The Traditional Mass as a Conclave Issue: An Obstacle for Cardinal Parolin

'For all the conservative cardinals, benevolence towards the usus antiquior will be a criterion ...' But how many 'conservatives' are left after Francis stacked the Cardinalate with modernist heretics?

From Rorate Cæli

[Paix Liturgique published the following reflections on the article by Nico Spuntoni in Il Giornale on July 14, 2024. Translation for Rorate. -PK]

Given the nature of the Second Vatican Council as a kind of new beginning for the Church of all things, opposition to it, especially opposition to the new liturgy, carries a heavy psychological weight in successive conclaves.

Cardinal indiscretions have revealed that, during the 2013 conclave, Jorge Begoglio hinted to the conservative cardinals that he would make gestures in favor of the SSPX. The interest shown today by cardinals such as Jean-Marc Aveline and Matteo Zuppi in the space of freedom that this liturgy can offer is in the same vein. For all the conservative cardinals, benevolence towards the usus antiquior will be a criterion -- one of the criteria, but a particularly significant one -- of the state of mind of the person they may vote for.

And not just for conservative cardinals. This is clear from an article by Nico Spuntoni, in Il Giorgale of July 14, which we reproduce below, noting that cardinals who have never celebrated in the traditional Mass consider the war being waged against it to be senseless.

Nico Spuntoni notes the heightened importance that the question of the freedom of the traditional Mass has taken on since the persecution launched by Traditionis custodes and subsequent documents, and the role attributed to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, in this persecution. Spuntoni is trying to get a message across, as vaticanists are wont to do: Parolin is too good a diplomat not to bury the new restrictive document that has been talked about for several months.

It should be pointed out that this accusation concerning Pietro Parolin is based on a number of factors, two in particular: the Secretary of State's proven role in favor of drastically restricting the ancient liturgy, during the meetings held at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to draw up Traditionis custodes; and the animosity displayed in a particularly sensitive country, France, by a leading apostolic nuncio, now totally devoted to Cardinal Parolin, Mgr Celestino Migliore.

In any case, it's perfectly normal for the pre-Council lex credendi to be a thorn in the flesh of a post-conciliar Church built entirely on Vatican II. So it's only natural that, in one way or another, at every conclave since the end of the Council -- those of 1978, which saw the successive elections of John Paul I and John Paul II, that of 2005 for the election of Benedict XVI, that of 2013 for that of Francis, and the one that will open to give Francis a successor -- the question of contesting the foundations of the conciliar Church, symbolized by the celebration of the pre-Vatican II liturgy, always comes up.

The grain of sand of the Latin Mass in Papal Parolin's campaign

From Nico Spuntoni, Il Giornale, July 14, 2024 "La grana messa in latino sul 'papabile' Parolin"

Secretary of State is the favorite for Francis' future succession. He convinces with his moderate profile, but the ban on the ancient rite may become a boomerang.

If after the next conclave to emerge dressed in white from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica should be Cardinal Pietro Parolin, no one would be surprised. Although Francis' health gives no particular concern as it did last year, it is impossible in the Vatican to stop the totonomi for who will one day come after him. And the Secretary of State is the big favorite, on the strength of the moderate profile he has tried hard to give himself during these eleven years in the Apostolic Palace.

The revenge of diplomacy

Parolin's arrival at the helm of the Secretariat of State in 2013 was welcomed by the Holy See's feluccas, eager for a "revenge" after the pontificate of Benedict XVI who, breaking an established tradition, had appointed the Salesian Tarcisio Bertone to that role. The prelate from Schiavon, moreover, had been one of the "victims" - along with Monsignor Gabriele Caccia - of that change of guard at the Apostolic Palace, removed from the Curia in 2009 with the most classic of promoveatur ut amoveatur: consecrated bishop and sent to Venezuela as apostolic nuncio.

The Ratzingerian pontificate, due to Bertone's hostility, had not been a fortunate period for Parolin, until then enfant prodige of Vatican diplomacy and a young Vatican undersecretary for relations with states. In this capacity, the current Secretary of State was charged with such delicate roles as interlocuting on the war in Iraq with Russian Foreign Undersecretary Aleksej Meskov, leading the Holy See delegation in the resumption of the bilateral commission with Israel, a mission to China. Tasks and relationships that have come in very handy these past eleven years.

