A Comment on 'A New Offensive in the War on Traditional Liturgy'

Received on Facebook from Peter Hansen commenting on the article I shared here.

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My response to Grillo is somewhat different. If, as he says, tradition is in the service of progress, then my answer is that traditionalists are progressing, and it is Grillo who fails to grasp the nature of the changes that traditionalists are ushering. Grillo's understanding of progress is linked to a 20th century center left mindset that posits an evolutionary development that amounts to "hard becomes easy." He reveals it in his comments about what he thinks are the disturbing or retrograde political opinions of traditionalists. His viewpoint is being repudiated across the world. India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Umma all reject it. Politically, China rejects it. These billions of people insist that truth is more than a process of facilitating, and that authority serves truth and not the other way around. Traditionalists embrace the new commitment that is sweeping humanity, while the Grillos of the EU, the USA, perhaps the Vatican, and other fading societal forces rely on their social and financial capital (which is depreciating by the minute) to prolong their dominance. I would like to hear Grillo assert the churchmen's "authority" in defense of tradition. Why? First, because he doesn't believe in the churchmen's power and it would be funny. Second, he could be reminded of his own premise, which is that to the extent the churchmen fail to serve progress, they have no power at all.