I get little solace from the idea that some future pope will come along and undo the Francis papacy. Not that I don’t think it could happen. But what is the point of a religion that changes from time to time depending on who is pope?
What got me to this point is the scandal of Traditionis Custodes.
First, let me clarify what I mean by “scandal.” I am not talking about tabloid “scandal.” I am talking about theological “scandal,” which St. Thomas Aquinas describes as a word or action evil in itself, which occasions another’s spiritual ruin. The essence of scandal is the harmful effect of one person’s evil actions upon another person.
In Summorum Pontificum, issued July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI restored the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, which had fallen into disuse after the Second Vatican Council, despite that Council’s affirmation of the use of Latin in the Latin rites. Pope Benedict’s transmittal letter to the world’s bishops, of the same date as Summorum Pontificum, gives us the pope’s reasoning: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
It turned out, however, that the Traditional Latin Mass could be all of a sudden considered harmful by the very next pope. In his own document, Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis on July 16, 2021, proclaimed that the new Mass is “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman rite.” Pope Benedict’s actions were repudiated and cancelled: “Art. 8. Previous norms, instructions, permissions, and customs that do not conform to the provisions of the present Motu Proprio are abrogated.” This was done while Benedict was alive, dressing in papal white, and residing in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City.
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