Middle Management Cracks Down on the TLM

Bishop Martin explains that he is just doing what he is told. It's not his fault the Trads won't accept the Novus Ordo.

Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, made it clear that he is just the middle manager charged with implementing the system designed by his superiors at the Vatican, including its dead CEO. Don’t blame him…blame the system, okay?

Bishop Martin said as much in his recent interview with America—The Jesuit Review. Not surprisingly, he received a soft landing there with the hosts desperately trying to make the case for him. To his credit, he needed to correct his Jesuitical hosts on a couple of occasions to make it clear that actually caring about what happens in the liturgy is a good thing for Catholics to do.

Nevertheless, what becomes obvious when the hosts let Bishop Martin address the liturgical issue is that his crackdown on the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), as well as the traditional forms of receiving Holy Communion in the New Mass parishes, was done simply because that’s what he was told to do, and he is just following the policy.

When asked what his motivations were for cracking down on traditional forms of liturgy, he said beginning at the 49:15 mark of the video,

“And so to Ashley’s question where you know what’s my mind on this or what’s my motivation here? My mind is to uphold the norms of the Roman Catholic Church. And that’s what you would want your bishop to do. And so I’ve been pretty clear whether it be on the full implementation of Tradition Custodes of Pope Francis that was clearly limiting the experience of the extraordinary form [TLM] of the liturgy that all I did was complete its implementation here in the Diocese of Charlotte where my predecessor had implemented it to a certain point had asked for an extension for two years for four parishes where it was still being celebrated and that extension was coming up for expiring and so I had to decide what to do. Do I apply for another extension or do I fully implement Traditionis Custodis as it was promulgated?

And so when asking for why I should ask for an extension, the only rationale that I was given was because people want to continue to experience the liturgy through the extraordinary form. And that doesn’t tell me, that’s not an extension. That’s, you know, an extension a substantive disagreement. Right. Like if you’re telling me okay we need a few more years to get people to a certain place where they can no longer feel that the only way they can go to receive communion is or to celebrate the mass is through the extraordinary form. If we need some more time to get people to do that. Okay. Well, show me what you’re going to do in the next two years so that when I ask for a two-year extension, I know that at the end of that two years, we’re going to be in a different place. And that was not what the rationale was. It was simply, well, we still want to, you know, celebrate the liturgy this way. Or more nefariously, it’s like, well, there’s a new pope in town and we’re just going to wait it out and see if prevailing winds change.”

So, there you go. Bishop Martin, enforcing his role as a middle manager for Francis, was simply doing what he was told to do—implement Traditionis Custodis. And clearly, as he understood it, this implementation process was designed to move those who celebrate the TLM away from that liturgy and assimilate those Trads back into Novus Ordo parish life.

For Martin, the charity and accompaniment involved have nothing to do with allowing those who recognize the importance of the TLM to continue to do what they are doing; the charity and accompaniment involved is a gradual assimilation back into Novus Ordo parish life while avoiding any harsh disruptions.

Once again, to Bishop Martin’s credit, he recognized quickly that those who attend the TLM have no interest whatsoever in ever going back to Novus Ordo parish life. They recognize the errors and danger of doing so. When this became clear to Bishop Martin, he quickly decided that delaying implementation of Traditionis Custodis any longer would no longer serve a practical purpose, and so it was best just to rip that Band-Aid off and begin the crackdown. And that’s what he did because Francis told him so.

From a lean-mean corporate machine perspective, this is exactly the type of hatchet man upper management looks for. Someone who does not question the directive, sniffs out those who are not really going along with the program, and then swiftly and ruthlessly implements directives and lets the pieces fall where they may.

No doubt there is going to be some initial complaints and annoyances from those who are being forced to change their ways. We know how that goes. The office lady who has worked in the corner office for 50 years is told she is no longer allowed to use the fax machine and must use email to get her work done. There is whining and complaining for a moment, but hopefully, she will just quit the job and stop making waves.

At the end of the day, the corporate machine banks on the fact that the low-level Catholic pew sitter will submit as a matter of obedience because they think their souls will be in danger if they don’t go along with it. Even better, the troublemakers will just stop showing up and go somewhere else where they won’t be a problem—like the “schismatic” SSPX.

And so, as the low-level pew-sitting Catholics who remain “attached” to the “extraordinary form,” you can either get with the program or decide to be schismatic. Those are your options. And as the Jesuitical hosts constantly reminded their viewers, there are so few of these weirdo Trad gadflies that it doesn’t really matter beyond their loud voices. Remember, they tell us, you have no power, no numbers, no influence, and you will be crushed in the end.

Will you, as the faithful, obedient Catholic, accept the implementation of Traditionis Custodis or not? That’s up to you. But when it comes to Bishop Martin, he is just doing his job.