The German novelist Martin Mosebach has been — for 20 years now — one of the most articulate advocates of the traditional Latin Mass, which Pope Francis has cruelly attacked.
I was pleased to see this somewhat hostile and uncomprehending interview with him translated and posted at the blog Rorate Caeli.
This one exchange in particular stands in for my own answer to the same predictable question.
Conservative Catholics like to talk about obedience. Now that the pope is scaling back the Old Mass, they are rehearsing the revolt. Francis has decided; why not just accept it?The image of the papacy that emerged after the First Vatican Council, which saw the pope become an autocrat in all spiritual and juridical matters of the Church, does not correspond to the tradition of the Church. The papal office is not an absolute monarchy: precisely in its claim to infallibility, it is strictly bound to tradition, to what the Church has always taught and done. The pope has no dominion over this; his authority consists precisely in the fact that he bows to it. When Pope Francis tampers with tradition, he can no longer oblige the faithful to obey. Above all, he is attacking the very foundation on which the papacy stands.
Read the whole thing.