Pope Leo: Tradition Minded Catholics Are Not ‘Active Participants’ at Mass

David Martin | The Daily Knight

With all the beguiling influence that has crept into the Church since Vatican II, Catholics today are under the illusion that active participation of the faithful is about being lay busy-body activists that perform liturgy and overrun the Church with their parish “ministries.”

Whereas true active participation is to silently adore Christ at Mass in a spirit of reparation and thanksgiving. This was the way of the saints and must be the way of those today who will to be actively involved with the Mass.

Pope Leo doesn’t agree. Now he is more than suggesting that the ancient manner of silent worship in the Traditional Latin Rite was wrong. Leo says that with Vatican II the need arose for Catholics to celebrate the Mass “more consciously,” as if the faithful of previous centuries were strangers and “blind spectators” not actively involved with the Mass.

“The need arose for the faithful to celebrate the liturgies more consciously and actively, not as strangers and silent spectators, but participating fully in the salvific mystery. In this way, the Christian people learn to recognize the sacred realities, offer themselves with and through the hands of the priest, and become more open to receiving God’s grace. At every celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, let us ask for God’s help to be strengthened on our journey and to enter into a deeper relationship with the Lord.”

So in other words, Catholics before Vatican II were neither ‘involved’ with their religion nor did they have a ‘conscious relationship’ with God so that the Council was needed to bring them “into a deeper relationship with the Lord.”

Not so. It was the tradition-minded Catholics of old that had a conscious and active relationship with God while Vatican II served to turn the faithful away from God.

Leo accuses silent observation at Mass as being ‘uninvolved’ when in fact our calling as Catholics is to quietly contemplate the Lord’s Passion at Mass and to unite our sufferings with His. In that manner we can “participate fully in the salvific mystery.” Yes, we are called to be “silent spectators.”

Christ’s Sacrifice Must be the Focal Point of our Worship

As dogmatically taught by the Church, Christ’s Sacrifice is reenacted on the altar at every Mass, which means that this reenactment of his Passion must be the very focal point of our worship. This is the very purpose of the Mass, i.e. to unite us with Christ’s Sacrifice.                   

Unfortunately, the New Mass detracts from Christ’s Sacrifice but Christ nonetheless is present in the New Mass, despite it defects. The Mass is still valid, which calls upon us to silently adore him there and to make heartfelt reparation for the many offenses that are crucifying him in his  Church today. Reparation is true active participation.

St. John Vianney

St. John Vianney certainly doesn’t agree with Leo’s idea that we not be silent spectators at Mass. The saint had become intrigued by a devout soul who would often visit his parish in a spirit of reverence and silence, so one day St. Vianney asked him, “What do you do when you come to Church?” He answered, “I look at God and he looks at me.” He didn’t take his worship beyond that but adored in simplicity. He was a silent observer, thereby showing himself to be a true active participant in God, unlike those who love to shake hands and socialize in Church.

Unfortunately, Vatican II set in motion a new order lay activism whereby the laity think they can contribute to the liturgy and have preeminence at the altar like priests, but Christ rejects these humanist traditions of men (Mt. 15:3). Active participation means to silently suffer with Christ. Though Leo may not agree, we are called to be silent observers at Mass.

Sinister Ambiguity 

The Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium subtly feigns support of this type of authentic worship when in fact it does quite the opposite. In article 7, it ambiguously states:

“In the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members.”

On the surface this sounds very holy, namely, that we are all called to adore God at Mass with one mind, but what conciliar architects really meant was that lay people can perform the liturgy, not just the priest. What is promoted is the fallacy of a “common priesthood” (LG-10).

This ties with the often-repeated theme of “active participation by the faithful,” which is another ambiguous bombshell. On the one hand, this can be taken to mean that Catholics should actively be involved with their religion by reading the lives of the saints, going to confession, and sanctifying their souls in the fear of God, but what modernists really mean is that we should be socialist busy-bodies engaging in the liturgical revolution against the priesthood. While some of the particulars of today’s revolt are not explicitly spelled out in the conciliar documents (lay lectors, Eucharistic ministers, youth ministers, etc), they nonetheless have their foundation in the documents and fulfill the conciliar vision of active participation by the faithful.

The Leninist Clenched Being Raised in the Church

What we are witnessing with today’s lay empowerment is the Leninist clenched fist applied in an ecclesial context. The Holy Virgin at Fatima warned in 1917 that if Russia wasn’t converted through the Rosary and through the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart this nation of Russia would spread its errors throughout the world and even into the Church. When we see Catholic prelates defying tradition and building toward and new “synodal” church of man it clearly testifies to the influence of Communism in the Church.

And too, when we see the laity taking the Sacred Host in the hand and even distributing it at Mass it is the clearest indication that Communism is at work today in the Church. The ugly hand of Communism has truly reached in to desecrate the Body of Christ. These novel “reforms” have not fostered a “conscious” relationship with God but have destroyed it.

Silent Observers are Needed in the Church

Yes, silent observers are needed to make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that it might appease God and stay the hand of divine execution that is quickly descending upon the world. The increasing floods, quakes, elemental disturbances, and the increasing turmoil in the Church clearly indicate that we are now in the latter days when we need to prepare for Christ’s Second Coming. This will best be done by reverent and silent worship and by returning the Church to its former position of honor as it stood before Vatican II.

As for the active participation of modernists, let it be trashed.