Whether Donald Trump succeeds in gaining the Republican nomination for president or not, he has succeeded in reducing the political double talk connected with candidates running for office. The journalist Peggy Noonan in writing about Trump a few days ago said this about him, “Mr. Trump touched an important nerve in opposing the political correctness that has angered the American people for a quarter century. “ Or, political correctness is political double talk!
This has given me courage to state that I believe we have had an element of “correctness” when it comes to the Catholic Novus Ordo Mass. Saint John Paul II wrote in 1988, “Respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.” Please note the use of the words, “generous application.” So, setting the predicate, the Church deems both Masses are valid, and the continued use of the traditional Latin Mass is to be generously applied. However in reality, the traditional Mass has not been offered as equally valid and has not been generously applied. Double talk!
Recently, I read an essay by a Priest that although the Latin Mass has become more accessible to congregations and has grown in great measure; those Catholics in love with the traditional Mass needed to get more involved in evangelizing others to the Mass or the gains will be lost. Yes, but I don’t fully agree 100% in that appraisal.
There is a saying in marketing that one “cannot sell from an empty wagon.” On Sunday morning, when there is no traditional Mass, or perhaps one, in a Diocese with 2-300,000 Catholics, is that not an empty wagon? And is not that empty wagon actually owned by the Diocese?
My case rests.