But what is happening in the Catholic Church is that the Latin Mass is becoming the province of a faction of spiteful, spitting lobbyists. The Latin Mass is becoming associated with those who view Vatican II as an invalid council and think that people who attend the Novus Ordo are lesser Catholics; who act as though the Latin Mass somehow makes them better and superior and more holy, and their halo more sure, perhaps even complete.
I have no argument with people who want to bring back the Latin Mass.
I have a BIG problem with people who, against the wisdom of the Church, say that the Novus Ordo is invalid.
Maybe the Novus Ordo is inferior. So be it.
There are can never be any inferiority in the Sacrifice of the Mass. One is as good as another.
What I find ironic about Tridentine Catholics is that their attitude is often very modern, not Tridentine.
I regularly read St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus, St. Louis de Montfort and like-minded writers.
And their refrain is this: Obedience and submission. That's the essence of humility, which is what saves.
When you make the decision that your judgement is better than that of your superiors, and you actively oppose them, you are no better than the dissidents you rail against.
It is the very essence of pride.
Your superiors, i.e. bishops, may very well be wrong.
But so long as they are in office and uphold them, their decisions are valid. ("What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.")
The Church has decided that the Novus Ordo is valid.
So that's that.
Well the popes and bishops have been wrong.
I think Christ knew what he was doing. When he created the Church and the hierarchy, it wasn't to leave people to personal interpretation. When a juridical decision is made, Christ treats it as true.
If it's up to individual Catholics to determine what is true and what's not true, valid or invalid, how is that better than Protestantism?
It's not. We have bishops to take the guess-work out of all those theological questions.
