedict XVI). Third, Francis and his contemporaries — out of pride — refuse to even recognize that the Catholic Church did not begin with Vatican II. The Pope’s recently stated insults to Catholics, including its youth, that favor the TLM is inexcusable.
WRONG! There is nothing deficient about the Ordinary Form. There may be deficiencies on how it is offered, but that is the same occasionally with how the EF is offered as well. This constant belittling of the OF is unbecoming of a true Catholic. Really.
I wish the Pope would be more clear in his speech as well, especially since the tone he is adopting (at least without clarification) smacks like that of the Romans who didn’t have a problem with Christianity per se, but rather in the exclusivity of Christianity that rejected “other gods”.
Then too the insistence that Jesus was the One True God was seen as intransigence in the face of the seeming liberality of Rome that would be happy to set up another in their pantheon so that all could “get along”.
(Part Deux) ” . . . Fourth, other moral direction provided by Francis is also seriously deficient, such as Amoris Laetitia. See, e.g., the Dubia propounded to the Pope (which he refused to answer) by four cardinals in September, here: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/11/explosive-4-cardinals-officially-ask.html. Finally, thanks to the Church’s indefectibility, we can gratefully attend the N.O., knowing that Christ elects to be present in that Mass, even with its deficiencies. Deo Gratias.
One again, Pope Francis insults those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass.
More comments from an old man whose is clearly out of touch with the growing wing of the Church…What I don’t understand is once again he attacks faithful Catholics who grew sick of irreverent NO masses.
This pope is such a tiresome fellow. Since he has assumed office, he’s said and done so many outrageous and insulting things. I would think any cleric worth his salt in our era of low Mass attendance would be delighted that young people are interested in going to Mass, including the Extraordinary Form. Instead, he just offers another slight to those attached to traditional Catholicism. He’s an old man now, and he’ll have to face God soon.
My former FSSP parish grew from 200 families to 500 in just a few years. These were not primarily “baby boomers,” or older, who knew the TLM before Vat2 but young families, most with more than two children. The Pope does not like the TLM and is mainly the reason he suppressed that loyal order in Argentina that preferred the TLM once he got to Rome. Also, he decries the lack of vocations and wants to “examine’ female deacons yet it is the orders serving the Latin Mass and sacraments that are getting all the vocations.
Outstanding points, “Former Altar Boy” (me, too).
Pope Francis ought to praise devout Catholic families who are raising their children in parishes devoted to the Tridentine Latin Mass! He ought to praise little altar boys, ask them to proudly recite some of their Latin for him, tell them about special things of significance to the Tridentine Latin Mass which they serve– and INSPIRE THEM TO BECOME FUTURE PRIESTS!!
Shouldn’t the Pope praise big altar boys, too?
Pope Francis is relentless in his drive to transform the Catholic Church into the Francis Church where anything NEW goes by ridiculing tradition.
Th Catholic Church is established on 2,000 years of Tradition, not 47 years of novelty, your Holiness. So are you saying that St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Anthony of Padua, Pope St. Pius X and innumerable other Saints suffered from “rigidity” as do these contemporary young people who love the Traditional Mass? The disease of the novus ordo with its empty convents and seminaries has a remedy: it’s called Tradition.
One used to be able to attend Mass anywhere in the world when it was offered in Latin.
The only part that may not have been understood was the local or national language in the Sermon, and the Epistal and Gospel, however that was to be expected.
When one carried their own Missal it was very easy to follow the Mass in Latin with (English translation on the pages) your own language also included, and that is the main reason for supporting the use of Latin, even though one may not understand any of that language.
What the Pope and the Whole Church Hierarchy must do, is get rid of all of the Pedophiles who have infiltrated the Church, even if that means removing all of the homosexuals who may just be Pedophiles in Training?
This…
Another great comment (thanks, “The Memory”). This blog comment is further evidence that CCD is getting through to wonderful Catholics who bring their important voices to us all.
The adoption of the Novus Ordo caused the emptying of seminaries and convents? No other currents in modern society were responsible? Your comment suffers from the logical (and scientific) error of equating “correlation” with “causation”. For example even if event “A” occurs every time event “B” occurs does not demonstrate that “B” CAUSED “A”— factor “C” could have been the cause of both “A” and “B”.
That is, there is a CORRELATION between “A” and “B” but no causal connection.
The above comment responded to Sean McDermott’s 12 Nov post.
Comments like these make the pope sound like our Church’s Obama.
“Comments like these make the pope sound like our Church’s Obama.”
You’re absolutely right Peggy.
