Originally published at crisis magazine
The attack on the Traditional Latin Mass in Tyler, Texas this weekend has gobsmacked us all, both traditional and Novus Ordo Catholics. Why now? Why on the first anniversary of the loss of our dear bishop? The fact that the apostolic administrator, Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, requested a ruling hints that it might be part of a negotiation.
Maybe that was the only way they could get someone to agree to come to Tyler, a tiny place by every conceivable measure, not a trampoline to higher power in the Church, and with a laity still raw over the irregular removal of our shepherd. The robust financial condition of the diocese has almost certainly suffered in the last year, as we watched the diocese fail to mount even the slightest defense of our good bishop. That left us only one avenue of recourse: pulling our contributions.
Perhaps the only way to get a bishop for Tyler was to grant him a “clean slate,” with Bishop Vásquez taking the fall for strangling the Latin Mass at the cathedral.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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We knew the Vatican was coming for the TLM
