Still in the back of the bus

There has been quite a bit of chatter lately about "a document" the Holy Father has already or will shortly sign regarding the Mass. Whether the document will apply to the "old" rite of Mass or the Novus Ordo, is unclear to those doing most of the talking.

As someone loyal to the liturgial traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, aka the Tridentine Mass, I've ridden the roller coaster of hope many times before. It is Spring here, and new life abounds in nature, so we are predisposed to optimism.

I am, however, reminded of something Richard Wagner said in the Dresden during the failed 1848 revolution across Germany: "You have one Fatherland, Germany. Love it above all...more through actions than through words."

The Roman Church -- drunk on the "spirit of the Council" -- teeters on the precipice and has been for decades: bad liturgy, bad music, bad theology, declining vocations, declining belief in the real presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, many Cardinals who are heretics, at best! It must come to and end and only one man can bring it to and end: Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning.

When the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of extinction, one man kicked out the last support from it's rotting frame, President Ronald Reagan. He threw down the gauntlet to Mssr. Gorbachev by going to the Berlin Wall and publicly saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

That said, I believe it is time for the Holy Father to act in a clear and unmistakable way. Not through documents, not through Ecclesia Dei, not through Cardinal Ruini or the collected College of Cardinals.

We, the remnant of Tradition must now say, "Santissimo Padre, pray this Mass!"

Until the Bishop of Rome himself celebrates Holy Mass using the traditional missal of Pope St. Pius V in St. Peter's Basilica, Traditionalists will continue to be considered cranks, nostalgics, "schismatics" and de facto second-class citizens of the Roman Church.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Mother of Christ, may it be so!