"Illiterate Imbecile": Philosopher and Liturgist Settles Scores With Archbishop Roche

“We are dealing, at best, with an illiterate imbecile and a lackey looking for a red hat,” Peter Kwasniewski writes about Archbishop Arthur Roche, Francis' Liturgy Prefect (Rorate-Caeli.Blogspot.com, January 22).

Kwasniewski compares Roche’s rhetorics to those of the Communists because Roche doesn't merely lie, but says "the exact opposite of the truth.” For instance, in a recent interview,

• Roche condemns Roman Rite Catholics for "promoting an individual preference.” Kwasniewski replies that it is the Novus Ordo that allows options, choices and individual preferences – in total millions of possible configurations.

• Roche claims that the Novus Ordo “is not the pope’s [private] Mass.” Kwasniewski replies that the Novus Ordo was created and issued by Paul VI “in an absolutely unprecedented flexing of papal creativity.”

• Roche alleged that the Novus Ordo has a “richer selection of prayers and Scripture readings.” Kwasniewski replies that the Novus Ordo is "not a plethora of ancient sources" but a "filtered and rewritten 1960s ‘take’ on them,” explaining that only 13% of the prayers of the Roman Missal, once the backbone of Roman Catholic worship, found their way into the new missal unchanged.” The Novus Ordo has numerically speaking more readings but crucial ones, allegedly “difficult for modern man,” are censured, so Kwasniewski.

• Roche claims that the Novus Ordo “was given to us by Vatican II.” Kwasniewski asks to repeat three times that the Novus Ordo was "not given" to us by the Council as there is not a single statement in Vatican II (1962-1965) that would necessarily yield the Novus Ordo which was invented only in 1969-1970.

• Roche alleges that the bishops gathered for Vatican II were “under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Kwasniewski replies that no reputable theologian has ever claimed that.