Traditional Mass: Coming (Back) Soon To A Parish Near You

I will probably say this more than once here: I love our Pope.

Loyalty and obedience are my obligations as a Catholic, of course. If someone wishes to take exception to that, since especially "obedience" is not a much-admired trait in this age, they are welcome to try. Won't change a thing. Truth is truth; finding the truth distasteful does not make it less true.

Which sort of explains, in a roundabout way, why I have a great fondness for Benedict XVI. Papa Benedict. My German Shepherd.

All I knew of him before dear John Paul II left us was his reputation as a staunch defender of Church doctrine, which made him rather unpopular with the "progressive" element in the Church. I can understand why some would expect a man who bore the weight of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for so long to become rather grim and humorless, and in fact that's the picture the media tried to paint (after all, if a cleric is conservative he must be a grump, right?) when this white-haired eminent scholar was seen by millions during John Paul II's televised funeral Mass.

I was elated when the conclave ultimately selected him. This was no grim sourpuss, no formidable Rottweiler who stepped onto that balcony. The sweet-natured, soft-spoken pastor he always has been was visible to the world. But he is, most definitely, still the defender of the truth (all of it, not just the parts we like).

Some hoped that Benedict XVI would rein in some of the excesses and downright goofiness that have found their way into the liturgy, all "in the spirit of Vatican II" but most found nowhere in the council's documents.

It didn't take long. The official paper hasn't yet been released, but it appears he is about to take the handcuffs off the traditional Mass -- which will, I believe, eventually put the brakes on "liturgy as entertainment". Thomas Craughwell in The American Spectator:

With this document the pope is undermining the monopoly the progressives have had on parish life. For the first time in a long time Catholics who have clung to the traditional teachings of the Church and cherished the traditional liturgy will have a place they can call home.

Thanks be to God. And thank you, Papa.