Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Legacy of Pope Benedict's Papacy

While one man's opinion means nothing, I will personally judge the papacy of Cardinal Ratzinger to have been something of a failure if a universal permission for the Tridentine Mass is not granted before he passes; a universal permission that will give the people of God their due in terms of liturgical diversity, and buttress stronger catechesis while flushing out crypto-sedevacantists from among genuine Catholics who simply want their due.

I certainly may be wrong in this but I believe the time will not likely be more propitious than now, under this papacy, to enact such a gesture of legislation which will force the hands of bishops who have, I think, been intimidated by the sight of a kooky traditionalism, where the heresy of private judgement reigns, as opposed to a sane, beautiful, and substantive traditionalism where the ancient Mass is the presupposition of (not a substitute for) the Evangel manifest in justice, peace and good works. ----Stephen Hand

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