In mid-July, Cardinal Burke, speaking at a Latin Mass conference, said:
It is my hope that he [Leo XVI] will put an end to the persecution of the faithful in the Church who desire to worship God according to the more ancient usage of the Roman Rite – this persecution from within the Church.
He then revealed, “I certainly have already had occasion to express that to the Holy Father.”
Roughly a month later, the Unholy See Press Office announced that Cardinal Burke had met in private audience with Leo for more than half-an-hour.
Trad, Inc. was not just stoked that the current CEO of Newchurch had condescended to receive their hero, some of its more vocal leaders were sarcastically giddy. Gloating on his X page, for example, Michael “Zip-It” Matt, publisher of America’s oldest traditional blah, blah, blah… wrote:
More TERRIBLE news! Gee, whatever are we going to do!?! This is a DISASTER! 🙂 (God bless Cardinal Burke! and keep praying for Pope Leo. This is far from over).
Of course, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Cardinal Burke made an impassioned plea for the Traditional Roman Rite and its devotees during that audience.
On September 8, the Leophoria reached a crescendo when it was announced that Cardinal Burke had been granted permission to celebrate the TLM at St. Peter’s as part of the annual Summorum Pontifcum pilgrimage. This was a mere two days after a rainbow clad LGBTQ+ army invaded, and properly violated, the Basilica.
No matter, Trad, Inc. wasn’t about to let a little homo-deviant violation of the church erected over the burial site of St. Peter rain on their parade.
In any event, Mike Matt is right, this is far from over.
Now, this is just speculation on my part, but it seems highly unlikely to me that Leo just sat quietly as Burke urged him to ease restrictions on the TLM. Rather, one assumes that he expressed his own convictions – already made publicly plain – that the impetus and premise for Traditionis Custodes stands, namely:
Both he and his vociferous predecessor firmly believe that unity demands that all who call themselves Catholic eventually move to the “unique expression of the lex orandi” of the conciliar Church, or what Leo calls, “the Vatican II rite.”
As such, one wonders: Did Leo and Burke play let’s make a deal?
I suspect that they did, and it remains to be seen exactly what awaits behind door number two (a reference likely lost on many readers under the age of 50). My wild guess:
Look for Cardinal Burke to celebrate an oh so reverent Novus Ordo in Latin, possibly even ad orientem, complete with smells and bells and beautiful vestments.
And when might we expect to see such a spectacle?
If such a thing were to happen, it seems to me that the conciliar Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe would perhaps offer the perfect occasion.
Recall what Leo said in his blockbuster interview:
Well, you can say Mass in Latin right now. If it’s the Vatican II rite there’s no problem … If we celebrate the Vatican II liturgy in a proper way, do you really find that much difference between this experience and that experience?
Leo went on to say regarding those faithful who are attached to the Traditional Latin Mass:
I’ve heard bishops talk to me, they’ve talked to me about that, where they say, ‘we invited them to this and that and they just won’t even hear it’. They don’t even want to talk about it. That’s a problem in itself.
They may be tone deaf now, but surely those rascally traditionalists will soften their stance when their de facto leader demonstrates for all to see that the so-called called “Vatican II rite,” when celebrated in a proper way, really isn’t all that different than the Mass of Ages.
Was this the kind of calculus that moved Leo to grant permission for the TLM to be celebrated at St. Peter’s, i.e., did Raymond Burke and Robert Prevost play a diabolical game of Let’s Make a Deal?
If so, we will find out soon enough.
