Rome, We Have a Problem

The traditional Latin Mass held at the U.S. Capitol last week was a Jericho-Walls-crumbling moment.

Published in Crisis Magazine on February 1, 2024

If ever there were an emergency message to Rome, this is it. It might have been the SOS a year ago as some bishops witnessed large numbers of other bishops using their pastoral canonical privilege to bypass the iron-fisted prescriptions of Traditionis Custodes. But it is certainly the frightened alert in light of the Extraordinary Form Mass held at the U.S. Capitol last Tuesday.

It was a Jericho-Walls-crumbling moment. This time it was not Jewish priests and Israelites circling the city and blowing their horns but Catholics worldwide storming Heaven. Or, a parallel more recent, the cracking of the Berlin Wall by East Germans, but this time by passionate Catholic millennials who will not let the Mass of the Ages become a fossil of past ages. Its significance cannot be overemphasized. This Extraordinary Mass was celebrated at the request of the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, in an archdiocese that has witnessed the near abrogation of all Traditional Masses. The irony could not have been sweeter.

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