Despite facing heavy pressure from Modernist Extremists within the church, Pope Francis has done little more than pay lip service to the liberal lobbyists who have been claiming him as their own. He might seem on board with their efforts for radical liberal alterations that they have thought up on a whim, due to his off the cuff comments that get publicised, but when his pontificate ends, there will be more substantial headway made by Traditionalists like the Society of Saint Pius X than by those hoping to radically undo the church’s foundations.
Today, Pope Francis has quote Pope John Paul II’s words that,
regarding ordained ministries, the Church does not have the faculty in any way to confer priestly ordination on women
He wrote this in a letter accompanying his Motu Proprio Spiritus Domini, in which he merely normalises the current practice of allowing females to read during the Mass of St. Paul VI. The letter explaining the rationale for this plays down those who might see this as a path to priestesses and instead accentuates one of the main reasons for allowing this codification of a norm is to assist those who will later be priests
In this way, on the path to diaconal and priestly ordination, those who have been instituted Readers and Acolytes will better understand that they participate in a shared ministry with other baptized, men, and women.
Today’s events are being spun by some as the path to priestesses, but an alternative view is that this is the end of the road for the more extreme elements of the Modernist lobby. Pope Francis’s allowances for the SSPX, his lack of substantial concessions to the Germans at the Synods, his aversion to those who were hoping for a general clampdown on the Latin Mass have all allowed Tradition to grow exponentially under his pontificate while more liberal figures such as Fr. James Martin SJ and others are now seen as pariahs by even many mild Catholics.
After the Amazon Synod, it was liberal voices such as the National Catholic Reporter who were beside themselves with dismay after Francis refused to ordain married men and deaconesses. The NCR today recalled this disappointment, stating
Last year, the pope disappointed those campaigning for the church to return to the practice in early centuries of the faith of ordaining women as deacons, declining to answer a request from the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region on the issue.
During lockdown, it has primarily (though not exclusively to be fair) been Traditional Latin Mass groups who have kept masses going to the faithful in many parts of Europe, Australia and the United States. Part of the reason that many Modernists are hoping to ordain deaconesses or even priestesses is because they are slowly being outnumbered by Traditional priests, either those who say the Traditional Latin Mass or those from more theologically conservative minded orders and fraternities.
In 2018, 20% of ordinations in France were to priests saying the Traditional Latin Mass. Within 10 years, they will be the majority.
Today’s announcement is really only significant for how dismissive Pope Francis is towards the progressive lobby, this is the highlight of their gains under his pontificate and it is merely something that they already had.
Continue to pray for Pope Francis that he may resist the Modernists and the clearly awful people he has advising him, such as those who thought a gay Israeli soldier was the man to make a documentary about him. If we don’t pray hard for him we shouldn’t complain when he makes mistakes.
It is worth recalling too, these alterations that have occurred since the 1970s were done at a local level. If you want to return to tradition, don’t wait for the pope. Get involved with your local parish and try to steer things, get on you Parish council, that is what the Modernists did. Imagine what you could achieve by doing this.
If you have instituted any good traditional initiatives in your parish, please email us at editor@catholicarena.com or comment below so that we can share these in a future piece as suggestions for those who may wish to do likewise.