Traditionis Custodes two years on: chronicle of a failure foretold

Paix Liturgique commemorates two years since the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which sought, in the middle of summer 2021, to establish a "liturgical health pass" and wipe the traditional Mass off the map.  As with the civil health pass, not much remains of this desire for total control based on false premises - except that the refuseniks and those who have joined them have been strengthened by it.

To mark the second anniversary of the iniquitous motu proprio Traditionis custodes, which was published on 18 July 2021, we asked our old friend Louis Renaudin to answer a few questions.  I'm sure his reflections will help us to look forward to better days.

Paix Liturgique: Dear Louis, you speak readily of the failure of Traditionis custodes?

Louis Renaudin: There are various aspects to it.  But first of all we need to emphasise the fundamental flaw in this undertaking: how did those who launched it on the grounds of "promoting concord and unity in the Church" deliberately rekindle the civil war that Summorum Pontificum had partially extinguished?

In the very text of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (and in its accompanying letter), Pope Francis states that, in order to justify his decision, he is basing himself on the results of the survey carried out in 2020 among the bishops of the Latin Church, the aim of which was to ascertain their assessment of the effects in their dioceses of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 (1). The results of this survey are the opposite of what they say.

Paix Liturgique: How do you know?

Louis Renaudin: The survey of the world's bishops was the subject of a summary, the content of which was widely leaked.  Far from being negative about the application of Summorum Pontificum, this summary was largely positive.  In particular, it underlined the appeasement that this decision had brought and the richness it had brought.  Bishops from Pakistan, for example, regretted that Summorum Pontificum had not been implemented in their dioceses.  In fact, the criticisms were few compared to the large number of responses.

Paix Liturgique: But how was the Pope able to rely on this survey to promulgate Traditionis custodes?

Louis Renaudin: It would be risky to say that the Pope didn't take note of this synthesis because, especially in this area, he likes to see everything for himself.  But I would remind you that at the time various documents were circulated that presented themselves as national syntheses, which were largely negative on the contrary, insisting that the application of Summorum Pontificum even risked undermining the unity of the Church.  In short, there was a war of synthesis.  It's a classic process.

Paix Liturgique: Can you give us an example?

Louis Renaudin: In its letters 780 and 782, Paix liturgique reported on a synthesis, which was presented as that of the Conférence des Évêques de France and was nothing more than a caricatured and misleading piece of rubbish.  Similar "information" was circulated in Italy.  For more details, I refer you to these two letters which present this attempted manipulation in detail (Paix Liturgique France and Paix Liturgique France).

Paix Liturgique : So this means that the papal decision was based on a falsified assessment of the situation?

Louis Renaudin: Officially falsified, but really very well known.  The Roman authorities where this subject was debated (the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for Bishops in the time of Cardinal Ouellet, the Congregation for the Clergy in the time of Cardinal Stella) were well aware of the progress of the traditional liturgy and felt that it should be stopped while there was still time.  For them, the Mass was endangering the spirit of the Council.  And TC's text on this subject is clear (1): the application and survival of Summorum Pontificum was therefore endangering the unity of the Church, with groups dangerously distancing themselves from this unity in the spirit of Vatican II. But tell me, where are these groups?  Who is the Pope talking about?  Americans, it seems, faithful and bishops who are very 'restorationist', and who were energised by Summorum Pontificum.  The Pope used to receive photos of traditional celebrations by American bishops on his desk, which made him furious.  Mgr Aupetit, then Archbishop of Paris, a man who could not be considered a friend of tradition, told the faithful of Notre-Dame du Travail in Paris, who had met him in the parish of Saint-Dominique, in the 14th arrondissement, about this accusation of being considered a danger to unity: "All this is not for you, but was written for the Americans...".

Paix Liturgique: Wasn't the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X also targeted?

Louis Renaudin: It's true that the SSPX is radically critical of the Council, and from that point of view we have to recognise its consistency and constancy, whereas the Ex-Ecclesia Dei communities are basically trapped in this respect by their institutionalisation.  But I don't think that the SSPX was targeted by TC, because it is considered in Rome to be "from outside".  What TC and the subsequent documents are aiming at is the spread "inside", in ordinary parishes and in the dioceses of the traditional liturgy.  The worst thing for the enemies of liturgical peace is the growing success of the celebration of the traditional liturgy throughout the world, with broad episcopal support in some places, such as America.  They had to build a dike against a rising tide.

Paix Liturgique: A rise that Paix Liturgique noted in its annual review of transitional liturgy around the world.

Louis Renaudin: Exactly as you said in your letter 732 of 5 February 2020 (Paix Liturgique France), which took stock of the growth of the traditional Mass around the world.  The motu proprio Traditions custodes was promulgated out of fear of seeing the traditionalist wave grow, not just in France or the United States, but throughout the world, and also out of fear of seeing the "unity of the Church" shattered, which for those at the helm in Rome can only be achieved through the new liturgy and what it represents.

Paix Liturgique: What does that mean?

Louis Renaudin: That the Summorum Pontificum spirit was in full swing and that, for the enemies of Tradition, time was running out: severe and drastic measures had to be taken as a matter of urgency if what they saw as a contagion of the usus antiquior was to be stopped.

