Quit trolling, dude

Last week we Catholics got word from On High that bishops have "the option" of refusing a Latin Mass, which means (per That Hideous Strength) they'd better refuse it if they want to get anywhere in this Curia. Richard Spencer is not a Christian but butted in anyway, the next day. To that end, he did a doody in the baptismal-font and, today, is calling us to look at it again.

Spencer (as usual) sprinkles some disturbing truths in his ramble, in this case - the Church exists as a hierarchy as well as a faith, and the hierarchy has made its peace with Modernity, which Modernity Spencer (purportedly) abhors. If that was all there was, I'd have nothing to poast about. Sadly:

The main claim here is “Traditionalist Catholics” are horrified by the notion that they might have to receive the religion they’ve devoted their lives to in a language they actually understand. To disclose: I am not a "Trad" whatever that means; I just go to (Anglo) Mass. Although I do know some basic Latin. And I know what Transubstantiation means. Most "Trads", I dare say, know both, and know it better than I do. Between the two, I further dare say I know better, at least, than Spencer.

It isn't just scurrilous to say that "Trads" don't know and don't want to know. If I am any guide, and I repeat I am less conversant than are most "Trads", they absolutely love the experience in communing with the Saints in (most of) those Saints' own language. Which means Spencer is relaying a falsehood, to the extent the best we can say is that the man doesn't know what he's talking about.

And any Mass in its (more) original form inspires the best of us (once more: not including me) to learn that language such as to follow along. Which - for those in that tradition - allows that congregation entry into thousands of years of their own tradition and history. Latin, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Coptic, whatever.

OnePeterFive on behalf of the Romania has been running the table on the backstory, since then. I think they're right that Duh TRADZz will be looking seriously into Orthodoxy. The "Eastern Rite" would be another option - I might even consider this myself since, you know, Syriac. But we all have to consider the vast majority of Western Catholics who aren't ancestrally Semitic and/or don't care as much about that (to them) alien Oriental tradition. Most Catholics feel more attuned with Latin and, why shouldn't they? Wasn't that Spencer's own selling-point, five years ago, that we're to live up to who we are...?

Call it a "LARP" if you want, but it's our LARP. Spencer's got his own. I know which one I prefer.