It is now five years since Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes and declared that the Novus Ordo is the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite”. In the ensuing years, the Church has been plunged into a new era of chaos and strife, with traditional communities subjected to apparently arbitrary restrictions and large numbers of Catholics attesting that they feel like second-class members of the Church.
Francis attested that his restrictions were necessary based on the results of a survey carried out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but revelations of the responses from the global episcopate demonstrated that no such restrictions were called for or even deemed helpful. In fact, quite the opposite.
