Recapturing Our Catholic Patrimony: Schismatic Impatience

I used to feel it too.

"Just look at all the souls perishing as the man in white does nearly nothing in response to the dire reality of modern pop Catholicism."

Yet, now my impatience, my anger, resurfaces as an indignation for my lack of interior life and holiness, an introspection on a life lacking commitment to Christ...and His Church.

Is this a legitimate concern? Is the pope really doing nothing?

If one follows what the Pope has said in his recent papal journey to America, I don’t think he can be considered negligent.

Certainly the vigilante impulse with regards to our immediate Catholic condition is typically founded on good will towards others, yet sometimes I believe those distraught over local issues seem to quickly blame another instead of looking to themselves and their personal sanctity to bringing about a graceful resolution.

Today we ask: How does one allay Fellay? Will the SSPX ever come back to the one flock, one shepherd?

"The time for an agreement has not yet come," SSPX head Bishop Bernard Fellay wrote in a letter to the society’s members, published in French on Saturday by the SSPX information service DICI.

He said the liberalization of the old Latin Mass was "not accompanied by logically co-related measures in the other areas of the life of the Church.”

"Nothing has changed in Rome's determination to follow the council's orientation, despite 40 years of crisis, despite the deserted convents, abandoned rectories and empty churches.""Catholic universities persist in their ramblings, teaching of the Catechism remains unknown and Catholic school does not exist anymore as particularly Catholic. They have become an extinct species…"

Logical co-related measures? Haven’t we already seen good fruit due to the liberalization of the old Latin Mass? Surely.

I think in time the implementation of Summorum Pontificum will bring about such desired measures in every area of ecclesial life if it hasn’t already affected or penetrated many areas in some way.

I’ve had more people ask me about the ancient Roman rite, the extraordinary form, and why I prefer it than ever before. People are wondering, inquiring, acting… responding in ways which seem to be atypical of the laity’s response to a papal act. Why is that? Perhaps the media’s coverage of the Motu Proprio got everyone talking Latin, change, history, modernity; perhaps opening the way to those “logically co-related measures”? We just have to be patient.

In the meantime…

I think the Vatican’s determination to follow the council’s [Vatican II] orientation is greater and more focused now than ever before. The implementation of the hermeneutic of continuity has truly galvanized and refocused Rome’s, as well as the lay faithful's, determination to strengthen the Church in this time of modern trial.

Despite 40 years of turbulence, the real question that needs to be asked is not why hasn’t the big guy done anything [for surely we know he has – just look at the short history of his pontificate], rather what can I do to bring about change, holiness, and grace, into the particular part of the world in which I live.

Strive to excel in building up the church! (1 Cor. 14:12)

God’s grace is present to us in every moment, in our everyday. Why is it I so easily lose sight of it, failing to be God’s vessel of change and grace in my life, in my temple, in my local Church?

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; Eph. 4:11-13