New Archbishop of Vienna: Lay People Should Lead Sunday Liturgies

N.B. The novus Ordo collage liturgy continues its inexorable course of auto-destruction,

Archbishop Josef Grünwidl of Vienna, Austria, who was appointed by Pope Leo XIV on 17 October, would rather have parishes without priests than have the faithful drive distances to attend a Eucharist.

He told the Austrian state broadcaster ORF (October 30):

"I believe that we should not think of the Church in terms of priests, but in terms of parishes. We cannot say: there are fewer priests, so there must also be fewer parishes.

My approach is different: we should ask ourselves what parishes need in order to remain alive locally – even if there is no priest present every Sunday.

It's about empowering parishes to live independently. This includes having women and men who support and organize parish life, even if a priest is no longer regularly available as in the past."

The picture shows Rev Gründwidl at a school Eucharist in June 2023

The false cult of the past that kills the present

 

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• Traditionis Custodes

Every age convinces itself it has understood tradition, yet very few can truly claim to have lived it. Ours is no exception: it has fallen into the paradox of splitting between the nostalgic guardians of what used to be and the self-styled prophets of what is yet to come, without noticing that both positions are built on the same distortion. Those who look backward want to preserve what they no longer use, as one protects fragile objects locked in a display case; those who look forward see tradition only as an obstacle to creativity, something to overcome in order to breathe freely. Neither side sees that the real issue is not the past or the future, but the present. Because tradition, when it is truly tradition, does not belong to yesterday and does not anticipate tomorrow: it happens. It happens now, in the encounter between a word received and a freedom that responds.

The confusion comes from treating tradition as a thing. We discuss it as though it were a doctrine, a custom, a set of rules: something to defend, adjust, repair, relocate, historicize. But tradition is not an antique piece of furniture to be restored or discarded. It is a gesture. It is an event that is handed on. It is the living continuity of an experience that has crossed the centuries not because it was protected, but because it was lived. Whenever we freeze it in the past, we empty it; whenever we turn it into a pretext for innovation, we lose it. In both cases we miss the essential point: tradition is not an object, but a relationship.

In the life of the Church, this misunderstanding has deep consequences. When tradition is reduced to a series of forms to be preserved, it hardens. It becomes formalism, a bodyless ritual, a nostalgia that refuses to call itself nostalgia. The obsession with what once was prevents us from seeing what is happening now, from judging the present, from being wounded by the questions we carry and that demand answers. Preserving for the sake of preserving is not fidelity; it is fear. And fear leads to paralysis. It does not generate discernment, only repetition. Traditionalism is born here: when fidelity is mistaken for mechanical reproduction, when the past is idolized because the present is no longer intelligible.

But the opposite temptation springs from the same mistake. When tradition is seen as a burden, responsible for delays or rigidity, when it is blamed as the source of today’s difficulties, one has already abandoned any attempt to understand what it truly is. Those who believe they must free themselves from tradition in order to be free fail to notice that in doing so they dismantle the very criterion that makes freedom possible. Without tradition, freedom becomes impulse rather than judgment, reaction rather than choice, volatility rather than a path. The true erasure of tradition does not produce modernity, but disorientation—and in ecclesial life, disorientation results in a community that can no longer recognize what is taking place.

Tradition, instead, is the working hypothesis by which reality is faced. Not to repeat the past, but to verify whether what has been handed down still generates life. It is a “deposit” only in the way a seed is a deposit: not made to be looked at, but to be planted. It bears fruit only when used—and using it requires risk, judgment, and freedom. Tradition is the way a word coming from afar continues to resound now. It is the encounter between memory and present, an encounter that cannot be neutralized either by nostalgia or by the frenzy for the new.

More: https://x.com/silerenonpossum/status/1990018429966065753?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

“Leo has CANCELLED the Francis/Roche plan to end exemptions from” Traditionis custodes

From Damian Thompson @holysmoke:

Congratulations to @PillarCatholic for clarifying the encouraging reports about the TLM. Although TC remains on the books, Leo has CANCELLED the Francis/Roche plan to end exemptions from it. 

