Honeymoon of Pope Francis and Tradition seems over…

The new Holy Father Pope Francis continues to show he will not be as generous or manifest towards Tradition as was Peope emeritus Benedict XVI. He does not seem to share the sense of the sacred as did his predecessor who, despite his peritus status as a liberal at Vatican II, was edging the Church back towards sanity and normalcy.

Alas, it was not meant to last long, this truce and honeymoon of sorts, with Tradition.

By washing the feet of two women on Holy Thursday–the rubrics specify viri (men)–the Pope was indicating the tempo and temper of his reign. Much as the last two popes had done, the latter much more agreeable to Tradition.

The disobedience in carrying out the legislative text and rubrics of the Triduum indicates the Church in America follows this kind of lead from its new pontifff. In Delaware, OH at St Mary’s Church [Diocese of Columbus], 6 womenfolk were used for the feetwashing by new pastor Fr Patrick Rogers, even while intoning the Latin for the Sanctus, Agnus Dei and other parts of the Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper.

So, chanting Latin, per se, is not what’s at stake or in dispute. Rather following the legislative texts and rubrics and the sensus fidei has got more than one nose disjointed.

The Supreme Pontiff may change those rubrics if he likes, as is proper to his office, but he must do so in advance and following the Church’s process, and not ad lib or willy nilly. For even Vatican II, Super Council for so many conciliar Catholics, as pastoral and non dogmatic as it was, laid out no priest may change the language or gestures of the litrugy.

Such is par for the course in the conciliar Church of Nervous Ordo.