Synodality is fashionable, except for traditionalists, who are only entitled to suffer in silence

The Lenten season for traditionalist Catholics is starting with a bang. Cardinal Roche, who is in charge of liturgical matters at the Vatican and has never hidden his opposition to the work of Benedict XVI, has just published a new text validated by Pope Francis on the practice of the ancient rite. Contrary to the very spirit that the Pope wished to give to his pontificate, it drastically reduces the freedom of bishops and their autonomy in this matter. But who are these traditionalist Catholics? [...]

Today, these people are being singled out. One might have wondered why they fill their Churches when many others are emptying. One might also have asked whether these people are not part of what Benedict XVI has called the creative minorities: schools, scout groups, choirs, assistance to the elderly, missionary works, the media and above all... conversions and vocations. The trads are making their fig tree blossom, but it doesn't seem to matter.

Above all, like Saint Paul called to Jerusalem by the pillars of the Church (Galatians 2), we could have tried to receive the leaders of the institutes and fraternities concerned to hear them. They could even have been asked to make an effort by working on certain points. In the same way that the Society of St. Pius X or the Anglicans were committed to working with Rome on a reintegration, still under the pontificate of Benedict XVI. In the case of ill will, a fraternal correction, even a reprimand, could have been made, and even pastoral solicitude shown. This is a work of justice in canon law (C. 1341). Better still, as the floor is now given to the laity, some of the faithful from the grassroots, representative of this singular current in the Church, could have been invited.

This did not happen: only the superior of the Fraternity of St Peter was received. He won his case. As for the laity, the mothers of priests aged between 50 and 65, who walked 1,500 kilometres from Paris to Rome to lay a petition at the feet of the Vicar of Peter, were received in barely three minutes. 1,500 kilometres for a handful of seconds... In this group, a drop of hope in an ocean of indifference, there was even a faithful member of the Emmanuel community who, moved by compassion, wished to walk a little way with this strange little world. This woman had created a bridge. She was welcomed with tears and loved in the words of Tertullian: "See how they love each other" (Apologetics, n. 39 § 7).

Today, these tradis are given names to better disqualify them. They are nihilists, we are told, or restorationists. One English critic even considers them to be the new Jansenists! They are told to recognise the Second Vatican Council when the overwhelming majority of them have not read and will never read the Second Vatican Council. Nor will most of the faithful who attend the Paul VI Mass. They are reproached for their ecclesiology without asking whether the 96% of Catholics who do not practise have one. Basically, they want to re-educate them. By choice or by force. Synodality seems to be in fashion, but "they" have only one right: to suffer in silence.

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