Putting an End to Factionalism in the Catholic Church

There is at present in the Catholic Church a nasty internal division that threatens to scandalize many, both inside and outside of the Church. This particular division is between those who favor the Traditional Latin Mass, the “rad-trads”, and those who favor the more progressive, contemporary styles of liturgy that cropped up all over the place in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council.

This division has, of course, been exacerbated by the decision of Pope Francis to limit the celebration of the TLM throughout the Church (https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/francis-reimposes-restrictions-latin-mass-reversing-decision-pope-benedict). Those who ardently hate the TLM, or resent the usage of Latin in the liturgy, have cheered the measures that the pope has implemented because they feel like the pope was issuing a correction that was long overdue. Those who feel that the Church was purer pre-Second Vatican Council have resented it, and in many cases have essentially called for a spirit of rebellion against papal authority because they feel that the pope’s decision runs against the traditions of the Catholic Church.

Both factions contain merit to their arguments. As Catholics, it is important for us to be able to understand the totality of both positions. The up-and-coming generations of Catholic leaders in particular need to recognize the rationale behind the two positions, and need to be in the vanguard of promoting a meeting of the minds rather than selecting one side or the other. This division runs the risk of driving more of the faithful away, rather than fulfilling the Church’s mission to bring people closer to God.

Valid Arguments by the Anti-TLM Crowd

Those who are vehemently against the celebration of the TLM, or indeed the usage of any Latin in the liturgy, contain valid points within their arguments. One such point, made by the pope himself on several occasions, is that the TLM is not being utilized in the way that Pope Benedict XVI envisioned when he allowed for it to be celebrated in a more widespread fashion. Benedict’s thought was that relaxing the rules on the TLM would allow for people who had come to the faith through the celebration of the Latin Mass to be able to continue to cherish that part of their conversion, while allowing the rest of the Church to grow and function as normal.

But the TLM has been weaponized in recent years by a number of different Catholic groups, used almost as a banner of resistance to be waved against Rome’s authority whenever Francis does something that those groups of Catholics dislike. They reject the authority and the documents of the Second Vatican Council – a council conducted under the legitimate authority of the Church, which carries just as much binding authority as Trent or Nicaea – aimed at liturgical reform. They do this in the name of defending a vision of the Church pre-Vatican II full of sacred beauty, perfect in her liturgical rites, against a vision of the Church post-Vatican II that has gone beyond all hope of redemption.

I know this because I have attended the TLM in multiple locations, and have been acquaintances and/or friends with people who are dedicated attendees in TLM communities. Those communities do not function as a group striving to protect a cherished part of the faith. Rather, they frequently tend to operate as purists in a small group who are the only ones defending the “true faith.” They purport to accept the authority of the pope as the successor to Saint Peter, and yet actively engage in forwarding rhetoric that undermines that very authority. The pope’s authority as Peter’s successor grants him the right to do exactly what he is doing, so to reject Vatican II while claiming that one is not divided from the Church is somewhat paradoxical.

These communities all too often promote an “in-group” (themselves and other such communities) and an “out-group” (anyone who believes that there is legitimacy in the reforms of Vatican II). That purposeful division does absolutely nothing to further the cause of evangelization, as Our Lord Himself specifically points to unity in the Body of Christ as being a major cause for bringing people to belief in John 17. That particular attitude is exactly why Pope Francis is striving to bring TLM communities more fully into the fold of the Church, and why so many anti-Latin Mass advocates hold the positions that they do.

The other valid major gripe that the anti-TLM crowd holds is that Latin is not a commonly known language among the people of the Church. Because the vernacular was so widely pushed into use immediately after Vatican II, there is an entire generation and a half of Catholics raised without having heard Latin – spoken or sung – in the liturgy. Expecting the faithful who have been out of the practice of Latin for so many years, or who never had exposure to it in the first place, to simply pick it up at the drop of a hat without any sort of external guidance or practice is ridiculous.

