(Kevin Tierney/Rorate Caeli) — Traditionis custodes is back in the news. Following DDW Prefect Arthur Cardinal Roche’s interview with The Catholic Herald, even non-traditionalist commentators are wondering: does Traditionis custodes have a future? (One of the individuals interviewed was RC contributor Joseph Shaw; and RC contributor Peter Kwasniewski’s article on Andrea Grillo was linked.) In considering this question, I would like to take a slightly different approach, and also directly answer one of the stated justifications for it in the article.
The Zone is Flooded
One of the biggest threats to the survival of Traditionis has been the ability of traditionalists to dominate the discourse surrounding the Latin Mass. As Cardinal Roche himself admitted in the interview:
One of the things that has been very interesting to me is observing this situation worldwide. The numbers devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass are, in reality, quite small, but some of the groups are quite clamorous. They are more noticeable because they make their voices heard…
While the defender of TC will say this is a case of trolls being the loudest, an alternative reading is possible: our voices are heard because voices defending TC are few and far between. This makes sense intuitively: all things being equal, those who stand to lose something will be more vocal about it than those defending the decision to make those individuals lose something. For the defender, it is a theoretical argument. Austin Ivereigh and Professor Grillo choose to isolate themselves in their echo chamber, as far away from any enjoyer of the Latin Mass that they can. In choosing that life of isolation, they are not only blinding themselves to those who lost, they are preventing their voices from being heard in defending the Vatican decree. More traditionalists who were at risk of losing the Latin Mass have spoken to Bishops than Austen has written about this matter. Even someone as ideologically committed against the Latin Mass as Professor Grillo cannot hope to match the dedication and energy of communities who protest losing that Mass.