Obama was complaining about not winning over working class-voters when he said,
“And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” = Sound familiar? The Pope is wondering why Modernists are not winning over all of the youth.
continued….
continued…..
Why was their so much initial rigidity on the part of Pope Francis about receiving the beautiful offering of many rosaries? That was not true love. That was cruel rejection to many hearts plus a slam on the power of the rosary. Dig, dig a little deeper and you will find why Bernie Sanders was invited to the Vatican and why Hillary (at the Al Smith dinner) complimented that particular kind of rigidity too. You see, Alinskyites are still stunned because they failed to dig a little deeper to discover that REAL IMPORTANT “something else” which IS… America prefers religious freedom and faithful Catholics lovingly prefer a Catholic Pope.
Laugh or cry, Francis is our Pope. His words, however, sound ever so non-comprehending about the yearning for religious truth. Perhaps the “Youth” (and many others in the Church) are simply disgusted with what the institutional Church has become. Virtually no leading clergy insist on orthodoxy, or speak of sin, and of the need to avoid it to avoid going to Hell. What?? What, you say??
The Zombie-Liberal elites in the USA just were handed a crushing defeat by people that do not think like they do, do not believe as they do, and do not want a world modeled on their principles. The Catholic Church, sadly, has been part of this world view. Francis will never understand that he is not where the Church should be.
You are correct concerning the Zombie-Liberal elders in the USA.
The Shepherd guards the sheep, the sheep know where the grass grows for them to eat.
It is a shame on the church when the Hierarchy protect the Pedophile Priests and transfers them to other parishes to continue to prey on the very young and innocent. Expose them and Defrock Them, and when receiving Holy Orders have them sign a Legal Document that if ever they are found to be Pedophiles they Renounce All Avenues of Claims to Pay or Any Other Kind of Remuneration for All Time. Also see that they are charged and sent to jail for the remainder of their lives, which should also be included in the Legal Document so that the Law Courts can administer the Maximum Sentence.
Just who is really being ‘rigid’ here? It is Pope Francis who seems to be taking an inflexible stance regarding the traditional Mass. Ironic, isn’t it, that Pope Benedict, in this instance, took a more relaxed position on an issue of such importance to so many of the faithful? Pope Francis needs to look in the mirror.
As is often the case, we have a case here where a person, in this case our own pope, deplores rigidity, well,… rigidly. As Ann Malley said yesterday, if the pope uttered words about digging, he should have been looking in the mirror.
BRAVO! It’s about time that the ‘traditional’ Catholics get attention from the Holy Father Francisco.
All Catholics, we need CORRECTION, to think that just because you are a ‘traditional’ catholic don’t need any correction from the successor of Saint Peter is wrong.
Bravo is right, Tony. We just got a prime example from His Holiness about what not listening to others looks like, sounds like, and how it leads to defaming others with a false narrative.
If one has a question “Why do you like this,” the Christian thing to do is to get to know the person and ask them “Why?” not assign a prefabbed reason in order to marginalize the other.
Perhaps the Holy Father is planning, especially after his diatribe against the dreaded rigidity, to journey together with TLM adherents to understand the why. The person. The truth.
Correction for Correction sake is just being pompous.
In a more liberal Catholic parish the doors to diversity proudly swing wide until a conservative attempts to enter; then they slam shut. I remember trying to make it possible for my parents to kneel for communion at portable kneelers at my wedding 26 years ago. It was an uphill battle. Truly the liberal Catholic view is equally, if not more rigid, than those they accuse of rigidity.
I am so tired of the liberal-progressive Catholic Church trying to be protestant and taking away all that is holy and sacred…which does not exist anymore…..and anything remotely conservative and tradition will get you moved out of the church and the door slams your backside as you leave…I hate it…..no statues allowed…no crucifix except during Lent…maybe….sometimes….the local protestant churches look more catholic than ours do…and all the clergy say …’we will not disturb the status quo’….3 generations of people who do NOT know their Catholic faith….and the clergy are not interesting in instructing nor will they change anything….
Many leftist-liberals are among the most EXTREMELY RIGID people you will ever meet! They have their own agendas, and will force them on everyone, regardless of your beliefs! Obama and his Democrats are a good example of this. So are liberals of the post-Vatican II Church! “no more beautiful old Latin Mass, suppress it, outlaw it; no Baltimore Catechism (no Catechism at all, for a long time!); no Rosaries, instead, only raging feminism; no more Christian Morality, “too rigid”–no more timeless traditions, only extremist modern fads and novelties–” etc. It goes on and on! Extremely rigid liberals, pretending their world is the only one that exists! The Pope, too, is rigid about his liberal ideas!
