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.

We knew the Vatican was coming for the TLM like a hooded rider in the night, but we thought that the diocese was going to give us a reasonable time to construct a new facility that could handle all the incoming TLM families before axing the cathedral’s TLM. But no, the issue was forced. And, apparently, the Vatican thought it “pastoral” to render the bad news on the anniversary of our grief. (Bishop Joseph Strickland was removed from his flock, without due process of any kind, on November 11, 2023.)

The Vatican needs a behavior specialist. Unity is not something that can be forced on unhappy, wounded people without any regard for their souls. I think the unity argument is a straw man anyway. This suppression of an ancient and holy rite is not about unity; it partakes of the demonic. There, I said it. For ordained clerics to hate the TLM, which brought salvation to millions of persons over hundreds of years, is a pathology.

The Vatican and its enforcement arm in the U.S. have been sundowning the TLM all around America. Tyler is nothing unique; it’s just the latest, and perhaps the most insidious, coming as it does at a time when we’re grieving our bishop, adding insult to injury.

The real wound, the open lesion that can’t heal, is the realization that our shepherds despise us at worst, or entirely disregard us at best. The wrenching of the Mass of the Ages from the faithful who love it is only the latest installment of this sad chapter of Church history.

Will any bishop speak up for the laity at the conference in Baltimore, the way Bishop Strickland did when he proclaimed: “As shepherd and protector of my diocese, I could not take actions which I knew with certainty would injure part of my flock and deprive them of the spiritual goods which Christ entrusted to His Church.” I’ve not read a better synopsis of the issue anywhere.

There are at least some dioceses where the bishop is not a closet defender of homosexuals, where the bishop may even believe in the existence and power of God and attempt to be faithful to Him. But how many will actively put themselves on the line for their flock? How many will sacrificially offer their lives to ransom their people? I can only think of one, and no timid or ambitious bishop will take that path.

What the bishops may not realize, during this week of their gathering in Baltimore, is that keeping quiet is not a safe strategy. They may imagine they’re protecting their people, but it is little more than German officers who thought they could safeguard their families by going along with the Party. In the end, evil will be exposed, and those who just did what they were ordered will not find any comfort in that.

When will we be free of ecclesiastical “mean girls” who freely take our money but treat us like old plow mules? In the secular world, we can vote such potentates out, but what do we do in the Church? Withholding contributions is our only recourse, but it hurts our beloved Mother. None of us desire that.

We have to allow the Lord to bring justice in His own time, however difficult it is to submit to our episcopal overlords. The alternative is practical protestantism. Lord, let us never be separated from You in Your Church. We know that the cries of our wretchedness are, even now, heard before the Throne of Heaven. We will not despair nor wander.

Bishops, attend. We need you! We pray for you, and for spinal fortitude. Please don’t leave us alone with wolves howling in the forest. How lovingly and loyally we would embrace a shepherd who tends to us and loves us! You have authority from God to be strong in the fight. Pick up your swords and come to our defense, for God’s sake.

Thus says the Lord God: shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. (Ezekiel 34: 2b, 4-5)

Like the Psalmist, we wait on the Lord. With steadfastness, we wait. With broken hearts, we wait.