A liberal Catholic gets into a lift.....

.....for those readers from the Colonies, that means, 'elevator'.

"Top floor or basement?"

But, I digress, so the liberal Catholic gets into the lift with you and two of Al Qaeda's finest.

You have a Glock 22 but it's only carrying two rounds....so what do you do?

Answer? Put two shots into the liberal Catholic on the basis that you can always reason with a terrorist.

OK, that's an old and not a very politically correct joke but several bloggers have, of late, claimed that one of the main barriers to the spread of the Latin Mass is opposition from the liberal lobby.
There is no doubting that there is opposition and that it is both loud and vocal.

And Bishops pay attention to loud and vocal. They don't like unstable groups of the Faithful pestering their in tray with complaints - let's remember that fact for later in the post.

But, the liberal laity is not the stumbling block to the EF Mass. They are at the end of a long line of obstacles, and, they cannot be reasoned with - so let's leave them be (for the time being).

We have to look a little further up the chain of causes and effects to find a means of changing attitudes of those in the pews.

It begins, of course, with the Pope (any pope will do, this is not a shot at Pope Francis per se).

If the Holy Father celebrated a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form, the knock on effect would be to send a message to every parish and diocese in the world that this is what they should be doing.

Not all the time, just once every Sunday.

And then, the Bishops might like to follow the HF's example (there's always a first) and offer a Latin Mass in their Cathedrals, from time to time, just to let their flock know that it is a good and acceptable thing that is most pleasing to Almighty God.

A rich diet has to be introduced gradually otherwise digestive systems become upset and a little.....er....overactive?

Now for the seminaries. Those that are left standing after the second dissolution.

They need to be provided with a curriculum that includes Latin and the Latin Mass and......the Catechism. That's a start, anyway.

And seminarians need to be encouraged to learn how to celebrate the Old Rite.
 In fact, they should be instructed to offer the old Mass every Sunday once they have received the sacrament of Holy Orders.

If we wish to encourage change we have to start at the top and work down, it won't work the other way. I know that there have been one or two parishes where 'people power' has established a regular Sunday Latin Mass but these are the exceptions and are the result of exceptional circumstances.

So, what is to be done?

Well, the comment made earlier regarding loud and vocal groups is the starting point.

We need to return to lobbying the Bishops (all bar two).

I know, I know, it has all been done before but has it been done collectively?

Have there been Rosary groups praying outside Archbishop's House?

Processions in the Diocesan city?

Confraternities established where members can present the case at parish level?

Or, have we pulled up the drawbridge to cut ourselves off from modernism and deprive fellow Catholics of the teaching aspects of prayer and good example?

Maybe we should get out more...form and train groups whose members are capable of presenting the case for the old Mass effectively and charitably.

Back in the 1990s the most efficient way of establishing the TLM in a parish was to get the SSPX to visit and offer a house Mass in the locality.

That was guaranteed to get the local Bishop off the golf course and, within very few weeks, one or two of the parishes would (surprise, surprise) have Latin Masses back on the menu.

It works, you see?