Waitin’ For The Coffin

Mundabor has some interesting observations on the interview with Fr Claude Barthe published on Rorate Cæli that I just posted here.

From Mundabor's Blog

Rorate Caeli has an interesting interview to a Traditionalist Priest. The interview is mainly, but not only, concerned with the post TC situation in Italy.

I would like to point out to a couple of very interesting considerations.

First, let’s talk about Ferrara.

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What do you think the bishops’ reactions will be? I am thinking of the Archbishop of Ferrara, not at all a conservative, who erected a personal parish for the extraordinary form 15 days before the Pope announced his document. Do you expect this kind of reaction?

The case of Ferrara is very interesting in many ways. It shows this “left-wing” bishop’s independence from Pope Francis. In Italy, and in the Curia, people are distancing themselves from the pontiff. They feel that he is at the end of his career and are thinking about the future. They find the present government chaotic, and they want something more serious, and more true liberalism. As for the Bishop of Ferrara, it is clear: aware of the document and knowing that personal parishes would no longer be allowed to be erected, he erected one immediately: it’s great!

End Quote

I almost spilled my post-prandial espresso on this!

A bishop who is not at all conservative, but cannot ignore anymore how power is simply shifting inside the Diocese, knows very well that a Motu Proprio against SP is in the brew, and decides to act before it gets announced! You couldn’t make it up! This is one of those eye-opening episodes, because it would have been very easy for the Archbishop to say “let us wait first what the pope says” and fend off the requests. However, it seems that the situation on the ground was quite the contrary: a V II Bishop wants to erect a personal parish, because he knows in which direction the wind blows. His desire to establish a personal parish and a permanent Traditional Mass was not due to his Traditionalism (which just isn’t there). It’s due to it being better to give in to Catholics than to resist their mounting pressure! It’s not only “great”. It really is a blueprint for what must be happening in who knows how many places in Italy and elsewhere!

Also, look at this:

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How did the supporters of Francis’ motu proprio win through?

It was enough to convince the Pope! He has the power to go against anyone… In this case, the major lobby group in the Italian bishops’ conference was set against Summorum Pontificum, mainly because in Italy, rather later than in France, young priests were beginning to celebrate the traditional Mass and to adopt more traditional ideas. They noticed a “traditionalization” of the seminaries, which worried them greatly. In the Curia as well, people like Cardinal Parolin, Cardinal Stella in the Congregation for Clergy, etc., were also very concerned.

Unquote

More good news, and perfectly in line with what I reflected above. Italy is, later than France (because the crisis wasn’t so harsh in the first place), starting to SSPX-ise itself. Yep, I’ve said it. Yep, I reject V II (not its validity). Yep, I think an awful lot of Italian faithful think like me!

What this all tells us is this: there is a subterranean surge of Catholicism, a quiet but very strong reaction to Francis, that is so determined, that even local Archbishops hasten to give up to the Resistance, trying to be faster than Francis’ work of destruction. They know that to do what Francis wants would be madness. They don’t get to hear from Francis much. They get to hear from Catholics all the time.

But how comes that things have come to the point of – let us say this again – V II Archbishops working against the Motu Proprio even before it is made public?

Well, I hate to tell you. Or so I should. Still, here’s what it is:

They are waitin’ for the coffin.