On Working Inside the System

The recent news that Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra, and Meisner have submitted a formal series of Dubia concerning the proper interpretation and implementation of Amoris Laetitia is causing a major stir in the traddy world and a minor shrug among the rest of the Catholic world. Nonetheless, this move has the potential to back a lot of powerful people into an uncomfortable corner, especially with the four cardinals going public and giving interviews.

Many people, myself included, have criticized clerics like Cdl. Burke for responding weakly or ambiguously to scandalous actions from within the Vatican. Laity who are willing to face the reality of Roman dissimulation often desperately need the solidarity of pastors who are willing to face and speak openly about these scandals. Otherwise, the average traddy layman is all too likely to “rad trad” all the way into sedevacantism or just into a perpetual state of anger. Sheep need good pastors, not hired hands who tell them that everything’s all right when it’s not.

The split between those who work on reform within the system and those who condemn the problems more or less from without is a cause of much vitriol. Abp. Lefebvre’s actions put him and his followers on the outside looking in, and his priests became more bold as a result. The expulsion of Bp. Williamson from the Society has pushed him outside the outsiders. The FSSP was heavily criticized by many traddy groups as being compromisers for refusing to operate without local episcopal approval. Indeed, this decision may have forced its priests to tone down their sermons, which, depending on your perspective, could be a good thing. Outsiders are accused also of prophetic pretensions, of claiming to be divine messengers when they may just be a bunch of cranky farts. Sometimes it is difficult to prove otherwise.

Recently I’ve been rewatching the old science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993-98). The reasons for this indulgence are neither here nor there, but one aspect of the show’s plot is of some relevance. The command staff of the titular space station become more and more aggrieved at the actions of Earth’s rising totalitarian government, and finally decide to break away as an independent military force. After retaking Earth in a final showdown, the station’s captain is heavily criticized for going rogue, for refusing to work through proper channels from within, and for creating the seeds of a civil war in the wake of his actions. He is described as doing “the right thing in the wrong way,” and it’s not clear that he was indeed in the right.

Are the Society and similar groups doing the right thing in the wrong way? It is a complex movement of many parts and perhaps only a future generation can judge it with clarity. The four cardinals, though, are making the most of working within the system. One might say that their actions are more striking than melodramatic actions by outsiders, because they are refusing to break away unless they are pushed out. That four princes of the Church are making such a statement within the accepted channels, and after having first attempted to clarify matters privately, speaks a great deal to their resolve and restraint.

I have few predictions about how the publication of the Dubia will end. Ignoring the gauntlet they threw down in private has backfired quite badly for the pope and his entourage. Those with mere pretensions to humility cannot bear to be humiliated. Pray to the cardinals’ guardian angels. These four insiders may find themselves to be outsiders, soon.

"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it." —Lizard Man