I wrote about the Vatican wasting its authority by using the Pontifical Academy for Life as a vehicle for trying to undermine and reject the teachings of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.

One other thought that has been bothering me concerns Pope Francis’s reversal of Pope Benedict’s permissions for the Traditional Latin Mass. First, of course, is the dishonesty in it. Benedict had premised liberalizing the TLM on the idea that it was part of the patrimony of all Latin Rite priests; that it was holy and could not really be a source of division, given the continuity of faith in the Church. It was justified on substantive grounds. But Pope Francis suppressed it purely on practical grounds, asserting that it caused disunity.

The boldness of Francis’s move is very likely to still the hand of his successor, even a conservative or traditionalist one. The idea of three consecutive popes dramatically reversing their predecessors’ decisions on this matter would make the Roman Church look ridiculous even to conservatives.

The only response one can offer is that the Roman Church already appears ridiculous on this issue, and going back to a gracious and correct position is always more dignified than persisting in a nasty error.