The Tragedy of Traditionis Custodes in Two Pictures
Recently at his blog, A Priest Life, Father Kevin M. Cusick posted on the devastation caused by the implementation of Traditionis custodes (TC).
In an October 16 blog post titled, Thank you, Pope Francis, Father wrote:
The fruits of the Church of dialogue, accompaniment, mercy, welcome, synodality…
This is my church on Sunday at 11 AM before September 21 when the deadly thunderclap of Traditionis custodes fell with full force on my archdiocese:
This is my church at 11 am on Sunday now:
Thank you, Pope Francis, for bringing the success of your pontificate to my parish.
This is the on-the-ground reality of TC. The MostMercifulPopeEver™️ and the papacy of self-described #listening, #synodality, and #accompaniment is nothing but brutality, ideology, and devastation.
Remember Father Cusick in your prayers and all of his displaced parishioners. And pray for an end to this self-loathing, self-destructive, and anti-Catholic madness that permeates the Church today.
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Posted on October 18, 2022, in liturgy and tagged archdiocese of Washington DC, Catholic Church, Fr. Kevin Cusick, latin mass, modernism, pope francis, traditional latin mass, traditional mass, traditionis custodes. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
liturgy guy 
A rather misleading article. If you look at the church’s web site there is still a TLM low mass at 8am every Sunday (don’t see any information on attendance) and they still have a High Mass the First Sunday of the Month. Also there is an English Mass at 9am every Sunday (no information on attendance). I don’t know of many churches from any denomination that are full at a time of day when no services are scheduled.
Misleading when the linked blogpost is by the pastor of the very parish we are discussing? A vibrant weekly Sunday Mass was eliminated, not out of necessity nor due to a lack of attendance, but for the reasons stated in the post: Traditionis custodes as interpreted and implemented by the archdiocese. It is your comment that is misleading, and rather naive.
I don’t think Father has updated the website yet.
The Parishoners need to join the SSPX en masse and forget Francis and his clown Church
The attraction of the SSPX is all too clear, likewise the Orthodox, but going into (partial) schism is not the answer.
Speaking as a DC trad: Some people from the affected parishes * have* started attending the SSPX chapel in Upper Marlboro. Most, however, have shifted to one of the three authorized TLM sites, or TLM’s in neighboring dioceses, most often when that’s where they lived in the first place: the eight diocesan TLM’s in the Diocese of Arlington, or the FSSP at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore. It is also worth noting that the SSPX chapel is *extremely* small, and was already overflowing before any refugees started showing up. It’s also a longer drive than most of the diocesan options for most of us.
(There is also a new, bigger SSPX chapel being completed out in the Valley, and it’s drawn a fair share of Front Royal refugees. But that’s pretty far from here in DC.)
I understand that for you and many others in the Society, there is more at stake than just logistics or space. But you should surely also understand that there are many of us determined, so long as it is possible, to receive the sacraments in the traditional form in canonically established places, for a number of reasons. It may yet be that we will have to go to the SSPX (which I have no animus against), but in the greater DC area, that day is not yet here for most of us.
Thank you Richard for providing this further information. I am not in DC as you know but (in my diocese) split my time between a parish TLM and the Society chapel.
I am not disputing the accuracy of your post in any way.
As you said it is linked from the blog of the pastor of that very parish.
What I regard as misleading is the fact that that the church no longer has ANY 11 AM mass they do however have an 8 AM traditional mass and there is no information indicating (since the 11 AM mass is no longer was celebrated) if there been any marked increase in attendance at 8 AM.
No rational person would look at a church at 11 AM that does not have a service at 11 AM and expect to find people there, however the article implies that the parish is now absolutely devoid of worshipers. If the 11 AM traditional mass was replaced with another service at 11 AM and this was the result that would be a completely different point.
If they want to go after the archbishop of Washington have at, I can agree completely that the cancelation of the 11 AM service (except for the 1st Sunday of the month) is the proximate result of a decision ordered by him.
I regret I find your charge of being misleading…misleading. No rational person would expect worshippers when no Mass is scheduled, true. …Neither would a rational person expect a previously well-attended Mass canceled for any beside very serious causes. Pope Francis and some of his prelates have howled about the Church hemorrhaging followers, yet have frequently acted as though Catholic faith had little merit on it’s own. They have done nothing to draw the faithful back beyond platitudes. Pope Francis, himself, issued Traditionis Custodes supposedly on grounds of curbing division. …He did nothing about the main source(s) of division.
Francis COULD have called a spade a spade, declared SSPX–and like-minded groups–formally schismatic and to be avoided for the sake of faithful souls. He COULD have provoked the faithful to embrace those few groups who have struggled to remain faithful to the Church’s whole tradition AND to the Holy See. He COULD have provoked every bishop and every priest to embrace a more thorough understanding of the Church’s whole history and traditions, a more thorough understanding of Vatican II.
Instead, …he merely chose to restrict the traditional Mass, including all the people who’ve struggled to make sense of the Church’s actions, lumping all “traditionalists” together in one, big “bad boy” grouping.
*snorts* It’s very much the sort of “dialogue” that I and others have come to expect. It’s very much in keeping with various foolish efforts over the centuries to manipulate the faith. Being in keeping with the best traditions and practices of the Church? Not so much.
I agree with your argument John. Very well thought out.
I was commenting on the face value of the article. The church is not empty, this one specific mass (11am) is no longer celebrated and the reason is the actions of the Archbishop of Washington.
Again, the website clearly has not been updated (not uncommon for the parish!).
Per Cardinal Gregory’s decree, Fr Cusick *cannot* licitly celebrate a TLM in his parish. Nor can any other pastor or priest in an Archdiocese of Washington parish – including mine. The only places where it is permitted, after September 21, are the three non-parish churches designated by the cardinal: 1) Franciscan Monastery in Brookland, 2) Old St John’s in Silver Spring, and 3) St Dominic’s Mission in Aquasco, about ten minutes down the road from Fr Cusick’s parish. Gregory’s idea was clearly that Cusick’s parishioners who still wanted the TLM would go to St Dominic’s.
Thanks Richard! Yes, according to the Archdiocese’s own website, those are the only authorized locales for the traditional Rite. Their implementation of TC even (technically) forbids a priest from privately offering the TLM without written permission, something completely inconceivable and unenforceable.
The private Mass “ban” is indeed ludicrous. And, yes, unenforceable.
I think the unspoken aspiration in the chancer(ies) where this is being done, and more to the point, CDW, is just to cut down on their number and visibility. There were a fair number of private Masses happening around the Archdiocese until this.
The fact of the matter is that a Prelate cannot dictate which Missal is used in a “private” Mass. Such restrictions are complete inventions. If the Mass is unscheduled, he has the freedom to use any approved Missal. Remember that even a suspended priest has the right to say an unscheduled Mass and his Ordinary has no authority to restrict that Mass.
Time to look at Material Heresy and the impact it is having on immortal souls being led astray.
God bless
Tom
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