Burke: Francis Has No Authority To Forbid The Roman Mass

 en.news Cardinal Burke’s July 22 statement calls Francis' Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes „severe“ and „revolutionary.“

Burke denies that Francis has the power to abrogate the Roman Mass because his power is not absolute. Therefore he cannot change Catholic doctrine or eradicate a liturgical discipline alive in the Church since the time of Gregory the Great (+604) and even earlier.

Accordingly, Article 1 of Traditionis Custodes which claims that the Novus Ordo "is the only expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite" cannot be understood as it is written.

Burke recalls that “every valid celebration of a sacrament, by the very fact that it is a sacrament, is also, beyond any ecclesiastical legislation, an act of worship and, therefore, also a profession of faith.” In that sense it is not possible to deny that the Roman Missal is a valid expression of the lex orandi of the Church.

This is so, Burke explains, because of the objective reality of divine grace which cannot be changed by a mere act of the will, not even by a pope. 

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