Analysis of the Rumors of Vatican Crackdown on the TLM

Particolare degli affreschi del Castello di Malpaga, di Bartolomeo Colleoni (source)

Preliminaries

Before I go into my analysis of the latest rumors from Rome, a brief note to my readers.

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Correcting an error

In my post on Monday, I claimed that Thomas Merton went off the tracks in “the 60s and 70s.” A kindly reader reminded me that he died in 1968 (the same year as Padre Pio… interesting juxtaposition, isn’t it?), making it impossible that he did anything in the 1970s, at least visible to mortal eyes. I apologize for that error and have corrected it in the article as it appears online.

The big news this week

I’m sure everyone has heard by now the news that, according to reliable insider reports conveyed to the main editor of the Rorate Caeli blog, a megaton bomb against the TLM is in preparation at the Vatican — a document awaiting the pope’s signature, a “final solution” (as it were) to deal with the ongoing “problem” of the stubborn traditionalists and the relatively slow progress that has been made over the past three years in implementing the repressive policy of Traditionis Custodes and in “reeducating” Catholics in the riches of the Novus Ordo.

(You can see why the anti-traditionalists are so upset: if things remain as they currently are, traditionalists are poised to outnumber non-trads in less than half a century: see here and here for the data analysis.)

Reactions to this rumor ranged from unhinged panic to cool skepticism. Here we will analyze the news, its probability, the implications of such a move, and what we can do in response to it.