(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic youth desire from the Synod on Synodality a “return to orthodoxy and tradition” and a continuation of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), according to prayer intention snapshots highlighted by the Vatican.
The Vatican’s Synod on Synodality X/Twitter account shared pictures this week of handwritten prayer intentions from youth “for the Synod and the Church,” showing that a considerable number called for the preservation of, and return to, the Traditional Catholic faith and Latin Mass.
🙏🌍 Young People’s Prayers for the synod and the Church at the World Youth day #Lisbon2023:
🕊️ Embracing Tradition and Renewal,
🌿 Rooted in the Gospel and Christ-centered,
🌏 Reaching Out to the World.#YouthSynod #WYD2023 #FaithJourney #synod pic.twitter.com/3uPpwC0HQv— Synod.va (@Synod_va) August 28, 2023
World Youth Day attendees in Lisbon, Portugal scrawled on post-it notes intentions including “do not forbid the Tridentine Mass,” “a return to orthodoxy and tradition,” and a Church that “doesn’t forget its true traditional roots.”
“I pray that the Synod stick to the revealed truths of the Catholic faith and that Catholics who find spiritual fulfillment in the TLM may be accepted and allowed to attend the Mass of their choice,” one attendee wrote.
Another prayed for a “Eucharistic revival of New York,” hoping that the state may “find hope, stability, and faith in the Tradition of the Catholic Church.”
Other highlighted prayer intentions did not explicitly mention “tradition” but appealed to Jesus Christ as the source of authority and mission for the Catholic Church. One attendee prayed “That the Church may be the light of Christ in the midst of confusion;” another prayed for a “Christocentric Church;” and yet another prayed that God may “help the people discern your will, not impose their ideologies in the synod deliberations.”
These expressed hopes of the youth for the Synod and the Church stand in sharp contrast to official Synod on Synodality suggestions that heterodox beliefs and practices be accepted within the Catholic Church.
For example, the Instrumentum Laboris (IL) of the Synod on Synodality highlights the need “to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality,” which has prompted concerns that the Synod could attempt to defy the Church’s perennial teaching that homosexual acts are “gravely disordered.” Such moral teachings are an indispensable, core part of Catholic tradition.
The youth’s hopes for the preservation of the TLM are also contrary to Pope Francis’ aversion to the “Mass of the Ages,” as shown through the severe restrictions he imposed on the traditional Mass through his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes and Cardinal Arthur Roche’s subsequent dubia and Rescript.
Pope Francis has also repeatedly belittled Latin Mass devotees and advocates of Church tradition. Earlier this year, he referred to “support for restorationism” as a “nostalgic disease, claiming that curbing the freedom of priests to offer the TLM was “necessary” to stop what he referred to as “backwardness.”
The incompatibility of Catholic youth’s apparent love for Tradition and the TLM with Pope Francis’ distaste for Tradition is ironic considering that the Pontiff has repeatedly called for the Church to listen to the young.
“Rather than listening to young people attentively, all too often, there is a tendency to provide prepackaged answers and ready-made solutions, without allowing their real questions to emerge and facing the challenges they pose,” Pope Francis wrote in his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit.