Optimism in the air

Just after posting I try to catch up on some of my blog reading, and The New Liturgical Movement has this wonderful post by Jeffrey Tucker touching the attitudes and actions that lead to the catechetical failure I discussed and how there' a new breeze blowing, thanks to our beloved Holy Father and his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

in modern times, we've all been subjected to the claim that the "Spirit of Vatican II" was all about repudiating the past. The phrase appeared as a justification for every manner of behavior, teaching, or liturgical innovation that violated the sense of the older faith.

It was real sleight of hand at work. It's true that every Church council and every administrative decision has not only a letter but also a spirit, and that is true in the secular as well as ecclesiastical world. But how can it be that that spirit could actually contradict the letter such that what is being defended runs completely contrary to the law itself? That's a sure sign that what we are talking about is not a true but a false spirit.

Everyone knows the more obvious specifics. Vatican II said Gregorian chant should assume primary place but instead we got pop tunes more suitable for a children's playground than Mass. We were told that nothing would change about the liturgy unless it was absolutely necessary, and instead with got liturgical revolution. With it came an upending of doctrine, morals, and the faith itself, with the inevitable draining of monasteries, convents, and seminaries.

If you were going to describe this false spirit correctly, the last word one would use is "liberal." In fact, the spirit that was foisted upon us was illiberal in the extreme. It banned liturgical forms of the past. It sought to ban music of the past. It sought to ban our holy cards, our art, our architecture, our established prayers, our lay organizations, and our very way of life as Catholics. Change was in the air, but what was it all about? The only thing we knew for sure is that the past was off limits. And this was enforced.

The "Spirit of Vatican II" then became an excuse for mandatory heterodoxy, for undermining the true intent and contradicting the letter and the purpose of the reform. This Council that sought authenticate liberalization was ironically used by people invoking its spirit as a means for closing off all history and tradition, interdicting the past. A kind of autocratic and despotic censorship of all treasured things came into effect. This ill-liberal attitude shut it off the Catholic a source of its very name life, that is, its traditions.

What then happened? Sometimes it seemed as if the faith was perilously in danger. Cardinal Newman explains why: "No one can really respect religion, and insult its forms.

And this heart-rending bit from "Mitch" in the combox:
What a beautifully touching and yet sad article about what has happened to our beloved Church and faith. It makes me want to weap. At least we are on the road to recovery and I hope to see it paved with gold. The confusion wrought by unbelieving what we believed had many peripheral effects. For example, I am from the NO generation and I remember as I was going through Cathesis circa 75, I was told to not call it Cathecism anymore, but Religious Instructions. When I questioned by parents about this and other things they said they could not help me. Simply they said it is a new Church with a new way that they did not understand. That was a break in tradition for sure. My own family could not relate to me or the Church during those turbulent times. No passing on of tradition. Nothing was familiar to them. I was disconnected. I am not alone, it happened to millions of families worldwide I am sure. Time to make it right, once and for all. (or many?)

It does seem sometimes lately as if the Forces of Dimness are mounting a last-ditch assault, I know I have been sinfully, (I mean that literally,) pessimistic lately.

No! All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well!

Back to work!