Paix Liturgique: Which would explain the failure of Traditionis custodes and all the texts that followed?

Louis Renaudin: Yes, because it was too late, as the traditional Mass had become too established.  In fact, it was already too late under Paul VI, when the great persecution was raging, insofar as the Mass, which represented the very pure doctrine of Rome, could not die.  The trials of priests persecuted for the Mass they said were the seeds of the spread of this Mass.  In the end, therefore, reality will prevail and render ineffective a decision based on a radical misappraisal: the traditional liturgy is not an element of division in the Church, but on the contrary a leaven of peace and communion.  It is as if a master accused his good watchdog, who protects the master's house and his most precious possessions, of being a rabid dog.  It is the character of this mad master that the administration of Pope Francis and many bishops are now playing with Traditionis custodes.

Paix Liturgique: Many bishops?

Louis Renaudin: Particularly those who had established excellent ecclesial relations with their traditional communities over the years, and who now find themselves obliged to accuse them of something they are not...

Paix Liturgique: But not all bishops have had good relations with their Tradis.

Louis Renaudin: Of course, but even these hostile bishops know that their Tradis exist, that they're growing, that they've opened schools, created a youth apostolate, attracting more and more young people, that the "classic" faithful who are the last to attend Mass in parishes are dying out, and that it's therefore not easy to eradicate them...

Paix Liturgique: Do you think so?

Louis Renaudin: Take the example of the diocese of Paris: it was quite easy for Mgr Aupetit to do away with two Sunday parish Masses celebrated in working-class neighbourhoods where he knew he wouldn't risk causing too much uproar, but he was careful not to touch the large communities where he couldn't do anything without causing uproar.

Paix Liturgique: But he nevertheless managed to abolish weekday masses?

Louis Renaudin: The risk for him was less.  The case of the suppression of the students' Mass at Saint-Francois-Xavier is more interesting because, in the end, Mgr Ulrich was obliged to partially reverse this absurd decision (Mass in the smaller space of ND du Lys) for fear of the uproar that this measure had caused... Remember the rosaries that brought together hundreds of students at Saint-Francois-Xavier for several weeks...

Paix Liturgique: So in your opinion, even the bishops didn't play the Traditionis custodes game?

Louis Renaudin: Some have, and they've created another problem for themselves.  Many did it only halfway.  And the majority didn't change a thing.  It has to be said that the bishops' audience is disappearing, that they no longer have the troops to oppose the traditional movement and that they simply no longer have the means, either in men or in materials, with the added fear of being accused of authoritarianism and clericalism by the 'classic' media (see the articles by Jean-Marie Guénois in Le Figaro) and on social networks.

Paix Liturgique: What about diocesan priests?

Louis Renaudin: It needs to be said over and over again: diocesan priests are the main victims of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, and in the context of my analysis that's quite normal because they are the ones who were particularly targeted by the fear of widespread contagion.  It is therefore logical that they should be the ones targeted by the most vexatious measures, whereas the priests of the Society of St Pius X, "outside", are not, and the priests of the former Ecclesia Dei communities, situated in an intermediate zone, in limbo, are hardly targeted at all.  Rome and the bishops prefer to keep supporters of the traditional Mass in ghettos, rather than see them 'pollute' the Church...

But you can rest assured that the young diocesan priests who are the victims of this document and who happily took advantage of the openings offered by Benedict XVI do not understand or approve of the meaning of Traditionis custodes and are in the process of learning to resist like their predecessors of half a century ago, to keep their backs to the wall, to let the storm pass and to wait for better days to come, which will not fail to arrive.

In France, after Covid, the Ciase report, Traditionis custodes, never has the authority of bishops been so demonetised among their good clergy, who see that they are no longer fathers but servile relays of hostile decisions.

Paix Liturgique: Does all this explain the predicted failure of Traditionis custodes?

Louis Renaudin: There's also a much more important reason, and that's the role that the laity are playing and will play in this affair, as they have been doing since the promulgation of the New Mass.  The paradox is that it was Vatican II that declared the laity to be the driving force of the Church.  Well, yes, they are, but not in the way the most progressive Fathers of Vatican II would have wanted, who were thinking of committed, clericalised lay Catholics.

They were convinced that these lay people would become the spearhead of the wildest innovations, while they feared that a large proportion of the clergy would be more difficult to manipulate.  The clerics, very much marked by a corporal conformism, detached from reality, have for the most part plunged into the fog of novelties; as for the "committed" laity, they have gradually disappeared into thin air; what has remained are those who have continued to go to Mass on Sundays and who have shown themselves to be prudent fathers and mothers.

Paix Liturgique: Good fathers and mothers?

Louis Renaudin: Yes, "good fathers", as the lawyers say, to describe those who prudently conserve and administer their property.  Here, I'm talking about those fathers and mothers who have taken care to pass on their faith to their children, and whom they want to nourish with good things and not with poison or tainted food.  It was these good fathers and mothers who were the first to sound the alarm when faced with ecclesiastical and theological excesses that they did not understand and still do not understand, who sought out good catechisms and good Masses.

