The most prominent Catholic leader in Texas, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Houston-Galveston, made headlines this past week. On the very same day the Supreme Court decided not to block Texas’s new abortion laws — an excellent opportunity for a headline-making quote — the good Cardinal used his bully pulpit to prohibit the Latin Mass in certain Houston parishes.
Cardinal DiNardo, alas, was taking his cue from the top. In July, Pope Francis put his thumb in the eye of those faithful Catholics dutifully trying to ignore his ongoing flirtation with the anti-Christian Left. He issued an Apostolic Letter cracking down on the Latin Mass, the revival of which over the last 30 years has been the greatest boon to American Catholicism since Fulton Sheen discovered television.
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, gives individual bishops the power to “regulate” the Latin revival. That said, papal dictates such as “take care not to authorize the establishment of new groups” leave little doubt about his long-term intentions. The pope’s gesture struck many Catholics as so gratuitously self-destructive that it revived the old joke, “What’s the difference between Baptists and Jesuits?” Answer: “Baptists know they’re not Catholic.”
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