“Demons dwell on empty altars”

From Gloria.tv:

The Weeds Grow, While the Wheat Is Uprooted

A Friday decree from the Vatican Secretariat of State has banned all private masses in St Peter's Basilica from the 22nd March on. Now, the Catholic internet is running hot.

In a statement, Cardinal Burke called the decree illegal and unjust. The Secretariat of State is not competent, he said, and the decree contradicts canon law, which provides for the daily celebration of Mass by the priests. However, the Secretariat of State is not just anybody but the direct executive organ of the Pope. 

Chanceless: Writers of Decree Control the Courts

The German Canon lawyer Father Gero Weishaupt recommended on Kathnews.de legal action against the decree. Affected priests could lodge an administrative complaint against the unlawful act directly with the Apostolic Signature. However, it is clear from the beginning that this would lead nowhere. For decades, canon law has been used consistently to block a Catholic renewal. Besides that, the writers of the decree control the courts.

Demons Introduced, Angels Expelled

Father John Stone sees on Twitter.com a connection with the Pachamama cult in St. Peter's Basilica. Since Pachamama was venerated there in October 2019, the main altar was hardly or never used again, he noticed. Now, masses are banned from the basilica, which, according to Chrysostom, fill the entire space of the Church with angels in order to worship the slain Lamb. The German writer Ernst Jünger once commented on the decline of the Church by saying, "Demons dwell on empty altars".

Do Not Assume Incompetence and Ignorance

Father Joseph Krupp remarked on Twitter that the Vatican is addressing private masses where there is no problem instead of dealing with the countless issues it has. Krupp excuses this malicious act with the fact that the Vatican’s "cluelessness is boundless". But this explanation is likely not correct. The writers of the decree knew exactly what they were doing.

Total Control Over Every Mass

Steve Skojec of OnePeterFive.com writes, in contrast to many old-rite commentators, that the decree is not just about banning the Old Mass. Many complaints against the decree came also from New Rite priests.

For Skojec, this is "an attack on any liturgy they can't control." This is likely true. The priest's Mass is seen as an attack against the modernist ideology that replaces God with a so-called community. Persecution of Christians in St. Peter's The German Journalist Armin Schwibach calls the measure, along with other restrictions already in place, a "persecution of Catholics in St Peter's". With one letter, a centuries-old practice is simply wiped out, he writes. Schwibach believes that canon lawyers will have a lot to say about the decree, starting with the blatant overstepping of jurisdiction. But Schwibach overestimates canon law: ecclesiastical jurisprudence is a phantom science that is not worth the paper it is written on.

A Purge

Father Josh Miller writes that in the face of such reprisals one need not be surprised that the young Catholic generation is becoming more and more radicalised. Father Timothy Finigan recognises in this a victory for the liturgical Jansenists in their desperate struggle for supremacy. Father Michael Petkosek speaks of a purge against Catholicism, a modern reaction to the old faith, a false solution where no problem existed.