Paix Liturgique: How do you explain this?

Louis Renaudin: As I've just said, because they have families to protect, but also because they live in the real world and not the virtual world of box-tongued clerics.  Living in the real world means being obliged to understand things and situations, and to take responsibility for their actions.

Paix Liturgique: And how did this come about?

Louis Renaudin: By a Catholic opinion that is "conservative" in the best sense of the word.  You've mentioned several times in your letters the incredible results of the polls published in 1976 by the daily Le Progrès, the Lyon newspaper (Paix Liturgique France; 698 699 and 701) which I think is the first sure evidence of what French lay Catholics really thought at that terrible time when the spirit of the Council was rampant.

Paix Liturgique: And what did they think?

Louis Renaudin: Here are a few figures from the survey: 52% of practising Catholics said they were 'worried'; 48% of practising Catholics thought (in 1976!!!) that the Church had gone too far in its reforms - what would they think today!!! - 42% of practising Catholics thought that the reforms had had the effect of distancing the Church from its original doctrine; and finally, at the height of the Lefebvre affair (remember that this was 1976), 26% of practising Catholics approved of Archbishop Lefebvre's positions on the application of the Council's decisions... The extraordinary thing was the autism of the Church of France, which did not try to understand and continued to destroy and uproot.

Paix Liturgique: It's really impressive!

Louis Renaudin: And the churches emptied from 1965.  Lay people in droves stopped practicing and following the priests where they felt a wind of madness blowing.  Furthermore, in the great winds of “religious freedom” that blew from Rome, the children of those who practiced ceased to practice and they in turn engendered non-practitioners.  This is how we went from a practice concerning the majority of the French population before the Council to that of today, which is less than 2%.

Paix Liturgique: You are making a statement of bankruptcy...

Louis Renaudin: As do all sociologists of religion, who note, with great complacency, that religion is dead in France.  And at the same time, polls sponsored by Paix Liturgique between 2000 and 2019 in France and around the world have consistently shown that the majority of the Catholic faithful who remained in the churches did not share the ideas of the clerical revolution, and to put it in a nutshell, now distrust clerics.

Paix Liturgique: Distrust?

Louis Renaudin: Yes, I was saying that the bishops were demonetized in the minds of their young clerics, but the same is true for the clerks of the apparatus who are demonetized in the minds of lay people who want to keep the faith.  These clerics must understand that today the laity are wary of incomprehensible sometimes blasphemous orientations and that henceforth, before following these winds of madness which have been blowing for half a century on the Church, they want to understand.  All the nonsense that we tell them today about the synodality in which the Church engages does nothing to fix things!

Paix Liturgique: Do you have any other clues to this situation?

Louis Renaudin: Yes, in addition to the decline in religious practice, there is the vertiginous drop in the financial participation of lay people in the life of the Church.  No more (good) worship, no more worship money...

Paix Liturgique: Is this why they approach traditional chapels in large numbers?

Louis Renaudin: As I told you, families with children want to give them the best, not the dubious, the incomprehensible or the bad.  Moreover, these chapels have experienced significant growth since the Covid where, by order of the bishops, the ordinary parishes no longer delivered worship and sacraments.

Paix Liturgique: So overall they don't want to obey crazy novelties?

Louis Renaudin: It's more complex: they first want to understand what these new features really mean before joining them and if they consider that these new features are not good they will not follow them or with their feet.  nor… with their wallets

You have to be consistent!  We cannot demand that lay people reflect, consider them as major actors for the Church of tomorrow, and force them to submit to any iniquitous law.

Paix Liturgique: Strange situation…

Louis Renaudin: Yes, strange situation, where according to the principles of synodality, all lay people finally have as many rights as clerics who no longer exercise more than a simple "diakonia", but where one cannot admit at the same time they had different opinions from the apparatchiks, all in an increasingly centralized system.  In theory, synodal practices should allow lay people to express themselves, but we know from experience that synodal systems, since the Council, are almost exclusively systems of manipulation of groups.

In short, we are more and more in favour of giving importance to the laity… on the sole condition that these lay people agree with the commissars of the Soviets!

But reality will catch up with us, especially since it is the reality of the Church, which has the words of eternal life.  The "good" bishops will not always remain silent and will come to the aid of the sheep without pastors, priests and lay people, who maintain catholic catechism and mass for all its worth.

Paix Liturgique: But to come back to Traditionis custodes…

Louis Renaudin: “Which of you is the father whose son will ask for a fish, and who in place of the fish will give him a snake? asks Christ (Luke 11, 11).  Yesterday's pope gave them the bread they asked for.  They will patiently wait for a pope of tomorrow to give them bread, and not as alms, but as what they are entitled to in complete freedom as children of God.  In the meantime they pray, wait and help in all their ways the priests, men and women religious who are suffering.

(1) “I also intend to accompany the Motu Proprio, Traditionis custodes with a letter, to illustrate the reasons which led me to this decision…Thirteen years later, (After the promulgation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum ) I have instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to send you a questionnaire on the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.  The answers received revealed a painful situation that worries me, confirming the need to intervene – Letter to the accompanying bishops of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes 

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