Manifesto for Ritual Unity in response to shocking treatment of the Latin Mass and it supporters

Manifesto for Ritual Unity

As Pope Francis's Pontificate comes to an end and the Cardinals are about to enter conclave, it is clear that the place given to the traditional liturgy will be an important issue for the next Pontiff.

In 2021, the Archdiocese of Chicago clarified how it intended to implement the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes: among various restrictive measures, it banned traditional liturgical books for the Easter Triduum. For months, we have learned with increasing dismay and sadness of the petty ritual arrangements imposed here and there (arrangements unfortunately sometimes accepted here and there...). It's a truly ludicrous, modern, and perhaps even non-religious idea to want to mix everything up at all costs: attaching the new ordination rite to a traditional Mass (Toulon and Carcassonne, if we understand correctly), alternating missals from Sunday to Sunday (Pontcalec), tolerating Mass but prohibiting baptism, marriage, extreme unction, and confirmation (the dioceses and the absurd cases are countless), seeking to impose the coexistence of both missals on the Chartres pilgrimage, or even prohibiting the traditional celebration of certain feast days (Chicago, therefore, along with others)...

In the context of Traditionis Custodes and the responsa ad dubia that followed, there was considerable pressure from all sides to try to bring the recalcitrants into line. The objective was not hidden, no conspiracy, the action was taking place in broad daylight: the liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI are the only expression of the Roman rite, considered the late Pope Francis. Legislation, threats, constraints, blackmail have been brandished in turn to discourage us. Recently, in his capacity as president of the conference of bishops of France[1], Monsignor de Moulins-Beaufort, in a disdainful and hurtful interview, made all his superb vigilance felt. For his part, in another even more lunar interview, Monsignor Jordy, in his capacity as vice-president of the conference of bishops of France[2], let out his deep mistrust and his absolute disdain for the traditional world. It is not always easy to feel loved by our pastors! But let us leave these insults there, they will pass. Especially since not all bishops and cardinals are cast in the same mold, far from it and thank God!

Why will we never cede an inch of liturgical ground? No baptism, no Sunday, no calendar, no lectionary, no weddings or funerals, no saints, no rubrics, not the slightest iota? And no more tomorrow than fifty years ago?

We could approach the question from different angles:

Pastoral with Jean de Tauriers[3], "Who will dare to face the disaster and draw the necessary conclusions? Yet the figures speak for themselves."

Spiritual with Benedict XVI[4], "What was sacred for previous generations cannot suddenly find itself totally forbidden, or even considered harmful."

Legal with Father Réginald-Marie Rivoire[5], "What is shocking is not so much that Francis contradicts his predecessor, but that he treats a centuries-old liturgical rite as if it were a purely disciplinary matter." 

Doctrinally, with a group of theologians[6], "There is reason to fear that, by no longer highlighting the Sacrifice of Jesus, the Ordo Missae will in fact doom it to oblivion; for this Sacrifice is too supernatural a reality for man to be able, without a sign, to remember it and live by it."

One could. And one should; and for sixty years, this has been widely undertaken without almost ever receiving a response other than that of an outstretched finger and furrowed brows in support of the injunction: obey!

Today, I would like to approach it from a purely ritual angle.

Is the liturgy an available material that can be molded at will, kneaded, transformed, removed, reset, planed, cut, and adapted? Does its primary effect favor pastoral care, which itself would be reduced to social connection? Is it not rather the prayer that Christ offers to his Father through the Church? An incessant worship, always identical and always renewed because illuminated from within by the words of the Word, the prayers of the saints, and ancient and time-honored gestures? In this case, it is obvious that taking a piece of this and a piece of that (whatever it may be) makes no sense, is literally insane.

How can one hope to grow in the spiritual life, how can one penetrate deeply into the mysteries, how can one deepen the contemplation of divine things by flitting from one rite to another? The spiritual life is too demanding for that; accessible to all, certainly, but demanding. To divide things up is, on the contrary, to renounce giving God the perfection (human, I agree, but nevertheless so imhuman) of the worship that is due to Him, and to renounce just as much the power of sanctification that springs naturally from it and quenches our thirst. And if some, to reassure themselves, rejoice that the youngest move without difficulty from one rite to another, I would like to address two remarks to them; first, to warn everyone against this restlessness that does not allow for the proper spiritual deepening that ritual fidelity offers; I believe that one cannot be satisfied with it, nor rejoice in it, even if one must temporarily accommodate it. Second, observation shows that with time (marriage, the demands of raising children) comes stability, which often favors the traditional liturgy.

It takes a lifetime to fully grasp a Rite. The Benedictine contemplatives who nourish themselves with the liturgy (I immediately think of Dom Guéranger, Dom Delatte, Dom de Monléon, Dom Gérard, etc.) have told us this; they have experienced it with their entire being, several hours a day; this is why monks are wary of gyrovagues. For it is with a rite as with a rule: one cannot be a Dominican in the morning and a Visitandine in the evening, a Carthusian on Sunday and a Carmelite the rest of the week. The liturgy, the one that fully deserves its name, can only be grasped slowly, through repetition, which gradually touches the clouded soul, enlightens our understanding, and opens our eyes to the reality of creation and the world in which we move with some difficulty. It is because it comes from afar and is a complete edifice that it fulfills its dual purpose: first to praise God, then to sanctify us. The interior life is no small matter. It requires perseverance, silence, beginning again, exploration, and decantation. Through the interiorization and deepening of liturgical prayer, we enter ever more deeply into the mysteries of our faith. The liturgy is the royal road to this end. It is the royal road because it is what God himself wanted, and it is an essential mission that he has entrusted to his Church. By constantly associating with the rite, provided we are patient, humble, and persevering, the rite fully opens its meaning to us. Immolating wishes and preferences, without seeking here and there what immediately satisfies us, we join the high, holy, and venerable prayer of the Church, which, in a certain sense, is not made by human hands. The realities covered by the liturgical work, the Opus Dei, are so profound, mysterious, and terrible that all its treasures must be used for the soul to benefit from them. The rite and its noble procession of rubrics help us to move from visible to invisible things. Thus, Vespers respond to the Mass in the calendar unity that intimately binds them together; the sacraments rely on one another and the sacramentals escort them; the deacons who proclaim the Gospel for all creation are previously ordained to sing it por vis quam pro defunctis; the Gospels of the last and first Sundays of the liturgical year respond to each other and remind us of our end. The dense and dense fabric of the liturgy weaves the most inextricable and extraordinary work. As with the practice of the virtues, it is the power of fidelity to small things to slowly imprint a great idea, to create a habit. "Good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord." (Saint Matthew)

In writing this I do not claim that the new ritual has no provision for worship and sanctification: it has as many as it retains vestiges of the old. In the same way, I do not claim that it is impossible to sanctify oneself with the reformed liturgy, but by analogy with Our Lord's promises to those who show devotion to his Sacred Heart, I do believe that by frequenting the traditional liturgy, lukewarm souls will become fervent and fervent souls will rise to great perfection.

Pope Francis, whom we entrust to God's mercy, is dead, but the traditional liturgy is still with us. May the future Pope ensure that the liturgy does not become fragmented.

Cyril Farret d'Astiès

[1] He has not been since.

[2] And responsible for monitoring traditional Catholics.

[3] https://www.lesalonbeige.fr/atheisme-catholique/

[4] Motu proprio Summorum pontificum.

[5] Sedes Sapientiae no. 171, March 2025, The rationality of canonical norms.

[6] La pensée Catholique n°122, 1969.

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