Glaciers Moving Backwards

It never occured to me in the past when I would refer to change in the Roman Catholic Church as "glacial," that such ecclesial glaciation could actually go in reverse. But it seems that this is where things are headed. In recent weeks, Joseph Ratzinger-- Pope Benedict XVI--has made the latest of Vatican moves in the direction of Pre-Vatican II, and among those who knew him when he was "just" a theologian, this really comes as no surprise.

The return of "the Latin Mass" (actually the liturgy known as the Tridentine mass, and related versions of sacramental rites) has been explained by various spokesmen (sic) from the Vatican as an effort to bring back a small group of "traditionalists" (who, by the way, see themselves as the only ones in the world adhering to the true True Church!) rather than bringing us all (Catholics, Protestants, Jews et al) back to pre-Vatican II.

One strange thing in all of this is that in past instances of dissent in the church, the Vatican has been very clear to say that "we don't make changes based on popular demand. The Church is not a democracy." For thousands of Catholics ("Liberation Theologians" and those who followed them) who for years struggled to address issues of social justice as central to their faith commitment, formal silencing has been more often the Vatican approach. People of faith trying to understand the relationship of faith to nature (a la Matthew Fox et al.) have been dis-invited from the church. Women have basically been told to be silent and subservient. But apparently scismatic "traditionalists" (who, again, see themselves as the only ones in the world adhering to the true True Church) have something going for them that the rest do not.

It also occured to me that there is more than a bit of absurdity in all of this when you consider what is going on in the world. The US is at war, in the longest war in its history (if you consider the 10 years of non-stop bombing of Iraq that preceeded the present phase of military activity), the Middle East is simmering with growing tensions, nuclear weapons are being developed in new and unstable locations in the world, genocide is happening in at least one region of the world, the planet is facing environmental degradation at an unprecedented rate... And the Vatican is issuing road rule ethics for Catholic motorists {{{..and by the way we are bringing back the Latin Mass... and the Cardinal we had previously sent to Boston to crack down on the liberalizing elements of the U.S. Church...who then oversaw one of the most egregious periods of clergy child-molestation is now safely in the walls of the Vatican....}}} And we're going to promote the presence of the Church to the world by... bringing back the Tridentine mass... so we can once again pray for the conversion of the Jews and clarify that WE, not the Episcopalians, nor the Lutherans, nor the Baptists.... WE are the One True Church.

Can you see that glacier shift in reverse!?