UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Eugene Cullen Kennedy | Aug. 22, 2013
The keen observer of all things ecclesiastical, David Gibson, tells us that Pope Francis has unsettled and divided those who designate themselves as traditional or right-wing Catholics.
Just when Pope Benedict XVI had reassured traditionalist Catholics that his reform of the reform would overturn the Second Vatican Council and make it safe for them to stay out of the sanctuary and yield it to the clerical culture cardholders who, backs turned to the faithful, could make the Mass mysterious again by mumbling it in Latin, along comes Pope Francis who, to traditionalists’ horror and discomfort, is recalling the church to Vatican II and emphasizing its themes.
Philadelphia’s arch-conservative archbishop, Charles Caput, is uncomfortable with the idea that Pope Francis’ election has rendered Pope Benedict XVI’s return to Vatican I kaput. He sounds, according to Gibson, surprised and somewhat hurt that the new pope did not, like the resigned one, sign on to Blessed Pope John Paul II’s efforts to restore the faith to the stiffness that marked the vestments and customs of pre-Vatican II Catholicism.
Catholics on “the right wing of the church,” Chaput said as Pope Francis prepared to leave for World Youth Day in Brazil, “have not been really happy about (Francis’) election,” and sounding, as Charles J. Reid Jr. observes, like the prodigal son’s brother who despite his goodness didn’t get a good seat at the party, insists Francis “will have to take care for them, too, so it will be interesting to see how all that turns out in the long run.”
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