Bishop Attacks Latin Mass, Says ‘Only’ Novus Ordo Is Compatible With Synodal Church

If this is not evidence that the Synodal Church and the Catholic Church are two different Churches, I don't know what is.

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

According to Bishop Tomáš Holub, it is the Novus Ordo that allows the integration of synodality in the liturgy, whereas this would be ‘very difficult’ with the Traditional Latin Mass.

The bishop of the Diocese of Pilsen in the Czech Republic stated in a recent article that the Synodal Church needs an adequate liturgy that can “only” be the Novus Ordo Missae.

Tomáš Holub, a heterodox bishop who has endorsed Amoris Laetitia and announced that he would give Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried, shared his vision of synodality on the blog of the liturgist and professor Andrea Grill.

According to the Polish outlet Polonia Christiana, Holub argued that modern evangelization needs “current theology.” Synodality, which is “rooted” in Vatican II changes, must be a tool of evangelization. And this modern Church needs “an adequate liturgy” that “can only be (the) Novus Ordo Missae.”

Holub claimed that “old tools” of evangelization “do not meet the needs of today’s people,” and in order to fill this gap, he convened a synod. 

He suggested that the synod fundamentally changed the role of laypeople in the Church.

The people of God “became the protagonist, not just the recipient of the services; a people composed of clergy and laymen, men and women, united without distinction in common baptism,” Holub said. According to the prelate, synodality “is not just a communication technique but a way of living by faith.” 

“It is not about convening a synod but about becoming a synod to imitate Jesus and become His disciples,” he added.

He went on to articulate a heterodox conception of the liturgy, claiming that the “synodal mentality” shows that liturgical activities do not concern the individual and are not an end in themselves but are the source and the peak of unity, as if “unity” was the purpose of the Mass. The Mass is ordered primarily toward God as the unbloody sacrifice and offering of Christ to God the Father.

“The Eucharistic celebration must be the culmination of local church life, a celebration expressing all the dynamism and unity of the assembled people,” Holub said. According to the bishop, it is the Novus Ordo that allows the integration of synodality in the liturgy, whereas the synodal experience of Catholicism would be “very difficult” during the Traditional Latin Mass. 

The Latin Mass “no longer meets today’s needs,” he added.

He went on to stress the importance of Vatican II to the “synodal” liturgy and seemed to endorse an inversion of the hierarchical structure of the Church by claiming Vatican II’s vision was of a Church founded on the laity, not priests.

“The strand connecting synodality and liturgical action is precisely the vision of the Church promoted by the Second Vatican Council, the Church based on the congregation, not on the clergy, the Church of ministries, the community Church, which testifies to its unity and celebrates it,” Holub wrote.

Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass, on the other hand, “convince themselves of the correctness of the ecclesiological vision proposed by these rites,” continued Holub, as if the Church must repudiate the ecclesiology it has held for centuries.

The old Mass, according to Holub, “causes cracks,” leads to suspicions of the “reform” and results in “distrust of the Church.” A “benevolent and at the same time firm attitude” should be expressed toward such Catholics through the “implementation of the process of accompaniment, formation and synodal support.” 

It should begin with “the undisputed common theological platform, the Second Vatican Council, as an expression of the true Magisterium,” Holub asserted. His description of Vatican II as an “undisputed common theological platform” is at odds with the council’s marked controversy, elicited by passages that orthodox Catholics criticize for giving the impression of error.

Holub was appointed bishop of Pilsen in February 2016 by Pope Francis and ordained two months later. He previously served as the Secretary General of the Czech Bishop Conference.