(LifeSiteNews) – A Chinese cardinal has shown support for both an American archbishop and the Traditional Latin Mass.
On Wednesday, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former archbishop of Hong Kong and a former member of the Congregation for Divine Worship, tweeted an image of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and a quotation by the American prelate extolling the traditional rite.
“My own personal belief is that familiarity with the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) as a regular part of Church life can be one possible remedy for liturgical abuses, given how strictly regulated that Mass is in its rubrics, especially as those rubrics reflect a heightened sensitivity to the sacredness of the Most Holy Eucharist,” the picture reads.
— Joseph Zen (@CardJosephZen) July 13, 2022
Catholic doctrine holds that the consecrated elements of the Eucharist are the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ truly present.
Last year, Pope Francis restricted the TLM by issuing the motu proprio Traditiones Custodes. In response to the document, Cardinal Zen said that it “hurt the hearts of many good people.”
The “many tendentious generalizations in the documents hurt more than expected the hearts of many good people, who never gave the slightest cause to be suspected of not accepting the liturgical reform of the Council, much less not accepting the Council ‘Tout court,’” said Zen.
Archbishop Cordileone responded to Francis’ document by stating that the TLM was allowed to continue in San Francisco. He later added that his cathedral would host a TLM on the first Wednesday of every month.
Francis released Desiderio Desideravi last month, an apostolic letter in which he explained his rationale behind the restrictions on the TLM. “I do not see how it is possible to say that one recognizes the validity of the [Second Vatican] Council – though it amazes me that a Catholic might presume to do so – and at the same time not accept the liturgical reform born out of Sacrosanctum Concilium,” Francis wrote.
Francis and Cordileone have not seen eye-to-eye with regard to the reception of Holy Communion by pro-abortion politicians. The same day Francis released Desiderio Desideravi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who claims to be Catholic despite her unwavering promotion of abortion, received Holy Communion at a Mass presided over by Francis. Cordileone, who is her ordinary, had barred Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion, an order which Pelosi has ignored.
In explaining his decision to the faithful, Cordileone cited instructions from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, to the American bishops regarding Catholic politicians who promote abortion.
These instructions included:
Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.
Cordileone also cited Pope Francis’s own condemnations of abortion. Nevertheless, when speaking to Reuters earlier this month, Francis criticized bishops who bar pro-abortion politicians from Communion, saying, “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem.”
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