Asuntos Tradicionalistas

Misa Dialogada - CLXV

Don Giovanni Battista Montini

Dra. Carol Byrne, Gran Bretaña

Ordenado en 1920 en la diócesis de Brescia, el joven Don Battista, como se le llamaba antes de ser Arzobispo, Cardenal y Papa, fue profundamente influenciado por el Partido Popular de Don Sturzo, cuyos miembros (los Popolari), representantes de los Demócratas Cristianos, estaban en la izquierda del espectro político. Su familia vivía y respiraba la política italiana¹ hasta el punto de que, para ellos, Catolicismo y revolución contra el gobierno eran sinónimos. Como comentó un biógrafo:

Giovanni Battista Montini de niño, primero a la derecha

“Nacido en esta familia de Popolari bresciana que creía tan firmemente en la naturaleza social y política del Catolicismo, Giovanni Battista Montini desarrolló un agudo sentido de la naturaleza reformadora del Cristianismo. Nunca cuestionó lo apropiado de mezclar religión y política. Para Montini, no podía haber otro camino; era deber de los católicos transformar la sociedad y hacer realidad los preceptos sociales del Evangelio, por utópicos que pudieran parecer.” ²

Pero este es exactamente el meollo del problema de la Acción Católica oficialmente aprobada, entonces y ahora. Hay un mundo de diferencia entre querer rehacer la sociedad según principios de “Justicia Social” y ayudar a los pobres mediante la caridad evangélica. La Fe y el legado de los Santos que transformaron la sociedad y ayudaron a los pobres son cualitativamente diferentes del tipo de política que perseguían los sacerdotes del Movimiento Litúrgico que le dedicaron sus vidas. Ellos representan solo la punta de un enorme iceberg que se extiende hasta nuestros días. Los llamados “preceptos sociales del Evangelio” fueron todo menos utópicos; ni estaban imbuidos del sentido subversivo que les atribuyeron los sacerdotes neomodernistas de inspiración marxista.

Montini con sus padres como seminarista

Aquí podemos hacer una pausa para intercalar un punto pertinente: que el Papa León XIV, a imitación de sus predecesores conciliares, especialmente Francisco, sigue jugando la carta de la “Justicia Social” y perpetuando la falsa equivalencia entre religión y política, en la que el anticapitalismo es, de manera escandalosa, visto como el camino a la santidad.

Este tema fue presentado en el primer documento formal del pontificado de León XIV, la Exhortación Apostólica Dilexi Te, del 4 de octubre de 2025, en la que aprovechó la Fiesta de San Francisco de Asís para predicar ad nauseam un mensaje político de anticapitalismo apenas disimulado. En agosto de 2026, se dirigió a una delegación de la Sociedad de San Vicente de Paúl de Estados Unidos donde atribuyó erróneamente al Santo francés la enseñanza de que la oración y la acción en favor de la justicia social son complementarias e inseparables.” ³

Revenons à nos moutons. Durante su mandato como Capellán Nacional de la Federación Universitaria Católica Italiana (FUCI), cargo que Montini ocupó de 1925 a 1933, fue conocido por sus intentos de reconciliar el Socialismo con el Cristianismo. Esta ideología se desarrolló más en su Encíclica de 1967, Populorum Progressio, un manifiesto cuasi político, en el que dio gran énfasis a su sueño imposible de una economía global que suplantaría al Capitalismo y supuestamente acabaría con la pobreza mundial.

Su teoría sobre un punto de convergencia entre el Socialismo y el Cristianismo ya había sido demostrada como una fantasía por Pío XI, quien resolvió definitivamente cualquier duda en esta materia declarando solemnemente que el Socialismo, incluso en su forma más moderada, es irreconciliable con las enseñanzas del Cristianismo.