Simple question. Why are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion the norm and the “Extraordinary” Form of the Mass is never to be seen or experienced?
The Pope ought to visit incognito Sunday novus ordo services in Paris or New York City to see how few are coming to Sunday Mass and view the ages of those in attendance. Where are the young people of the Novus Ordo?
I think these young people deserve the Pope’s praise! Maybe eventually, they will receive his praise and encouragement! These young Catholics, who love the old Latin Mass, and take the time and trouble to study their Faith, and to be interested and involved with it, with their families and children– are so admirable! For many years, after the Second Vatican Council– there was little or no Catholic religious training, and we didn’t even get a Vatican II Catechism, until the early 1990s, for something to help young Catholics especially, with their Faith! The Pope is so LUCKY to have these devout, young Catholics, who are enthusiastic Tridentine Latin Mass lovers, in his Church! So LUCKY!!
lifesite news november 8th ran an article ‘is cardinal sarah being silenced;. mentioning his cancellation of his appearance at cologne’s 2017 liturgical conference. good chance that this angry response about rigid traditionalists might be in the context of ongoing purge. for the true believers in vatican II as erasure of the old church to streamline it the future, it must be frustrating to see that the former lituirgy outshines the new. traditionalists are the samaritans that are not wellcome at the well at the same time as jews. he’ll snap out of it on a road to damascus one day.
line 1, after ‘silenced’ a question mark should be where a semi-colon appears.
The man unconsciously destroys his own credibility with each successive ill-considered utterance, now in his 3rd impressive year of them. “Little monsters” (priests ), “old maids” [zitelle](nuns), “Promethean neo-Pelagians” (Catholics he despises).
It does not reflect on the papacy: only on his peculiarly smallness of heart and soul.
Waiting for the next Pope. ..
I think these might be the same people that His Holiness said should not breed like rabbits. Which are the problems of having a Peronist Pope.
For my part I am biritual but attend the EF whenever possible for I realize that there I really make a difference at keeping the Catholic Faith. In the Novus Ordus last week we had the blessing of the Pumpkins. This is what we have come to since Vatican Council II. The reform of the reform sought to bring a modicum of reverence to the Ordinary form but with this new Pope it shall not come to pass. We will salvage what we can and will not give up.
I wonder if P Francis would consider calling Muslims, who are notable in refusing to abridge their 5x’s daily-prayer-practice as well as their rather severely keeping the Q’uran, “rigid”.
No? I wonder why not.
i researched the history of argentina’s ‘conservative movement and found a good summary from vatican insider/la stampa. in short, argentina was a battleground after vatican II with a strong conservative bastion of bishops who resisted to such a degree that paul vi was personally involved in disciplining bishops( no close-up details given, though). the controversy simmered well into the next papacy, when john paul ii addressed bishops reminding them to let all sides coexist in reconciliation(june 12, 1982 address). perhaps francis is reliving part of that tension that was set against the great social push to help the poor on the other extreme of the church in…
argentina. . it was a terrible time . the argentine church was struggling over how to adapt vatican ii, ad intra, and how to witness to the option for the poor without provoking the anti-communist dictatorship. did traditionalists incur jesuit bergoglio’s wratch by secret denunciation to the dictatorship of the catholics who accepted vatican ii , as a tactic of opposition?
Thanks for this, “david drewelow.” Your question is a good one, as Francis is clearly formed in the Latin American, anti-capitalist (and American), pro-communist, pro-Liberation Theology, and, pro-sexual expression (as an example of “solidarity with the [fornicating] people”) model. Perhaps the closest other “independent” model that we see in the Church is that of the German Catholic Church. The Germans are essentially Lutherans and Statists (directly obtaining their operating budget through Germany’s tax policy). Germans do not like a command and control system (unless they are wearing the jackboots).
I think perhaps that the dispute over the Falkland Islands between the British and the Argentinians during the Reagan era might have soured him on English speaking peoples. Also, some Nazis fled there after World War II. Of course the Nazis fled everywhere, and or course, there were degrees of guilt or innocence on their part.
Regarding my last post, Margaret Thatcher’s voting on abortion was a “mixed bag”. She voted for early abortions among other things pertaining to embryos, but found the use of abortion as a contraceptive abhorrent All can be found on Life Site News in the year 2013. I find all those things I did not know interesting.
Make the Church Great Again
We’ll need a different Pope to accomplish that.
