Bloodbath in Tyler: Why (and How) Traditional Catholics Must Resist the Suppression of the TLM

The important role of temporary independent chapels in a time of persecution

“You Are Not” by Farshid Bazmandegan

The Blitzkrieg has happened.

In the diocese of Tyler, Texas, almost exactly a year after Bishop Joseph Strickland was uncanonically and illegally deposed from his cathedra, Apostolic Administrator Joe S. Vásquez has announced that, as per Vatican instructions sent to him (at his request), all five diocesan Latin Masses in Tyler are to be shut down effective November 30th. No recourse.

In this post, after recounting what is happening in Tyler and elsewhere, I will explain why we need heroic priests to continue offering the TLM regardless, even if this means operating independently of diocesan structures for a time. I will give examples of how this was done successfully in the 1970s, with happy endings, and must be done again today as part of a correct and proportionate response to the diabolic attack on the fullness of Catholic tradition, which is also an attack on the baptized faithful, beloved children of God purchased by the Savior’s Precious Blood.

What has happened and what it forbodes

An article at Rorate provides full details but we may summarize the highlights (or lowlights) as follows.

Recall that one of the reasons why +Strickland was deposed is that he would not implement Traditionis Custodes in his diocese. He declared: “As a shepherd and protector of my Diocese, I could not take actions which I knew with certainty would injure part of my flock and deprive them of the spiritual goods which Christ entrusted to His Church.” The Dicastery for Divine Worship shows no similar desire to be pastoral and protective: all five diocesan TLMs are to canceled, in the towns of Tyler, Malakoff, Texarkana, Gilmer, and Nacogdoches, leaving only the FSSP parish, St. Joseph the Worker, in operation. Henceforth no other priests will have faculties to offer the TLM.

The trouble is, St. Joseph the Worker is already crowded. Unlike in Europe, where the faith is dying, in the little diocese of Tyler the TLM communities are flourishing. There is no possible way that five additional congregations’ worth of faithful can be crammed into the FSSP parish — even if only some of the laity make the journey there. The Vatican once again shows its utter contempt for the faithful who belong to one of the few sectors of the Church that is flourishing; indeed, one suspects by now that it is precisely because it is flourishing in orthodoxy and divine worship that modernist and/or homosexual prelates wish to destroy it.¹

On Facebook I posted my reaction to the news in the following words:

Absolutely sickening, petty, vindictive, short-sighted, unjust, uncharitable, unworthy, and damnable. In the words of the Psalmist: “Make them [viz., the bishops responsible] bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.... Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.”²

We know that similar evils are happening elsewhere. For example, the longstanding and very popular Latin Mass at the Cathedral in Santa Rosa will be ended — against per Vatican decree — on November 24th. After saying this place was home to him, a friend of mine lamented:

The high altar was brought in specifically for the TLM. I would like to be there [on that final Sunday]; my grandfather was there the last time it went away.

That is, this man is now being forced to re-live, in 2024, the horrible experience to which his grandfather had been subjected around the year 1970: to see the Mass of the Ages stamped out by our latter-day ‘c’atholic Cranmers. How unutterably sad. To have done this to people even once, based on predictions of a “new springtime,” was bad enough; to do it a second time, in the deep ecclesial midwinter, is sheer ideological vindictiveness.

The Cathedral in Santa Rose, with the High Altar that was used for the TLM

As the slow machinery of the Dicastery for Divine Worship grinds through diocese after diocese, we can be certain — short of a sudden end to this pontificate and the election of a pope with a quite different mentality — that more and more TLMs will be shut down, and also that the former Ecclesia Dei institutes (FSSP, ICKSP, IBP, monasteries, etc.) will be targeted next, not necessarily to be shut down, but to be lured or cajoled into this or that compromise (the trial run with the French Dominicans of the Holy Spirit should place everyone on guard; see my article “The Next Possible Anti-TLM Strategy: A Novus Ordo/TLM Hodge-Podge to Demonstrate ‘Acceptance of the Reform’”). That is the obvious trajectory in view; only God knows how far the wicked will be able to prevail before their downfall.

God will not be mocked. The Catholic churches that manage to stay open in the coming decades — as opposed to the vast number of buildings that will be shut down as the mainstream Church collapses into its predicted demographic sinkhole or that will be burned down by progressivist radicals, especially in reaction against four years under Trump — I say, these still-open churches will sooner or later get the Mass of the Ages back.

Here is my message to the Latin Mass faithful in Tyler, TX:

“Do not, whatever you do, give in to the serpentine tactics of those who seek to tear you away from the most sublime expression of our Roman Catholic faith: the traditional Latin Mass. Even though it will be more difficult to attend because of commuting to the FSSP parish (and because of that parish’s tight space), your ongoing fidelity to tradition will be richly rewarded, especially now that you are undergoing active persecution. Do not let anyone deceive you with reassuring promises of a ‘Latin Novus Ordo with chant’ or some such simulacrum. There is no substitute for the Mass of the Ages: the new rite is radically different from it at every level. Stay close to Our Lord in His Passion and Our Lady in her Compassion. They understand what it means to suffer for love and for the salvation of souls.”

Priestly heroism and devotion more needed than ever

To all priests who are placed in a situation like this — suddenly forbidden to offer the TLM — I say: