2024 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the Catholic Church in general and Traditionally-minded Catholics in particular. We’ll tell you what to expect!
So…we promised to tell you what to expect in 2024. This is clearly one of those click-bait type things because we don’t have a clue as to what is going to take place during the coming year. What we can say with a fair degree of confidence is that it will be chaotic and troubling.
You’ve read about the controversies and confusion concerning the latest set of instructions from Rome, and we expect you’ve learned more than you might care to know about the document’s principal author.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have any of this stuff on the 2024 bingo card I got issued at the beginning of the year. And of course, we haven’t even talked about all the secular stuff that’s happened (and is going to happen) in 2024.
Did you have any of this stuff on YOUR bingo card for 2024???? Me neither.
The world-wide reaction has been something which the leadership in Rome probably wasn’t expecting. However you might feel about the call for “spontaneous non-liturgical blessings,” it’s pretty clear from the media (both secular and Catholic) that large numbers of bishops, priests, and laity are at the very least, confused by the the document. A considerable number of Catholics (again, both lay and clerical) are voicing their opposition, while others are taking advantage of the not so subtle loopholes to pretty much do what everyone honestly knows the document was meant to enable.
Then, of course, there is the election cycle, wars and rumors of wars, the Davos people doing Davos things. There’s even more talk that there may be a conclave taking place in the next year or two.
So…what are we supposed to do about all this?
Other than scratching our heads in profound bewilderment, I mean.
All we can offer by way of advice is to keep on keeping on. Keep praying. Keep attending the Mass of the Ages whenever and wherever you can. Keep working at building vibrant and faith-centered traditional Catholic communities, even if you are doing so from a place of exile.
And we can expect the number of TLM refugees to grow in the coming year. Parishes will be ordered to quit offering the TLM, or will be shut down altogether. We’re already seeing this beginning to happen at various places around the world.
Again, what are we to do? Keep on keeping on. Read your Bible. Study the Catechism. There are some pretty good podcasts out there; make use of them. Read the Church Fathers. Remain firmly grounded in (capital “T!”) Tradition. When the next novelty comes along, give it the old “smell test” to see if it squares with what the Church has always taught. As St. Paul reminds us in Second Thessalonians, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.”
May St. Michael and Our Lady watch over us in 2024.