“Just give us the Mass” This is the saying of many lay faithful to their bishops and priests. This was familiar to me, as it so often was my battle cry. With the benefit of time, I have seen the battle unfold before me–closer to home–and realize that the fight is not just about the Mass, but also about the doctrine of the faith. How did we have the Mass and then “lose” it? Before the Novus Ordo (the New Mass), there was the Nouvelle Theologie as properly defined by Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. .The novelties and erroneous teachings of the Nouvelle Theologie came out of the underground where it had been driven by the heavy hand of Humani Generis via Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. to pervade the writings of the council and subsequent forums following the council. Some say the council was good, but cannot account for the confusion ensuing it. To answer, it is quite simple. Paraphrasing the leading Canon Lawyer of the 20th century, Fr. Hesse, God does not require His faithful to be theologians. He merely requires them to use their common sense–their sensus fidelium. A good council does not produce a document with one or two good paragraphs and then two erroneous paragraphs. From such a document, one theologian cannot say it says one thing, while another argues that it says something else. Truth cannot be balanced in this way. This is mockery of Our Lord, and we cannot be blind to it. Just as we know from sound Theology, an admixture of evil in something good perverts it. It is that simple. If we want to have just the Mass, we will be given just that, but then we will be blind to everything else, including error. it is apt to recall that during the Vatican Council meetings, Chenu, Congar, Schillebeeckx, Rahner and Kung of the Nouvelle Theologie said the Latin Mass while they plotted a revolution at the Vatican Council afterwards. Yes, they too had the Latin Mass, but did they possess the doctrine? No, they did not. If a priest wittingly or unwittingly promotes ambiguous and erroneous doctrine from the pulpit during the Latin Mass, then he is aiding in the destruction of the faithful and of the Church. Let us not just fight for the Mass, but also the doctrine. The Pious Statesman–Cardinal Pie–was dedicated to fighting against the ideas which we are shamelessly embracing today. Before Pope Pius X, there was Cardinal Pie. He was the fire that animated the writings of the Good Pope. On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of his episcopal consecration in 1878, Cardinal Pie admonishes us:
Have you not often been saddened, and taken fright, my venerable brothers, on hearing the language of certain men, who believe themselves still to be sons of the Church, men who still practice occasionally as Catholics and who often approach the Lord’s Table? Do you still believe them to be sons, do you still believe them to be members of the Church, those who, wrapping themselves in such vague phrases as modern aspirations and the force of progress and civilization, proclaim the existence of a “consciousness of the laity,” of a secular and political conscience opposed to the “conscience of the Church,” against which they assume the right to react, for its correction and renewal? Ah! So many passengers, and even pilots, who, believing themselves to be yet in the barque, and playing with profane novelties and the lying science of their time, have already sunk and are in the abyss. -Works of the Cardinal Pie, Bishop of Poitiers, Chapter VII, p.68
Dear Pope Leo XIII,
The Pious Statesman 