An Appeal to Priests and Bishops

It is fair to say the Catholic Church is in crisis. I think any priest or bishop, worth his salt, knows that. Denial of this simple truth would border on stupidity now. The real question is this. How do we remedy it? Better yet, I think a more profound question would be: how do we remedy this under the reign of Pope Francis? Under his pontificate the Traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite), or 1962 Missal, has been removed as an option. Bishops are no longer free to simply throw the 1962 Missal at Catholics who complain about the problems in the liturgy today. Then we have the additional problem of doctrinal ambiguity, confusion and even subversion. This is another trait of the Francis pontificate.

As an incidental note, I want my readers to know that I have left the Ordinariate of English Patrimony (Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter). I have no problem with the Ordinariate, and in fact, I fully support its mission and continue to recommend it for Catholics seeking a strong traditional alternative. I have left for personal reasons related to family needs, and also because I believe my work there is done. So I’ve moved back into diocesan life to begin working on other projects, in what I believe to be a new phase in my calling as a Catholic layman, catechist and knight.

As a certified catechist, I’ve learned that people have different learning methods, and different learning needs. We are not going to solve this crisis in the Catholic Church by just throwing catechisms at people, and telling them to hurry-up and read it. Likewise, it’s impractical to offer catechism classes to every single Catholic who is deficient in their knowledge of Catholic teaching (which includes the vast majority of Catholics sadly). No! As our Western society becomes more engrossed in social media, video shorts, and video games, the attention-span of Western man has become more infantile than previous generations. So, to correct this problem, the Church is going to have to rely on more primal methods. Thankfully, this just happens to be an area the Catholic Church is especially strong in.

Fathers, the time has come to become more medieval in our approach to catechesis. Like the medieval period, where illiteracy among the peasant-class was common, the postmodern working-class man (the new peasantry) suffers from a different kind of illiteracy. It’s an illiteracy of information-overload, which sadly has a similar affect to classical illiteracy, and in some ways can be even more pernicious.

Everyone who reads my writings, either blogs here on WordPress or microblogs on X and Gab, knows I am no fan of Pope Francis. I have my issues with him, but I know he is the pope and I offer him the minimal respect due to any Roman Pontiff. Part of that is giving credit where credit is due, and Pope Francis deserves credit for pointing out that the industrialized West is suffering from a different kind of poverty — a poverty of spirit — that is robbing us of our very humanity in addition to our connection to God. I believe this poverty is connected to the information overload I mentioned above, which will require a more primal form of catechesis to address.

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi.

The Latin saying, lex orandi lex credendi, meaning “the law of prayer is the law of faith/belief,” is the remedy for the times in which we live. It runs counterintuitively to how we think. This is especially true for somebody like me, who comes from the Protestant world. Most Protestants build their doctrine first, academically and intellectually, laying it down in writing. Then, and only then, after their creed is hammered out in detail, do they begin building their churches and formulating their worship services. Protestantism is, by its nature, a very heady variation of Christianity, built on the intellect of man, specifically man trying to wrap his head around the will of God. The model worked well, in a simpler time, when people were both literate and less overwhelmed with new information. In fact, it worked so well that the Catholic Church adopted some of its methods.

There is nothing wrong with this of course. If something works, it works, and Catholics shouldn’t be afraid to embrace that which works. However, in case you haven’t noticed (and I’m sure you have), what used to work fairly well, no longer works anymore. Information overload plays a heavy role in the collapse of Protestantism, both in the United States and abroad. The postmodern Evangelical Movement itself, or “Jesus Movement,” which started in the late 1960s to early 1970s, is now on the decline. This was itself the creation of Protestants fleeing their old mainline denominations due to encroaching modernism. Mainline Protestantism is nearly dead now, gutted from its previous size and strength. The new Evangelical churches acted as islands of refuge for Protestants for decades. Now they are starting to weaken, gradually losing numbers. In time, they will collapse, just like their Mainline Protestant forefathers. It’s already begun. This is because the Protestant model of academic Christianity has not changed. The packaging has, but not the methodology. If Catholic clergy want to overcome the modernist zeitgeist, they’re going to have to recognize that different teaching methods are not only needed — but they are absolutely essential!