“Some dioceses were granted initial dispensations from the norms of Traditionis custodes for a two-year transition period, but under Pope Francis it was widely understood that no further extensions would be granted.

However, since Leo became pope in May, the Dicastery for Divine Worship has begun extending such dispensations and entertaining new ones, prompting speculation that the new pope may be open to easing or reversing the requirements created by his predecessor.

One source close to the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said it appears from the nuncio’s comments that the pope wants the door to the celebration of the old liturgy to be left open.” 

See link below. When it comes to complex stories like this, @PillarCatholic is the only show in town.

Pillar article: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/leo-poised-to-grant-generous-exemptions?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Archbishop Sheen predicted the “ape of the Church” which is being foisted upon us

 

Leo poised to grant ‘generous’ exemptions to Traditionis custodes, UK bishops told

 “Leo will ask Cardinal Arthur [Roche, prefect of the dicastery] to be generous.”

THE PILLAR

Sources close to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told The Pillar that Pope Leo appears poised to grant widespread exemptions to Traditionis custodes, without revoking the motu proprio itself.

Pope Leo XIV, pictured on Sept. 7, 2025. Credit: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, gave a recent address to the plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, informing the bishops that the Vatican would “be generous” when asked to dispense from the restrictions to the traditional liturgy, a senior cleric told The Pillar.

According to one source present for the address, the nuncio explained that while Pope Leo is “not minded to change [Traditionis custodes], but as there are many different rites in the Church, there’s no reason to exclude the TLM.”

“The details were a bit blurry,” said one source. But the nuncio did convey that while pastors of parishes would still need the approval of their bishops to offer the extraordinary form in parish churches, and diocesan bishops still need to apply to the Dicastery for Divine Worship for permission, “Leo will ask Cardinal Arthur [Roche, prefect of the dicastery] to be generous.”

Earlier this week, the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales met with the apostolic nuncio, as part of the conference’s plenary assembly. After the meeting, reports began to surface that the nuncio had conveyed Pope Leo XIV’s intention to permit more broadly pre-Vatican II liturgical celebration.

According to one cleric present for the nuncio’s address, although Pope Leo was not inclined to repeal the Francis-era motu proprio, “the impression [the nuncio gave] was that the pope wants the door to be left open and not  narrowed or closed.”

More: https://x.com/pillarcatholic/status/1989461856998858923?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

narrowed or closed.”

In 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship also confirmed that ad orientem worship is not forbidden

In summary: celebrating Holy Mass in the traditional manner, ad orientem, which Cardinal Ratzinger has called "not something accidental" but "a rediscovery of something essential, in which Christian liturgy expresses its permanent orientation," is at the very least a legitimate option "in accord with liturgical law" and "to be considered correct." No bishop is able "to exclude or mandate the use of a legitimate option."

Which Way to Turn? A Tale of Two Citations October 10, 2001

By Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ

o WASHINGTON, DC (CNS)--The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments July 28 issued the first revision in 25 years of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. 

The new Latin-language instruction--released simultaneously in Washington in an English study translation--introduces numerous minor changes in the way Mass is to be celebrated. 

It also makes a clear legislative decision on a controversy of recent years by declaring that it is "desirable whenever possible" for the priest to celebrate Mass facing the people. 

o But what about the altar? In what direction should we pray during the Eucharistic liturgy? … When the altar was very remote from the faithful, it was right to move it back to the people…. It was also important to distinguish the place for the Liturgy of the Word from the place for the properly Eucharistic liturgy…. On the other hand, a common turning to the east during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of something accidental, but of what is essential. (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, 2000.) 

Can these two citations be reconciled? What is the mind of the Church? Is it "essential" to face east during the Eucharistic Prayer? Or has there been a "clear legislative decision" that it is undesirable?

More: https://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=20573

Ave Crux Spes Nostra

The Holy Cross as an amulet against plague and witchcraft.