At the press conference of the long-suffering handover between Sodano and Bertone in 2006, it was Parolin himself who voiced, in curial language, the impatience of Vatican diplomacy over the failure to appoint a diplomat to lead the Third Lodge. "Although there is the novelty that both the Holy Father and the new Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone are not from direct diplomatic backgrounds, this should not entail any changes," observed the young prelate who had made a name for himself in the Curia during the season of Angelo Sodano.

His return to Rome, precisely in Bertone's place, was a sign of Francis' attention to the Holy See's diplomatic school. Although characteristically undiplomatic, the Argentine pope has shown that he values this important component of the Church and has rewarded several nuncios with the cardinalate. Choices that could come in handy for Parolin in an upcoming conclave.

Moderate but not too much

There are not many who can boast of having "survived" in top positions throughout the eleven years of Bergoglian pontificate. Parolin, however, is the exception that confirms the rule. While not considered part of the magic circle at Santa Marta, the Venetian prelate has remained firmly in place. From being the trait d 'union of two pontificates as different as the current one and that of John Paul II, the Secretary of State has often become the recipient of the outbursts of the old curial world that has become increasingly misunderstood in the Francis years.

In this, the Venetian cardinal has been good on the one hand at dispensing understanding to disappointed interlocutors, and on the other at not letting slip half an equivocal word against a notoriously fuming pope. The relationship with Francis has been characterized by ups and downs: before the pandemic, for example, rumors circulated in the Vatican that Bergoglio had privately complained that his secretary of state would rather be sent to lead a very important archdiocese close to home to add the pastoral experience that is lacking in his papacy resume.

However, in the years since, the Pope has not failed to publicly express his appreciation for the work of his number two. Moreover, a pontiff so attentive to the talk of his succession to the point of joking and predicting the election of a John XXIV, he is certainly not unaware that Parolin's name is certainly one of the most recurring. Despite the moderate and more reassuring profile compared to the many ruptures of this pontificate, the candidacy of the Italian cardinal is by no means liked by all. It is not only his central role in the agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops that has earned him the harsh attack of 92-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a living symbol of the struggle for freedom, that weighs heavily. Indeed, Parolin has long been referred to as an opponent of the so-called Latin Mass.

The Latin Mass and the conclave

In this latest period, communities of faithful attached to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite that Benedict XVI liberalized in 2007 are "on edge" because rumors have been multiplying about the imminent release of a new document that would ban celebrations of the ancient Mass altogether. The dicastery for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments has banned celebration in the so-called Tridentine rite at the Covadonga Pilgrimage and Melbourne Cathedral. The signs of further tightening after Traditionis custodes and the other documents that followed are there and have led to a mobilization led by the Anglo-Saxon world and involving non-Catholics as well.

This was seen in the letter published in "The Times" asking the Pope not to cancel the Latin Mass and signed by personalities such as former minister Michael Gove, former model and ex-wife of Rolling Stones leader Bianca Jagger, pianist Mitsuko Uchida, entrepreneur Rocco Forte, various lords and princesses and others. As of a few hours ago, also from England, another initiative started by composer James MacMillan, who launched a petition asking the Pope not to ban the Latin Mass. In a short time the petition, which is on Change.org and can be signed worldwide, has exceeded 5,000 signatures.

The hot dossier on the ancient Mass is likely to scald Parolin's candidacy: the Secretary of State, in fact, is indicated by several circulating reconstructions as the main supporter in the Curia of this new tightening. The Spectator's English columnist Damian Thompson wondered in a tweet whether the cardinal electors are reflecting on the "wounds that will deepen by electing another anti-TLM ideologue."

There is not a majority of sympathizers in the College of Cardinals toward the celebration in vetus ordo, quite the contrary. However, even several cardinals who have never celebrated in the ancient rite consider the war Rome is waging against priests and faithful of traditional sensibilities to be senseless. For the first time, however, the blame is not being placed on Francis and his "allergy" to what he calls "indietrists": in addition to the unloved Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of divine worship, it is the Secretary of State himself who is in the crosshairs.

Should an outright ban be issued on celebrating according to Pope Roncalli's 1962 missal, it cannot be ruled out that the dross of probable further polarization in the Church could end up in the next conclave and complicate the favorite's path toward becoming John XXIV.

A widespread opinion is that common sense and diplomacy, traits that Parolin does not lack, will be needed to defuse an incident deemed avoidable by many, while doing everything possible to ensure that the rumored divisive document remains in the drawer.