The New TLM Suppression: Crisis Averted?

Mr Flanders looks at what happened to the 'second shoe about to drop' on the Mass of the Ages and why it never came to pass.

From One Peter Five

By Timothy Flanders, MA

Remember when everybody was sure that there was a new Latin Mass suppression coming down the pike from The Dictator Pope and his mercy for the margins?

That came from a credible rumour published by our friends at Rorate back on June 17th. While that was brewing, Viganò got the axe from the Vatican, and a different report denied any existence of a new TLM suppression.

Meanwhile, the “Agatha Christie Petition 2.0” was released, along with a second petition by the same authors for the faithful to sign. A third petition was also put out (“An Open Letter from the Americas to Pope Francis”), signed by people like Trad critic Larry Chapp and endorsed by Archbishop Cordileone.

When the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel arrived on July 16th, the American Bishops were on their way to the National Eucharistic Congress, where the TLM was an official Mass option twice during the event. Archbishop Cordileone celebrated the ancient Roman Rite while the faithful were overflowing the overflow tent outside:

But meanwhile, Rome was silent. What had become of this TLM suppression? Wasn’t it supposed to come out on July 16th?

But then on July 22nd, Rorate reported again, translating the Argentine blog Caminante Wanderer:

July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the third anniversary of Traditionis custodes, was the date set for the release of a new document from the Holy See putting an end to the traditional Mass, which, it was said, would be reserved exclusively for the so-called “Ecclesia Dei institutes.” It was, as we called it in this blog, the final solution.

But, perhaps through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel herself, nothing happened. And some have begun to comment on what happened in the Vatican’s mendacious circles. I offer here the explanations given for the facts.

1. The document in question exists, and has existed since the end of 2021, with more or fewer details. It was intended to be signed in February 2022 by Pope Francis in the form of an apostolic constitution, as we said at the time; but not only did he refuse to do so, but he intemperately had the person who brought him the proposal, Cardinal Arthur Roche, expelled from the office.

The source then says that Cardinal Roche has irritated the Holy Father by being unintelligent and “the clumsy editor and promoter of Traditionis custodes.” The Argentinian source claimed that

And Francis has understood that this document [Traditionis custodes] was a mistake that brought him more headaches than anything else, and not because he has sympathy for the Traditional Mass but because it made even more visible the groups that support it, which, instead of diminishing, continue to grow steadily.

Apparently this new rumoured “TC 2.0” was not pushed by Roche, but rather Archbishop Vittorio Viola who was seeking his own ambitions and using a new suppression of the TLM to get there. He’s the one who brought this new document to the Holy Father.

The document reached the hands of Pope Francis, who studied it but was not convinced. And this for several reasons. First of all, and most importantly, because liturgy is not his war. Traditionis custodes caused him too many problems that he does not need new ones, and because (as he always advises those who visit him) he is very careful when it comes to making martyrs. A highly restrictive document such as the one presented to him would generate a legion of martyrs among priests and faithful, and that is not something he would allow himself: he would have no damage control.

5. On the other hand, requests from many bishops, priests, faithful, and personalities of the world reached the Pope’s desk begging him not to take such a step. And it seems to have had an effect. But this is not just a synodal act of “listening to the People of God”; that is for the unwary who believe in synodality. It was also the advice of a group of cardinals and prelates who, without having any sympathy for the traditional liturgy, consider the hatred of Viola, Grillo, and their ilk to be an exaggeration that would end up damaging not only the Church as the mystical body of Christ, which probably does not bother them, but the papacy as well (emphasis in the original).

Not only that, said this source, but Vatican influencers are also anticipating a more moderate papacy after Francis dies, and are thus angling to secure their jobs in a moderate Vatican by stopping a TLM suppression, which is anything but moderate.

But a few days after the July 22nd Argentine rumour, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit announced that “the Holy See” required them to adopt the Novus Ordo, at least partially. Then on August 17th, Viola and Roche attacked a TLM in Lutheran-dominated Finland.

So it seems that the enemies of Christ failed to get the Holy Father to sign onto their “final solution,” but they still have enough power to call some shots like this.

I have checked with all my sources in Rome and no one has heard anything more.

That’s it. That’s the Latin Mass suppression. A “nothing burger” as some say in the States.

If we assume that all these reports are true, we can conclude, however, that the power of the new iconoclasts who hate the Latin Mass is diminishing. One recalls the Last Testament of Cardinal Pell in his memorandum to all cardinals:

Commentators of every school, if for different reasons, with the possible exception of Father Spadaro, SJ, agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe… Previously it was: “Roma locuta. Causa finita est.” Today it is: “Roma loquitur. Confusio augetur.”

That sad fact about this pontificate was certainly evident with the papalist failure of Traditionis Custodes. The action has united the moderates, Conservatives and Traditionalists against Pope Francis. In fairness to Pope Francis, it isn’t the first time a pope has been influenced by extremists to do something stupid (Padre Pio comes to mind).

But if we can believe the reports, the Peronism of the Dictator Pope, with a smile from Divine Providence, is ending up defending the Latin Mass. The Holy Father cares about one thing: power. And he saw, especially with the latest attempt, that even influential non-Christians themselves were willing to defend the Latin Mass. Not a good look, Holiness.

So has the crisis been averted? This new attempt seems to have fizzled out. Nevertheless, there is a document in the Vatican somewhere, sitting on somebody’s desk. And the enemies of Christ never sleep, because the fallen angels are the one’s driving this conspiracy.

This ain’t over. DEUS VULT.