The fallout from the overtly clericalist and anti Synodal motu proprio Traditiones Custodes continues to reverberate almost a year on from its controversial promulgation.
The widely criticised document, which indiscriminately punished hundreds of thousands of faithful Traditional Catholics based upon the prejudices of a small number of bishops, has empowered bishops while discriminating and neutralising the laity. Cheerleading from the front, Anglo American commentators have repeatedly stated that it did not go far enough and many have expressed a wish to see Traditionalists punished even more, all the while asserting their apparent commitment to Synodality.
Nonetheless, many Traditionalists have turned the other cheek and decided to take the high road, in one case this has been done quite literally.
A group of mothers of Traditional Latin Mass priests have started a journey that will take them from Paris to Rome, to beg of Pope Francis to reconsider the impositions that were made against the Latin Mass. They will deliver letters pleading with the pope to reconsider.
Despite the complete collapse of Catholicism in France and the rest of Western Europe since the 1960s, the Traditionalist movement there has remained strong, now forming a significant backbone to the wider church. While church after church is ransacked by vandals or demolished to make way for carparks, the Traditionalist movement has increased despite attacks from within the church and from secularists like Emmanuel Macron who have tried to attack homeschooling within the increasingly lawless country.
Beginning their journey last week on the First Sunday of Lent, the mothers received a blessing at St. Roche church in Paris, with a journey that will see them arrive into the Vatican on May 1st, to coincide with the beginning of Our Lady’s Month. Their plan is to plead with the Holy Father to show mercy upon their faithful sons and upon the rest of the church, particularly young people, who are drawn to the Latin Mass.
They will deliver letters from those who express their attachment to the Latin Mass and that highlight its powerful role in helping their spiritual lives.
No doubt most of the clericalists who have opposed the Latin Mass and those in the Anglo American Ultra Montanist anti Synodal blogosphere will be disgusted with these mothers and attempt to smear them, but it is unlikely to overcome the sincerity of their action.
By 2030, the majority of ordinations in France will be Traditional ones. When Notre Dame was burning after being set on fire in 2019, it was faithful young Catholics who captured the world’s attention, praying the Rosary and singing. This was the world’s glimpse into the future of Catholicism in France.