Proper instruction has to be had for the introduction of Latin into the liturgy, and the most qualified people to assist in that instruction are oftentimes many of the people who insist on sequestering themselves in the TLM communities. If Latin is to be introduced more wholesale into the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, reforms enacted as the Council desired them to be, having the division of the TLM away from the Novus Ordo makes absolutely no sense. In those two points, the anti-TLM crowd carries validity.

Valid Arguments by the Anti-Vatican II Crowd

Before this author is tarred and feathered by the TLM crowd for seeming to favor one end of the debate over the other, some valid arguments by that same crowd need to be pointed out.

One of the problems with the anti-TLM crowd is that they refuse to acknowledge that there is a desperate need for good liturgy within the Church. The solemnity of well-organized church choirs and beautiful chant that could have been rendered into the vernacular was overrun by swarms of cultural appropriation from the era (bongos, drums, and guitars, to name a few) that were poured into the Church. Much of the music feels like it was incorporated in a desperate bid by some members of the Church hierarchy – both clerical and lay alike – to make the Church seem relevant in a world that was increasingly ignoring what the Church had to offer.

This appropriation was in no way one of the aims of the Second Vatican Council, and indeed flies in the face of the Council’s instructions on music in the liturgy, instruction of the faithful, and involvement of the laity in the liturgy. When the TLM adherents vigorously defend their position on the Latin Mass, they point to these clear abuses in the absence of well-ordered direction from the high command in the period following the Second Vatican Council in the implementation of the reforms. These abuses have borne rotten fruit along with them, which is clearly manifesting itself now. Mass attendance is rapidly dropping, the percentage of people who identify as Catholic that hold to Catholic teachings is declining at an alarming rate, and more and more Catholicism is being viewed as a cultural identification card rather than a way of life.

The position of the TLM faction seems to be that if the TLM is removed from the liturgical options altogether, there is no guarantee on the part of the Church leadership who have allowed (and in some cases actively encouraged) this sort of irreverent behavior that reverence will be restored properly to the liturgy which will be left behind. And one can understand their trepidation: in a contest where Catholic liturgy strives to become a mirror image of many of the banal forms of worship one sees in nondenominational Protestant churches, the Catholic parish will lose every single time. That music is written to stir up the emotions and lead people to believe that worshiping God is no different than possessing some sort of emotional high, rather than as an intellectual exercise of faith. The difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is that Protestantism lets you have the emotional high without having to follow all those pesky rules to go get it. In an age where chaos and “follow your heart” mantras dominate the world stage, how can the Church hope to compete in such an arena?

Young Catholics crave tradition. They crave the incense, the beautiful solemn music, and the sanctity of the liturgical celebrations. They want to feel like they have stepped out of the world into the threshold of the Kingdom of Heaven itself, not that they are just at some Christian rock concert. The TLM faction fears that if they surrender the TLM, the remnant of the liturgy left behind will not be properly adjusted to account for the bizarre fixation of the 1960s generation on taking a liturgical road ordered more to madness and fallen-away Catholics than to ushering in the Kingdom of God.

So What Do We Do?

The answer is simple. The generation of Catholics currently coming into the leadership of the Church needs to take charge and lead both factions into a meeting of the minds in the middle of the spectrum. The generation that foisted all of the weirdness on the Church in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council needs to take a look at the documents from that same Council, and accept that reforms need to take place to ensure that liturgy is reverently celebrated as the Church demanded. The TLM-or-die crowd needs to recognize that their presence in the Church is central to ushering in this conversion to a spirit of reverence.

The answer is simple, but the implementation is not. Each faction needs to recognize that there are places where they can grow in humility, and surrender control. The TLM faction needs to stop suggesting that Pope Francis is an illegitimate leader, or attempting to stir up insurrection against the legitimate exercise of papal authority. The progressive Catholic faction needs to be willing to learn solemn, reverent liturgy, so that God can be adored as He invites us to adore Him, and be willing to learn some new techniques for song and prayer that might have been foreign to them in their upbringing.

It is paramount that this division in the Church be healed. The conversion of the non-Catholic world depends upon it. More importantly, the conversion of the souls of all those within the Church to answer what Jesus is calling each of us to do depends upon it. What I have suggested does not solve the entirety of the problem, but it is a start.

Happy Advent!