Gaslighting the Faithful

"Fr Carter is insinuating that those who adhere to the Old Mass are not in communion with the Church." What Catholics once were, we are. If we are wrong, then Catholics through the ages have been wrong. We are what you once were. We believe what you once believed. We worship as you once worshipped. If we are wrong now, you were wrong then. If you were right then, we are right now. ~ Robert De Piante

From Crisis

By Andrea Madrigal

It defies all logic to accuse the faithful of being outside full communion with the Church for merely wanting to attend the millennia-old liturgy of the saints.

On October 12, Fr. David Carter, the pastor and rector of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul—located in the Diocese of Knoxville, where a Vatican order has indicated that all diocesan TLMs cease by late November—gave a homily titled “Treasures New and Old,” in which he spoke about the events that have shaken the diocese. His sermon, however, was not a defense of the faithful’s liturgical rights to possess what their Catholic ancestors gave their blood for but rather something more disturbing. 

I know by now that I shouldn’t be surprised by anything that comes from the clergy, and yet Fr. Carter’s words left me in shock. This is a man who is supposed to be the father, the shepherd to hundreds of grieving sheep as they are spiritually abused at the hands of their bishop and Rome; but instead, his reaction was to try to gaslight those very souls he is in charge of into eating the stones they are being given in place of bread. In this article, I intend to examine this sermon more closely as a response to Fr. Carter’s words. As a regular TLM attendee myself, I grieve with my fellow Catholics in the diocese of Knoxville, as I cannot imagine what life would be like without the Traditional Latin Mass. 

One of the things that stood out to me when I sat down to read Fr. Carter’s sermon before writing this article is the blaring misunderstanding of what obedience is. In the third paragraph of his homily, Fr. Carter states, “With humility and obedience, resisting any temptation to oppose proper ecclesial authority, we must make a choice: to be Catholic or Protestant.” Later, he once again states, “Don’t be Protestant.” 

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, in his piece titled, “True Obedience: A Key Consideration for Our Time” published in OnePeterFive in 2021, wrote:

It is important to note that Catholic theologians are unanimous in maintaining that an authority can actually act against the common good…and that ordinary Catholics are capable of recognizing when it is happening.

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae wrote:

There are two reasons for which a subject may not be bound to obey his superior in all things . . . . Therefore if the emperor commands one thing and God another, you must disregard the former and obey God. (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 104, a. 5)

St. Thomas’ words demonstrate that not all obedience is good. Therefore, for Fr. Carter to speak of obedience as he does in his homily demonstrates a faulty understanding of what true obedience is. 

I would also like to address Fr. Carter’s multiple exhortations for the faithful “not to be Protestant.” To accuse someone of being a Protestant because they have the temerity to admit to what they see with their own eyes is as much a result of gaslighting as it is malicious. The only thing most TLM attendees want is to be Catholic and go to Heaven, yet their spiritual father is accusing them of being Protestant if they dare protest against the abuses wrought against them. Words fail me to describe how wrong and injurious this is. 

Allow me to get something straight: Martin Luther was not wrong for pointing out the evil that was going on in the Church during his lifetime; he was wrong because he chose to leave the Church and adopt heretical beliefs. The definition of Protestant is not to speak the truth but rather to be a heretic. So please, spare me the accusations that traditional Catholics are Protestants simply because they criticize evil. 

If Catholics were Protestants for opposing evil in the Church, St. Athanasius would be the greatest saint in the Protestant “church.” This kind of insult is simply one gaslighting tactic among many to make faithful Catholics fearful of their own beliefs and to silence them. The pope is in Rome holding prayer meetings with Anglicans, but it’s the trads who are Protestant for protesting spiritual abuse. 

“We are not the masters of the liturgy; we are its servants,” Fr. Carter writes. Meanwhile, he is compelling his parishioners to accept a Mass that was formed by men who sought to be masters of what they ought to have been servants. By this logic—which is correct, though wrongly applied, in the case of Fr. Carter—the liturgical reform was subversive. Why, then, must we give up the Old Mass, if we are only seeking what is right?

