VATICAN CITY — One of the persistent criticisms of the final assembly of the Synod on Synodality has been that, despite its frequent emphasis on listening and dialogue, several relevant and important voices went unheard.
In his final assessment of the synod, George Weigel identified some of these voices as happily married couples, Catholic educators resisting today’s “woke” culture, and healthcare professionals living a culture of life.
But another group conspicuous by its absence were those faithful who value the traditional liturgy and apostolic tradition — a small but flourishing group both in terms of vocations and Church attendance but currently the subject of sweeping Vatican restrictions since Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.
During the worldwide consultation phases of the 2021-2024 synod, traditional groups such as the Latin Mass Society of Great Britain (LMS) and the International Federation Una Voce (FIUV) encouraged their members to submit contributions, and many responded by sharing their views as part of the synodal process.
Written contributions, mostly those from Europe and the United States, made their way into the synodal reports during the continental stage that ran from late 2022 to March 2023 and continued to be registered by bishops in the synthesis reports that followed.
Writing in FIUV’s periodical Gregorius Magnus last winter, LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw observed that some bishops’ conferences, such as those of Malta, Italy, France and Australia, tended to ignore them altogether. But in those dioceses and countries where the traditional Mass was well established, he wrote that diocesan and national synthesis reports tended to “acknowledge the existence of Catholics attached to it and report their point of view.”
They were often mentioned in the context of a desire for a more reverent liturgy, concerns about divisions, and a sense of exclusion and marginalization among those attached to the old rite.
But as the synod progressed, those contributions failed to become part of the discussions at the assembly, nor did they make it into the final document. “They kind of got winnowed out,” Shaw told the Register, adding that they were “like seeds that fell among thorns.”
Direct appeals to the synod organizers also went unheeded.
In April of this year, Jean-Pierre Maugendre, who heads the French traditional group Renaissance Catholique, sent an appeal for the full freedom of the traditional Mass directly to the synod office because he wanted the whole of the traditional world to participate in the synod, but the Register has learned that Maugendre received no response, not even an acknowledgement of receipt.
Noah Peters, founder and president of the Arlington Latin Mass Society in Virginia, told the Register that “from its inception up through to its final document, the Synod on Synodality refused to acknowledge or act upon the input it received from traditional Catholics, both religious and laity.”
He said this was despite traditional Catholics presenting “well-considered views throughout the process” that highlighted how the traditional Latin Mass “has led to a well-spring of vocations, conversions and reversions, and that the restrictions have been hurtful and cruel.” But he added that “it was clear from the outset that the synod’s leadership were not interested in hearing or acting upon these views.”
The discrepancy became acutely apparent when synod participants discussed the issue of vocations and shortages of priests in the West.
Traditional Catholic communities have been described as the only Catholic demographic that is growing in the Western world, with groups such as the traditional Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) reporting a record number of vocations in 2023 and significant growth in its overall membership. More generally, attendance at traditional liturgies has been increasing, and pilgrims attending such events as the annual traditional pilgrimage to Chartres in France have been breaking records.
A traditional priest in the United States told the Register on condition of anonymity, due to the restrictions on the old rite, that traditional communities are being “inundated with vocational enquiries and struggle to accommodate those who aspire to join their ranks.” He added that many of these budding vocations would not long ago have approached their local diocese but since Traditionis Custodes they feel they can “no longer entrust their vocational discernment to those who have effectively canceled traditional understandings of what it means to be a Catholic.”
The synod’s final document acknowledged the vocations crisis but presented solutions other than highlighting the traditional liturgy, such as “extending and stabilizing” lay ministries.
The issue also came up at some of the press briefings. Cardinal Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany, told reporters on Oct. 22 that “so far we have not found an answer to the lack of priests” and suggested that “a new answer concerning women in the Church” needed to be found, including officially instituting women preachers.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, also highlighted the problem of the lack of priests in his deeply secular country of Luxembourg. He told reporters that to combat this, his diocese has combined parishes, not just due to a lack of priests but also because of a “lack of faithful.” The traditional liturgy failed to register as a possible solution.
Abbé Claude Barthe, an expert author on the traditional liturgy and priest of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in France, told the Register that “no one at the synod, not even bishops who know the traditional world well, such as Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, mentioned using the possibilities of the traditional world where there are a significant number of vocations.”
When the Register asked Cardinal Hollerich at the end of the synod why traditional Catholics and their views on vocations and other issues were not considered in the final stages of the process, he replied: “I have people who celebrate Mass in the old rite and I’m friends with them. I can imagine in a postmodern world getting attracted by that; I do not condemn that.”
When pressed further on the question, he responded by saying that traditional Catholicism “was not a topic for discussion,” adding: “We were not against them; we were not for them.” Asked how such an approach can be called synodal when it is supposed to include listening to all points of view, he replied: “We have discussed things brought up from the people of God, and these people have not written to us.”
The cardinal was asked again about the issue outside the press hall, but he said he was “too tired” before going into a room to be interviewed by Vatican media. Asked one more time if he could explain why traditional Catholicism was not included, he again declined, saying he had young people to see who were waiting for him.
Speaking to the Register at the end of the synod, Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, Cameroon, who was a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod that oversaw the running of the 2021-2024 process, acknowledged that traditional Catholicism was omitted and said it was because of Traditionis Custodes. “We were not going to be discussing the Pope’s [motu proprio] in the synod,” he said.
For Abbé Barthe, the exclusion from the synod and synodality was “obviously ideological,” and he pointed to “other areas where traditionalist ‘recipes’ work,” such as “Mass attendance, youth movements, and the teaching of the Catechism.”
Peters said that while the final document was “perhaps not as bad as was feared, the biased process has unfortunately failed to reflect the voices of the Catholic laity and religious who spoke up in large numbers for traditional liturgy and the Church’s unchanging magisterium.”
He added: “It is more apparent than ever that Traditionis Custodes is totally at odds with the concept of a synodal Church,” but said he was “confident that future synods will not be able to evade the prayerful and unbiased deliberation needed during these difficult times for the Church.”
Members of the synod’s secretariat were also contacted for this report but did not respond by press time.
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