Thread by @KBSquared4

Something I learned early on as a Catholic: do NOT mess w/ a Jesuit, no matter how cuddly he seems. Papa Francis was formed in the fire of Argentina during dark times. He has done the right thing here, though I'm sorry that's the case. 1/
latimes.com/world-nation/s…

I may be an Anglican churchwarden now, but my heart is still Catholic, so I am really feeling this. Also, I attended a conservative Catholic church for 19 years, & I saw what 'Summorum Pontificum' did, up close & personal. I could have told you it would do exactly what it did. 2/

When I first started attending this church, it was conservative, but sane(ish). I fell in love w/ the Novus Ordo Latin mass in the crypt of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in DC, & when I came to the UK to study, I found one near my college housing. I was thrilled. 3/

They said it beautifully. For years, 11am Sunday was the high point of my week, and I came to grow very fond of the community. Latin mass was said quietly in the Sacred Heart chapel on a Saturday at noon (the earliest that counts for Sunday). 4/

When Benedict was elected in 2005, I began to feel unsettled. It felt like something ugly was given permission to bubble to the surface. There was more rightwing talk, sermons became more strident, suddenly, repugnant comparisons between abortion & the Holocaust were being made.

I knew this was the crew who loved their image of the CDF Rottweiler, going after and taking down those they perceived as liberal heretics. There was no charity in them, just fierce bloodlust & a narrow, ugly, unChristlike theology. The NO Latin mass? Still in a sweet spot. 6/

Rumours of 'Summorum Pontificum' made me worry. I'd seen the personality cult a rightwing rad trad Dominican tried to create by preying on vulnerable parishioners; I knew some Oratorians had similar leanings. I knew the gate to SSPX & yes, the old mass, needed to be kept shut, 7/

or, if not shut, tightly controlled. Opening it would simply create that utmost danger to a church: another church within it, and a fundamentalist/extremist one at that. It was clear that the banner for 'tradition' was a dogwhistle for 'old England': Empire, colonial, white. 8/

In came 'Summorum Pontificum' in 2007, and so did the 8am Tridentine mass. Every time I noted the danger, I was told I was overreacting - as a woman, POC, convert. I wasn't. It spread through the church faster than you could say 'Delta variant', & the sneering condescension 9/

& stridency got worse. Priests with fragile egos (& no vocation, let's not lie) drank up the traddies' uncritical devotion to the collar the way I drink mango lassi if there's a jug around. Traddyism, never far away, escaped the 8am box. Then they turned to the NO Latin Mass. 10/

"Let's CHANGE it to make it more traditional! We can have our backs to the people during the Eucharistic prayer and wear lace up to our moobs and...and..."

AND WHAT? IGNORE THE RUBRICS? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

I stayed another 8 years. I should have walked then. 11/

They not only ruined the clean, clear lines of the Novus Ordo Latin Mass by adding even more servers, gestures, lace, gold, and fussiness, they fell deeper in love with their own authority and became caricatures of themselves. There were 2 exceptions. 12/

One was my spiritual confessor and good friend, who is one of the warmest, humblest, most pastoral priests I know. The other was, interestingly enough, a cradle Catholic *who had actually worshipped the old mass*, was traditional and...left wing. 13/

I *loved* his Tridentine masses; you could come to rest in them and feel the Presence. He said them without fuss, as if they were the most natural thing in the world to him (he never said a NO Latin mass in my 19 yrs there). He was grumpy & deeply kind, a brilliant confessor. 14/

We lost him in 2019. G-d rest you, Fr J, you are still so deeply missed. After I went Anglican, I'd still sneak into the Lady Chapel to pray & occasionally saw him. His face filled w/ joy when he saw me; I was still his flock. I knew he would be overjoyed if I came back, 15/

but he never pushed, he was just always there. If HE were the face of the Tridentine mass, I'd be all over it like a cheap suit...but he wasn't.

See, here's the thing: I'm actually *a fan* of the Dialogue Mass. My issues with the Tridentine revolve around small things 16/

like feeling strongly that *I* need to say the Confiteor out loud, that we all need to say the creed, I want to hear the EP. The Dialogue Mass solves that. It wouldn't have been hard to woo me over to attending one somewhat regularly - I'd have happily been hybrid.

But no. 17/

The Tridentine mass goers and enablers - bishops and cardinals who love their authority and get off on uncritical adoration and obedience - positioned themselves as the guardians of real Catholicism, entwining it w/ strains of evangelicalism brought in by Hahn & Longenecker. 18/

It became anti-intellectual & authoritarian, which attracted people w/ toxic worldviews: racism, colonialism, xenophobia, white supremacy, 'you're not a real Catholic', hating anyone not like them - they could say it out loud now. They are the Catholic extremists/fundies. 19/

Unsurprisingly, a virulent militant strain emerged (CM/ MV). It's easy to see how dangerous they've become.
They need to be contained or they need to be pushed to leave.

There's part of me that wonders if the USCCB's actions were a trigger for this. 20/

I suspect Francis has been thinking about this for a long time - not wanting to do this, hoping it would get better.

For those of you excoriating him, *this was the mass that formed him* - it was the Catholic mass until he was in his 30s. This can't have been easy. 21/

I also wonder if he consulted Benedict on this decision; I wouldn't be surprised.

We were given the gift of the return of the Tridentine mass, but it was taken away from G-d, usurped by men for their own vainglory, hubris, and purposes of division. It could have been 22/

a gift for everyone, scaffolding leading us to His Presence, but instead, like the Tower of Babel, it became a lightning rod for hatred, hubris, and division.

With a heavy heart, I agree with @Pontifex - 'Summorum Pontificum' needs to be undone before it destroys us. 23.

As promised, here is my Catholic/Anglican hot take, @mthr_jo @Prof_RBW @JohnWFarrell @SeanPDailey2 @dhconway @mary_pezzulo @GregDaly @PSYfem @jontweetshere

A final thought: would it have been better if the Tridentine mass had not been sidelined after Vatican II? Absolutely, I've always thought it should have been allowed to carry on quietly. Banning it is very much what gave extremists something to rally around.