Traditionis Custodes: Now What?

We're at the end of our series on building a narrative to understand Traditionis Custodes, and more importantly, the muted reaction of Bishops so far to the document.  Outside of a Bishop in Puerto Rico, there really aren't a lot of cases of bishops enthusiastically using the document as it was clearly intended by the Pope:  to suppress the Latin Mass.   Even left leaning prelates like Cardinal Nichols have dispensed congregations from the restrictions on barring the Latin Mass from parish Churches.  While only anecdotal, its not uncommon to hear of attendance at the Latin Mass increasing since the Motu Proprio, and (as was entirely predictable) the SSPX parishes being the chief beneficiary.  This is all encouraging, and should cause some individuals to try to understand a lot of what has happened before in light of these realities.  This narrative was an imperfect attempt to do it, and I hope it has brought understanding.

What comes next is a bit tougher.  Nobody can read the future.  The Pope could die tomorrow, and this would all become basically a dead letter.  (Controversially, I think there are quite a few bishops on all sides of the ideological spectrum who, while not wishing that scenario, wouldn't view it the end of the world either.)  Yet I think some things are pretty clear.

1.)  The Pope knows time is not on his side.

If anyone can agree on anything here, it is that this document was clearly rushed out the door.  Few if anyone outside of bishops in Italy were consulted about the move.  Even senior members of the Curia closely allied with Francis were left in the dark.  Key bishops in the countries where the Latin Mass flourished were unaware of what was coming.  As more and more bishops are basically setting aside the document stating that life continues more or less as before, Rome has been muted.  I don't take this as a sign of "failure" so much as lack of planning.  They had no clue what was going to happen next, because their clearest priority was getting it out the door.  Something clearly spooked the Pope and his advisors that the chaos was necessary to getting the document out as fast as possible.  The likeliest and easiest explanation is the fact that Francis spent a lengthy stint in the hospital, far longer than anyone anticipated.  He's in his 80's, has one working lung, and had a death scare.  He had to act now because time is not on the side of the Revolution he is trying to now become the avatar of.

2.)  The Papacy itself is now at a crossroads

As our narrative detailed, since John Paul II the office of the papacy has increasingly become the avatar of Catholicism, and the person of the pope synonymous with not just Catholic doctrine, but Catholic practice.  There were reasons John Paul did this (which we covered), but the simple reality is that this model of Catholicism was never sustainable.  Modern communication not only increases someone's visibility, it increases the visibility of opposition.  In the age of Twitter and the 24/7 news cycle (something in its infancy when he died), John Paul II's papacy would have been impossible. Francis used a lot of the initial favorable media coverage to build a brand as the great leveler, the visionary who was going to point the Church on a bold new (even if grounded officially in Catholic doctrine) path.  Those who did not want that path understood they were not alone in ways that just weren't possible in previous eras.

Another way the old model is dead is that it is very tough, in a polarized age, to punish a dissident.  Whether its Fr. James Altman or German clerics, Church authority coming down in a heavy handed matter, while it might thrill partisans, probably won't accomplish much on the ground.  Local German clerics have a lot more influence over their flocks than Rome does, and Fr. Altman responded to being removed from his parish by raising a quarter of a million dollars in a weekend.  Even suspending him probably won't do much good at this point  You need legitimacy among the crowd these individuals are targeting in this environment, and Francis, functionally, has none.  He is the Pope who reigns in Rome, but he does not rule there.

The Pope could respond to the motu proprio mostly being ignored by attempting to compel bishops to crack down harder on the Latin Mass.  He might prevail on a few voices, but the general result is he will just increasingly make it worse.  He would have to change canon law in a blatantly pretextual fashion, or start removing Bishops from their sees because they won't crack down on their flock hard enough.

3.)  The Imperial Papacy is Dead.... and Good Riddance

I had a discussion with an old trad blogger, one of the first.  He reacted "Imagine if we had a pope who was willing to use the kind of power Francis did.... but for good?  For Tradition?"  The majority of Catholics today had their formative years during the John Paul II era.  Their view of the papacy is colored by his pontificate, for good or ill.    It is natural to see a Pope like Francis, and wonder what a Pope "on our side" would be able to accomplish if he acted in a similar fashion.

The reality is that a Pope who acted in a similar fashion, but for our side, would likely find the exact same frustration as Francis has, but for our side.    Even if you take out all the negative scandals of this pontificate, you still have a pontificate that finds it hard to corral bishops in line.  He hasn't met with the College of Cardinals, as a college, in years.  In the age of social media, the Pope really is one voice among many, and he probably isn't the most influential voice for hundreds of millions of Catholics.  A "good" pope might change this at the margins, but its not going to change drastically, because the issues at play are far bigger than this pontificate.

I submit we should look at that reality and say one word:  Good.  Arguing over whether or not a decentralized Church is a good or bad thing is besides the point:  that decentralization is a reality.  Further attempts by Francis to centralize everything have either led to further decentralizing, or paralysis of authority.  This is something my ultramontane friend failed to understand, and something I think all ultramontanes fail to understand.  Authority becoming more and more centralized just means that it becomes more and more paralyzed.  When you centralize everything in a network, you centralize a single point of failure.  When the papacy is bad, the entire Church is thrown into crisis.  When the papacy is helmed by an ineffective leader, the entire Church is thrown into crisis.  When a pope is diminished in his capacity by age or health, the entire Church is thrown into crisis.  (The health issues of Pius XII and John Paul II led to constant infighting and factionalism in Rome, factionalism that profoundly impacted later both the Council and many of the crises of the Church after JPII died.)

How far one wishes to take this discussion is a legitimate point of inquiry, and we should absolutely resist any attempt to turn the Church into a democratic institution, or go the route of national Churches.  Yet traditionalists can no longer sit on the sidelines.  In the post-francis world, and especially in a world where the revolutionary generation finally dies off, we will have to rebuild.  Let's not waste our time rebuilding something that should stay dead.

4.)  The Divisions of the John Paul II Era are Dead.... and Good Riddance

I legitimately think that when Francis enacted the motu proprio, he and his advisors figured that we could just return to the world that existed from 1988-2007 with the Latin Mass:  something tightly regulated on its way to extinction, and using "conservatives' to fight traditionalists.  This was the world of Fabian Bruskewitz, First Things, The Wanderer, as well as priests and clerics who viewed the Latin Mass as a threat to the established order, so therefore it had to be contained, if not outright eliminated.

That world no longer exists.  As detailed elsewhere, to the extent the civil war between traditionalists and conservatives was waged, it was a war traditionalists won, mostly without firing a shot.  Those who will be fighting traditionalists are those who not only can't appeal to traditionalists, they can't appeal to anyone else either.  The person who views the 1970's as the glory days of the Church is a rare breed, even among more liberal Catholics.  Conservative Catholics were just as horrified by that age as trads were.  John Paul II offered a way out of the chaos of the 70's, but also appealed to those who held strongly conservative views on morality and anti-communism.  What does Francis have that can possibly appeal to these individuals?  What would a successor steeped in the revolution have?

None of this is to say that the revolution is truly over, or that the Pope is out of options in his crusade to make traditionalists suffer.  It is just that those options will put the Church through considerable pain, without much long-term reward for him and his ilk.  At this point, the goal is to make everyone realize that considerable pain is unnecessary and counterproductive.  Our first step is negotiating a peace for the Church to hold to.  Whoever can accomplish that will dictate much of the post-Francis world, and likely the post Traditionis Custodes world.