Montini en la época en que era director espiritual de la FUCI

Cuando fue director espiritual de los fucini (los estudiantes universitarios miembros de la FUCI), Montini estaba en una posición privilegiada para difundir la influencia de sus ideas a escala nacional e internacional. Daba conferencias y retiros a los estudiantes, organizaba conferencias y congresos nacionales, los acompañaba en la acción social y política, y cofundó la revista, Studium, de la cual fue editor y principal colaborador.⁴ De sus artículos podemos extraer algunas de las ideas que inculcó en la generación emergente de líderes intelectuales y políticos católicos de Europa. Estas revelan el pensamiento central de Montini el fucini:

La Federación debe estar abierta y dispuesta a entrar en diálogo con el mundo moderno;
No debe condenar el espíritu del mundo ni criticar la cultura moderna;
Debe rehuir la apologética tradicional como “antimodernismo fanático”;
Su actitud debe ser de asimilación, no de espíritu de conquista;
Debe adoptar una política de libertad religiosa y de separación de Iglesia y Estado;
Los laicos deben ejercer una participación activa en la liturgia por derecho bautismal porque, el Día de Pentecostés, los laicos participaron directamente en la misión de la Iglesia sin ninguna mediación de la Jerarquía;
Todos los miembros de la Federación deben participar en el activismo de “Justicia Social” para liberar a los pobres y a los trabajadores, y estar preparados para adoptar políticas económicas afines al Socialismo.

Estas ideas fueron centrales en la perspectiva de Montini desde los días de su sacerdocio temprano. Proporcionan la justificación de su apoyo a organizaciones como la Juventud Obrera Cristiana y el Movimiento de Sacerdotes Obreros. Predicó estas ideas y las llevó consigo cuando se convirtió en Papa, y las usó como los bloques de construcción con los que edificar las estructuras fundacionales del Vaticano II.

Surge lógicamente una conclusión importante, relevante para las actuales exigencias de obediencia al Magisterio del Vaticano II como prueba de fuego de quién está en plena comunión con la Iglesia Católica. Nadie puede ser obligado a aceptar ninguna de las novedosas enseñanzas anteriores como prueba de identidad católica, considerando su origen en la mente dividida de un Papa de mentalidad mundana que obtuvo el cargo para asegurar que el Concilio que presidió cumpliera las fantasías utópicas de su juventud.

El resultado de sus desviaciones del oficio petrino fue una nueva Misa para una nueva religión (para reconciliar a la Iglesia con el mundo moderno), ninguna de las cuales puede describirse como genuinamente Católica.

Continuará

Su padre, Giorgio Montini, había sido recomendado por Benedicto XV para ser Presidente de la Unión Electoral Italiana, un partido político que preparó el terreno para el Partido Popular de Don Sturzo, y fue un miembro destacado de los Demócratas Cristianos.
Richard J. Wolff, ‘Giovanni Battista Montini and Italian Politics, 1897-1933: The Early Life of Pope Paul VI’. The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 71, n. 2, Catholic University Press of America, 1985, p. 247.
Devin Watkins, ‘Pope Leo: Prayer and social justice are inseparable,’ Vatican News, 26 de agosto de 2026.
Una colección de estos artículos ha sido publicada bajo el título Coscienza universitaria: Note per gli studenti (La Conciencia de una Universidad: Notas para los Estudiantes), Roma: Edizioni Studium, 1930.

Publicado el 13 de octubre de 2026

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Traditionalist Issues

Dialogue Mass - CX

Pre & Post Liturgical Movement Attitudes to Minor Orders

Dr. Carol Byrne, Great Britain

When we compare the traditional view of Minor Orders with the treatment they received at the hands of liturgical reformers in the 20^th century, it becomes evident that the two positions stand in dire contrast to each other. To illustrate this point in greater depth, let us turn again to the exposition of Minor Orders made by Fr. Louis Bacuez who modestly introduced his magnum opus as follows:

Starting the whittling away of respect
for the Minor Orders...

