Why was the synod so silent about the traditional Latin Mass? National Catholic Register

VATICAN CITY — One of the persistent criticisms of the final meeting of the Synod on Synodality is that, despite the frequent emphasis on listening and dialogue, several relevant and important voices remained unheard.

In his final research of the synod, George Weigel identified some of these voices as happily married couples, Catholic educators resisting today’s “woke” culture, and health care professionals living a culture of life.

But another group conspicuous by its absence were the faithful who value the traditional liturgy and apostolic tradition – a small but thriving group, both in terms of vocations and church attendance, but currently the subject of sweeping Vatican restrictions since Pope Francis in 2021. motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.

During the global consultation phases of the 2021-2024 Synod, traditional groups such as the Latin Mass Society of Great Britain (LMS) and the International Federation Una Voce (FIUV) encouraged their members to submit contributions, and many responded by sharing their views . part of the synodal process.

Written contributions, especially those from Europe and the United States, found their way into the synodal reports during the continental phase that ran from late 2022 to March 2023 and continued to be recorded by the bishops in the synthesis reports that followed.

Writing in the FIUV magazine Gregory Magnus last winter, LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw observed that some episcopal conferences, such as those of Malta, Italy, France and Australia, tended to ignore it altogether. But in the dioceses and countries where the Traditional Mass was well established, he wrote that diocesan and national synthesis reports tended to “recognize the existence of Catholics associated with it and report their position.”

They were often mentioned in the context of a desire for a more reverent liturgy, concerns about division, and a sense of exclusion and marginalization among those attached to the ancient rite.

But as the synod progressed, these contributions did not become part of the meeting’s discussions, nor did they make it into the final document. “They were kind of taken out,” Shaw told the Register, adding that they were “like seeds falling among thorns.”

Direct appeals to the synod organizers also went unheeded.

In April this year, Jean-Pierre Maugendre, who heads the French traditional group Renaissance Catholic, sent a call for the complete freedom of the traditional Mass directly to the synod office because he wanted the entire traditional world to participate in the synod, but the register has learned that Maugendre has not received a response, not even an acknowledgment of receipt.

Noah Peters, founder and president of the Arlington Latin Mass Society in Virginia, told the Register that “from its inception through the final document, the Synod on Synodality refused to acknowledge the input it received from traditional Catholics, both faith and religious leaders recognize or act on it. and laymen.”

He said this happened despite the fact that traditional Catholics “expressed thoughtful positions throughout the process” that emphasized how the traditional Latin Mass “has become a source of vocations, conversions and relapses, and that the restrictions are painful and cruel have been’. But he added that “it was clear from the beginning that the synod leadership was not interested in hearing or acting on these views.”

The discrepancy became sharply apparent when synod participants discussed the issue of vocations and priest shortages in the West.

Traditional Catholic communities have been described as the only Catholic demographic group growing in the Western world, with groups such as the traditional Society of Saint Peter (FSSP) reporting a file number of vocations in 2023 and a significant increase thereof overall membership. More generally, attendance at traditional liturgies has been increasingand pilgrims attending events such as the annual traditional pilgrimage to Chartres in France breaking records.

A traditional priest in the United States told the Register on condition of anonymity, due to restrictions on the ancient rite, that traditional communities are “inundated with vocational demands and struggle to accommodate those who aspire to join their ranks .” He added that many of these budding vocations would have approached their local diocese not long ago Traditionis Custodes she feel that they “can no longer entrust their vocational discernment to those who have effectively overturned traditional understandings of what it means to be Catholic.”

The synod’s final document acknowledged the vocations crisis but presented solutions other than emphasizing the traditional liturgy, such as “expanding and stabilizing” lay ministries.

The issue was also discussed during some press conferences. Cardinal Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany, told reporters on October 22 that “so far we have not found an answer to the lack of priests” and suggested that “a new answer regarding women in the Church” had to be found . including officially instituting female preachers.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, also highlighted the problem of the lack of priests in his deeply secular country of Luxembourg. He told reporters that to combat this, his diocese has merged parishes, not only because of a lack of priests but also because of a “lack of faithful.” The traditional liturgy was not seen as a possible solution.

Abbé Claude Barthe, an expert author on the traditional liturgy and priest of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in France, told the Register that “nobody at the synod, not even the bishops who know the traditional world well, like Bishop Matthieu Rouge of Nanterre, named using the possibilities of the traditional world, where there is a significant number of vocations.”

When the Register asked Cardinal Hollerich at the end of the synod why traditional Catholics and their views on vocations and other issues were not taken into account in the final stage of the process, he replied: “I have seen people who celebrate Mass according to the old rite and I I am friends with them. I can imagine that in a postmodern world you would be attracted to that; I don’t condemn that.”

When he delved deeper into the question, he responded by saying that traditional Catholicism was “not a topic of discussion,” adding, “We were not against them; we were not for them.” When asked how such an approach can be called synodal if it involves listening to all points of view, he replied: “We have discussed things put forward by the people of God, and these people have not written to us.”

The cardinal was asked about the issue again outside the press room, but he said he was “too tired” before entering a room to be interviewed by Vatican media. When asked again if he could explain why traditional Catholicism was not included, he again declined, saying he had shown young people who were waiting for him.

Speaking to the register at the end of the synod, Archbishop Andrew Nkea from Bamenda, Cameroon, who was a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod that oversaw the conduct of the 2021-2024 process, acknowledged that traditional Catholicism had been left out and said this was due to Traditionis Custodes. “We would not talk about the papal (motu proprio) in the synod,” he said.

For Abbé Barthe, the exclusion of the synod and synodality was “clearly ideological,” and he pointed to “other areas where traditionalist ‘recipes’ work,” such as “Mass attendance, youth movements, and the teaching of the Catechism.”

Peters said that while the final document “may not have been as bad as feared, the biased process unfortunately failed to reflect the voices of the Catholic laity and religious who stood up in large numbers for the traditional liturgy and the unchanging Magisterium of the Church.”

He added: “It’s clearer than ever Traditionis Custodes is totally contrary to the concept of a synodal Church,” but said he was “confident that future synods will not be able to avoid the prayerful and unbiased deliberation that is necessary in these difficult times for the Church. ”

Members of the synod secretariat were also contacted for this report, but did not respond by press time.