For over 1000 years the TLM has produced saints. What has the NO done? Besides dividing the Church, it has also been partially responsible for numerous Catholics leaving the Church. Remember, Catholicism is the largest religion in America; the second largest consists of former Catholics which has around 30 million members. Ave Maria Purrissima !
He should be happy they are attending Mass at all! Talk about rigid, they are doing a good thing and he is criticizing them because it’s not done according to HIS personal preferences. And folks wonder why this particular pope is a trial for many of us. Even still, most of us continue to pray for him every day, in spite of OUR personal preferences.
Enough of this man and his HATRED for the TRUE MAS OF ALL TIMES!!
We will drain the swamp in Washington D.C. and now the Vatican!! Burke for pope just like they said Trump would never win!! Then the return of the TLM to all of our altars.
Beautiful sentiments. May God hear our lamentations.
The young prefer it because of it beauty and its center focus on Christ not us, just like the MSM who voted for Trump, the Novus Ordonarians still don’t get it, the majority of the TLM attendees are YOUNG AND WITH MANY CHILDREN wake up.
Hey Francis keep bringing in all those poor MUSLIMS and finally put a nail into what is left of Christian Europe. This man truly needs help, I know my post may not make it but it must be said Francis is destroying what is left of the Holy Roman Church, I knew that the minute he stood on the loggia in Rome when he was elected and said my God an Argentine and a Jesuit to boot, the end is near for Rome.
Donald Trump for Pope! Let’s see if we can get Trump elected at the next conclave! He speaks his mind and is prolife.
And I lament the rigid tone of the pope re: the TLM! Enough of the insults to traditional Catholics. Our dear pontiff needs to focus on making the church ‘great again’ not complaining about what is NOT broken. ENOUGH!
Dear Pope, Are you really Catholic? Shouldn’t you be PRAISING any youth that goes to any Catholic mass? Who are you to judge the preferences of a person choosing one mass over the other? Isn’t that harsh & rather cruel? Really, you have heaped more praise on ‘other’ religions! What on earth is in your old heart that you could be so very mean to any person choosing & loving something you seemingly cannot understand? Sad & rather pathetic. God help His church.
Continued…….BTW people, I pray for this pope. But the more I pray, the worse it gets. Just when I think there is a small ray of hope, it is dashed by ‘a story like this’. I think he has unresolved ‘trouble’ in his heart for he acts as if his soul is ‘tortured’ by the very best deep traditions and values of the Catholic faith. Is there a personal vendetta that haunts him to this day? Only God knows. But by his words I sense something is just not ‘right’. Reminds me of George Soros in many ways. A sad & troubled soul bent on confusion for personal reasons. God be merciful.
I certainly agree. The TLM is a valid option. People choosing it (whether young or old) have the right to do so. Why question their motives? If they reverently attend, they are participating in the Church’s life far more than people who never go to Mass. That’s the headline—they faithfully attend Mass. What the Holy Father concentrates on is a page 65 part of the story.
After decades of gimmicks, antics, and Limbo-like contortions designed to attract Junior (& Junior Miss) to Mass, the puzzled word out now is that we find him drawn, unbaited, to the Extraordinary Form like a moth to flame. Extraordinary.
You’d think a cartoon light bulb would flash on above the relevant skullcaps.
Quick, how many Jesuits does it take to change a light bulb?
Two answers –
1) Only God knows or
2) Nobody knows what the Jesuits will do next. Nobody knows how many Jesuits will do anything. So the answer is – Nobody Knows.
The TLM is the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven. This fact cannot be doubted or refuted. By prayer and fasting, hopefullly the TLM will continue to grow, and help gain more souls for Christ.
AMEN Father Karl! The TLM is a little taste of Heaven on Earth.
Praying & dreaming big: fully restored to every parish.
May God give His church a Heavenly flood of vocations to the holy priesthood to make this dream come true in the name of Jesus, amen.
There is no better form of honor and praise to God on this earth.
Praise be to God for the TLM’s survival & growth.
EXTRAORDINARY!
The Pope is so Rigid. Is he hiding something?
The fact that he even said this is a sad revelation of lack of understanding and empathy for some valid reasons, but worse fails to see what an awesome big tent church it is. The west is falling apart because of rejection of certanties, order and structure, a new generation craves the sureness, the order, the purpose and the beauty of reverence and meaning found in submitting to the mighty God of the universe who poured himself out for puny and broken us. A good dose of reverential humility might make everyone unite in awe,wonder and respect for this amazing love. I am a revert who came back to the Church precisely because of finding this unchanged and deep true Church. My kids are converting because they too, see the beauty, purpose and…