Postmodern Catholicism is only in decline where Catholic parishes and dioceses have attempted to duplicate the Protestant model — a model that is extremely vulnerable to the modernist zeitgeist. The solution is not to dump the Protestant model of academic Christianity, but rather to put it to the side for later use. Catholic academia is so much better than Protestant academia. That’s because the Catholic Church has so much more to offer. There will always be a place for it, and many Catholics will turn to it in time, but only after their most basic spiritual needs are met. However, because of the modernist zeitgeist of information overload, that methodology simply isn’t going to work anymore for the average, postmodern Western man. Catechisms are great, but the postmodern, Western man no longer has time for them. Bible study is fantastic, but again the postmodern, Western man no longer has time for it. You’ll be lucky to get even 10% of your congregation to show up to a Bible study.

Postmodern man needs something more primal now, something more medieval, like what was needed by his spiritual counterpart in medieval peasantry. Postmodern man needs lex orandi lex credendi. It seems the only thing postmodern man has time for is the Holy Mass, and Pope Francis has limited the number of resources available to us for the postmodern, Western man.

The 1962 Missal is not the final solution. Even Pope Benedict XVI recognized this in Summorum Pontificum (2007). He described the relationship between the Ordinary Form (2002 Missal) and the Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal) as a friendly match of German thumb-wrestling. Summorum Pontificum wasn’t about bringing back the 1962 Missal to overtake the 2002 Missal. On the contrary, even Benedict XVI saw the 1962 Missal as always being a minority liturgy, hence the name “Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.” Benedict XVI, like Francis in this case, saw the 2002 Missal as the “Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite,” and that name alone indicates no intention to do away with it — ever. Could it ever be revised? Sure! Could it ever be overhauled to be more like the Extraordinary Form someday? Sure! Absolutely! Why not?! It’s never going away, however, and Benedict XVI understood this, just like Francis does. Francis is decidedly more militant about it, and dare I say he was a bit draconian with Traditionis Custodes (2021) severely restricting the use of the 1962 Missal, effectively reversing Benedict XVI’s strategy.

Benedict XVI saw the Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal) informing the Ordinary Form (2002 Missal), helping the latter regain its historical connection, its medieval roots, and its primal sense to catechize the Faithful through lex orandi lex credindi. That is where we are now, in our postmodern world, ravaged by the errors of modernism, and the poverty/illiteracy of information overload.

This is why I am calling upon all spiritual fathers in the Catholic Church (priests and bishops) to recognize the spiritual poverty/illiteracy of the Western, postmodern man, and do something about it. The only solution is lex orandi lex credendi. It’s the solution Pope Benedict XVI laid out for us, that is now severely limited (but not erased) by Pope Francis. Now, instead of relying on the 1962 Missal to keep traditionally-minded Catholics happy and quiet, it is necessary to use the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (2002 Missal) exclusively in the same manner, and on a much, much bigger scale. I am begging you, for the sake of souls, please begin making the Ordinary Form (2002 Missal) more traditional and reverent in every way possible. This is how we catechize the postmodern man. This is how we deliver lex orandi lex credendi to the information overloaded (spiritually illiterate and poverty stricken) postmodern peasantry.

The following video is an example of what I’m talking about. It comes to us from St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago. They offer classes and coaching for any priest seeking liturgical help. Naturally, this example of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (2002 Missal) has resources available to it that might not be easy to duplicate in some parishes. That’s okay. Let not perfection become the enemy of good. To reach the postmodern peasantry, made illiterate by a century of modernist heresies and information overload, this is the only way. Teach them how to pray as Catholics, and the Catholic creed will follow. Lex orandi lex credendi…

I encourage everyone to share this post with their priest and bishop.

Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and he is an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com