Perhaps what is most injurious about this homily is Fr. Carter’s lack of understanding as to why traditional Catholics love the TLM and his assumptions of why they do. In the last paragraph of the first page, he writes, 

The Diocese of Knoxville will be transitioning all celebrations of the Latin Mass from using the 1962 Missal to the 2002 Missal in Latin by the end of the year. In this way, we are not losing the Latin Mass, nor the Roman Rite. The bishop has assured us that the legitimate aspirations for transcendence, reverence, and beauty will continue to be honored…[The Novus Ordo] With all the traditional options and elements already permitted in its rubrics, will ensure that the treasures of our tradition are preserved while remaining in full communion with the Church.[emphasis mine]

“That the treasures of our tradition are preserved.” In this line, Fr. Carter is buying into the stereotypical logic of tradition in liturgy and the stereotype of traditionalists: that there is nothing more to the Latin Mass than the “smells and bells.” So you keep the incense, the bells, the chant and the polyphony. But what about the old Offertory prayers that were replaced by the Jewish table blessing? What about the Last Gospel? What about the old Propers, formed organically throughout so many years? Are not those part of our Tradition, too? And, if so, why do they matter less than the chant, incense, and bells? 

Furthermore, in saying “that the treasures of our tradition are preserved while remaining in full communion with the Church,” Fr. Carter is insinuating that those who adhere to the Old Mass are not in communion with the Church. So, were Joan of Arc, Thomas Aquinas, and Padre Pio in schism because they attended and loved the Mass? If not, why are we not in communion with the Church if we love the same form of the Mass that the saints did? 

Why is it that every time a question of the Old Mass or the True Faith comes up, the validity of our union with Rome is questioned? If I had a dollar for every single time a Catholic who loves the TLM has been accused of schism, I would be a millionaire. It is the de facto accusation against traditionalists, even though it arises from a faulty perception of what schism is. Being a schismatic does not mean preferring a liturgy that the Holy Father does not like; schism is severing ties with Rome—rejecting the Holy Father when he is right, along with his rightful authority. 

In a Church that speaks of marginalization and understanding, traditional Catholics are among some of the most—if not the most—misunderstood groups of Catholics today. Not only are they falsely accused, but they are believed to not be very bright as well. They are treated like children. Fr. Carter says, “We will retain the old…and we will receive the new—the fuller cycle of Scripture readings, the unified calendar, and the deeper participation envisioned by the Council.” 

Once again, this is gaslighting. Trying to make an act of clear ecclesiastical cruelty appear as a blessing in disguise is not right. To assume also that these Catholics cannot see what is right in front of them—that they cannot distinguish right from wrong—is insulting. Most of these Catholics have probably already been to the Novus Ordo, or, like myself, were even raised with that rite of Mass; but they now attend the TLM because they know it is superior and more beneficial for their spiritual lives. 

In conclusion, we must never cease to see spiritual abuse as the crime it truly is. The saints and our ancestors preserved the Old Mass for us, many of them with their very blood. It is our birthright. We cannot be gaslit into seeing spiritual malnutrition as a blessing. This is the salvation of our souls we are concerned about. 

The Latin Mass is our birthright, and no amount of Latin Novus Ordos will ever be able to replace the beauty and wonder of the Old Mass—because it is not just about the smells and the bells. It is about a rite that developed organically over hundreds and hundreds of years. A rite that is ours. A rite we have a right to attend. 

We must keep fighting, as our ancestors did, for that rite of Mass that is so dear to us. That is not to say it will not hurt, for it will. But it is in the midst of this pain in our work to restore true, fitting worship of God that we will become sanctified. We must not give up, so that, one day, the rite which begins with the words “Introibo ad altare Dei” will resound in every Catholic Church once more, just as it once did.