In an essay Monday in The Catholic Thing, the former head of the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office criticized open-borders socialist Pope Francis for restricting the traditional Latin Mass while allowing progressives to deny basic tenets of the faith with impunity.
In his recent apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of Tradition”), the pope banned the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass in Catholic parishes while lifting existing accommodations to priests who wish to use the extraordinary form of the Catholic liturgy.
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller responded in his essay that Pope Francis has “drastically restricted” the celebration of the Latin Mass with the clear intent to “condemn the Extraordinary Form to extinction in the long run.” He added that the Pope “ignores the religious feelings of the (often young) participants in the Masses according to the Missal John XXIII” without the “slightest empathy.”
“Instead of appreciating the smell of the sheep, the shepherd here hits them hard with his crook,” Müller states, in reference to one of the pope’s favorite quips.
“Here we have a threat to the unity of the Church in revealed faith, reminiscent of the size of the Protestant secession from Rome in the sixteenth century,” Müller wrote. The image of the misguided fire brigade comes to mind, he added, “which – instead of saving the blazing house – first saves the small barn next to it.”