“This little book is a sequel to one we have published on Tonsure. God grant that those who make use of it may conceive a great respect for Minor Orders and prepare for them as they should! The dispositions with which they approach ordination will be the measure of the graces they receive, and on this measure depends, in a great part, the fruit that their ministry will produce. To have a rich harvest the first thing necessary is to sow well: Qui parce seminat parce et metet; et qui seminat in benedictionibus de benedictionibus et metet. (2 Cor. 9:6)” (1)

Little did he realize that when he wrote these words every vestige of respect for the Minor Orders would be whittled away by the concerted efforts of progressivists with a negative and dismissive attitude towards them; and that the Liturgical Movement, which had just begun when he published his book, would be dominated by influential liturgists discussing how to overturn them.

Long before the term “Cancel Culture” was invented, they presented the Minor Orders as a form of class-based oppression perpetrated by a clerical “caste” and as a form of spiritually empty legalism, and they went to great lengths to make them look ridiculous.

Far from showing due respect, this involves quite a considerable degree of contempt, not only for the generations of seminarians who were formed within this tradition, but also for the integrity of the great institution of Minor Orders that had served the Church since Apostolic times. In fact, so great was their animosity towards the Minor Orders that they could hardly wait to strip them of their essential nature as functions of the Hierarchy and turn them into lay ministries.

A tree is known by its fruits

These, then, were the hate-filled dispositions that inspired the progressivist reform, and would determine the graces received and the fruit to be produced by those who exercise the new lay “ministries” as opposed to, and in place of, the traditional Minor Orders.

Fr. Bacuez, who wrote his book in the pontificate of Pius X, could never, of course, have envisaged the demise of the Minor Orders, least of all at the hands of a future Pope. He was concerned lest even the smallest amount of grace be lost in the souls of those preparing for the priesthood:

Blighted fruits from a sick tree

“We shall see, on the Last Day, what injury an ordinand does to himself and what detriment he causes to souls by losing, through his own fault, a part of the graces destined to sanctify his priesthood and render fruitful the fields of the Heavenly Father: Modica seminis detractio non est modicum messis detrimentum. (St. Bernard)” (2)

We do not, however, need to wait till the Last Day to see the effects of a reform that deliberately prevents, as by an act of spiritual contraception, the supernatural graces of the Minor Orders from attaining their God-given end: “to sanctify the priesthood and render fruitful the fields of the Heavenly Father.” For the evidence is all around us that the tree of this reform produced blighted fruits.

First, we note a weakening of the hierarchical structure of the Church and a blurring of the distinction between clergy and laity; second, a “contraceptive” sterility resulting in vocations withering on the vine and below replacement level, seminaries and churches closing down, parishes dying, and the decline in the life of the traditional Catholic Faith as seen in every measurable statistic. The conclusion is inescapable: those who planted this tree and those who now participate in the reform are accomplices in a destructive work.

Advantages of the Minor Orders

A substantial part of Fr. Bacuez’ exposition of the Minor Orders is devoted to the inestimable benefits they bring to the Church. These he divided into the following three categories:

The honor of the priesthood;
The dignity of worship;
The perfection of the clergy.

It is immediately apparent that the Minor Orders were oriented towards the liturgy as performed by the priest and his ministers. In other words, they existed for entirely supernatural ends invested in the priesthood.

A significant and entirely appropriate omission was any mention of active involvement of the laity in the liturgy. Fr. Bacuez’ silence on this issue is an eloquent statement of the mind of the Church that the liturgy is the preserve of the clergy.

We will now take each of his points in turn.

1. The honor of the priesthood

“A statue, however perfect, would never be appreciated by most people, unless it were placed on a suitable pedestal. Likewise the pontificate, which is the perfection of the priesthood, would not inspire the faithful with all the esteem it merits, if it had not beneath it, to give it due prominence, these different classes of subordinate ministers, classes inferior one to another, but the least of which is superior to the entire order of laymen.” (3)

Toppling statues has become popular today:
above, Fr. Serra in central Los Angeles, California

It is an example of dramatic irony that Fr. Bacuez unwittingly chose the theme of a statue supported by a pedestal to illustrate his point. He was not to know that statues of historical figures would become a major source of controversy in the culture wars and identity politics of our age.

