As is well known, I am a liberal who hates Traditionalism and the Extraordinary Form

That’s why I am so thankful we have finally come out of the Dark Ages of Traditionalist Pope Benedict and into the New Age of Liberal Pope Francis. I mean, listen to this backward retrograde stuff (slightly edited for ease of comprehension) from that old arch-reactionary who has (thankfully) ceded the See of Peter to a forward-thinking Progressive:

“When the bishop of Conversano and Monopoli, Domenico Padovano complained to the Pope about the work of division created within the Church by the defenders of the Mass in the ancient rite. Sandro Magister reported the following:

“Benedict exhorted him to be careful with the extremisms of certain Traditionalist groups, but also to treasure tradition and allow it to live in the Church along with innovation.

“In order to better explain this last point, the Pope…brought up his own example:

“See? They say that my Master of papal ceremonies [Guido Marini] is of a Traditionalist mold; and many… have asked me to remove him from his position and replace him. I have answered no, precisely because I myself may treasure his traditional formation.”

And get a load of this outdated stuff from Benedict on the Church’s sacred liturgy:

Alexey Bukalov: “Good evening Holy Father. Holy Father, returning to ecumenism: today the Orthodox are celebrating 1,025 years of Christianity. There are great celebrations in many capitals. Would you like to comment on this event, I would be happy if you did. Thank you.”

Benedict: “In the Orthodox Churches they have conserved that pristine liturgy, no? So beautiful. We [i.e., the Latin Christians] have lost a bit the sense of adoration, they conserve it, they praise God, they adore God, they sing, time does not count. The center is God
and that is a richness that I would like to emphasize on this occasion as you ask me this question.

Once, speaking of the Western Church, of Western Europe, especially the Church that has grown most, they said this phrase to me: “Lux ex oriente, ex occidente luxus.” [“Light from the East, from the West, luxury.”]

Consumerism, well-being, have done us so much harm.

Instead you keep this beauty of God at the center, the reference.

When one reads Dostoyevsky — I believe that for us all he must be an author to read and reread, because he has wisdom – one perceives what the Russian spirit is, the Eastern spirit. It’s something that will do us so much good. We are in need of this renewal, of this fresh air of the East, of this light from the East. John Paul II wrote it in his Letter. But so many times the luxus of the West makes us lose the horizon. I don’t know, it came to me to say this. Thank you.””

Oh. Wait. It turns out Francis said all that stuff.

Never mind.

Have I mentioned I love this guy?