Nor could he have foreseen that toppling monuments – both metaphorical and concrete – was to become a favorite sport of the 20^th-century liturgical reformers, their aim being to exalt the status of the laity by “active participation” in clerical roles. And never in his wildest imagination would he have suspected that a future Pope would join in the iconoclastic spree to demolish the Minor Orders about which he wrote with evident pride and conviction.

'Don’t put the priest on a pedestal'

However, the revolutionaries considered that esteem for the Hierarchy and recognition of its superiority over the lay members of the Church was too objectionable to be allowed to survive in modern society. The consensus of opinion among them was that clergy and laity were equals because of their shared Baptism, and placing the priest on a pedestal was not only unnecessary, but detrimental to the interests of the laity.

“Don’t put the priest on a pedestal” was their battle cry. It is the constant refrain that is still doing the rounds among progressivists who refuse to give due honor to the priesthood and insist on accusing the Church of systemic “clericalism.”

But the fundamental point of the Minor Orders – and the Sub-Diaconate – was precisely to be the pedestal on which the priesthood is supported and raised to a position of honor in the Church. When Paul VI’s Ministeria quaedam dismantled the institutional underpinnings of the Hierarchy, the imposing pedestal and columns that were the Minor Orders and Sub-Diaconate were no longer allowed to uphold and elevate the priesthood.

The biblical underpinnings of the Minor Orders

Fr. Bacuez made use of the following passage from the Book of Proverbs:

“Wisdom hath built herself a house; she hath hewn out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table.” (9: 1-2)

An ordination to the minor order of exorcist, one of the seven columns

He drew an analogy between “the seven columns of the living temple, which the Incarnate Wisdom has raised up to the Divine Majesty” and all the clerical Orders (four Minor and three Major) that exist for the right worship of God. In this, he was entirely justified. For, in their interpretation of this passage, the Church Fathers concur that it is a foreshadowing of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass performed, as St. Augustine said, by “the Mediator of the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchisedek.” (4)

In the 1972 reform, no less than five (5) of the seven columns were brought crashing down from their niches in the Hierarchy to cries of “institutionalized clericalism,” “delusions of grandeur” and “unconscious bias” against the laity.

To further elucidate the affinity of the Minor Orders to the priesthood, Fr. Bacuez gave a brief overview of the cursus honorum that comprised the Orders of Porter, Lector, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-Deacon, Deacon and Priest before going on to explain their interrelatedness:

“These seven powers successively conferred, beginning with the last, are superimposed one upon the other without ever disappearing or coming in conflict, so that in the priesthood, the highest of them all, they are all found. The priest unites them all in his person, and has to exercise them all his life in the various offices of his ministry.” (6)

After Ministeria quaedam, however, these rights and powers are no longer regarded as the unique, personal possession of the ordained, but have been officially redistributed among the baptized. It was not simply a question of changing the title from Orders to “ministries”: the real locus of the revolution was in taking the privileges of the “ruling classes” (the representatives of Christ the King) and giving them to their subjects (the laity) as of “right.”

The neo-Marxist message was, and still is, that this was an act of “restorative justice” for the laity who had been “historically wronged.” For the liturgical progressivists, 1972 was, apparently, the year of “compensation.”

Continued

Louis Bacuez SS, Minor Orders, St Louis MO: B. Herder, 1912, p. x. “He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings.”
Ibid., St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Lenten Sermon on the Psalm ‘Qui habitat,’ Sermones de Tempore, In Quadragesima, Preface, § 1: “If, at the time of sowing, a moderate amount of seed has been lost, the harm done to the harvest will not be inconsiderable.”
Ibid., p. 6.
St. Augustine, The City of God, book XVII, chap. 20: "Of David’s Reign and Merit; and of his son Solomon, and of that prophecy relating to Christ, which is found either in those books that are joined to those written by him, or in those that are indubitably his."
These were the four Minor Orders and the Major Order of the Sub-Diaconate.
L. Bacuez, op. cit., p. 5.

Posted December 10, 2021

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