"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

It is impossible to escape the memory hole resonances wafting off the Party in power in Rome.

Or, to be candid, the Church in general.

Gaslighting for everyone!

Consummate company man Rev. Arthur Roche asserts that popes have the power to abolish the liturgy, demonstrating his loyalty to the chap who promoted him to ultimate curial power.

He also says that the church has a new ecclesiology after The Polestar Council, and the worship offered during The Polestar Council is contrary to it. 

A more cynical fellow might think that continuity with the Tradition of the Church is open to serious question here.

Despite the previous pontiff stating the precise opposite, in closely-reasoned detail, just fourteen years ago. As the Reverend Roche is acutely aware. 

The bigger question is this: given their clearly-contingent nature, subject to revision at the whim of those in power, why would any sane human being accept any edict from Rome?

I'm not talking about Papa Krishna folks who conflate reigning popes with the Holy Spirit, unblinking, misguided clericalists who value exercises of power over reason.

No, I'm talking about people who still value reason over exercises of power. 

Why should I listen to authorities who reject any authority save themselves?

Their eagerness to shred tradition, custom and precedent leaves them with only the appeal to their own power and the will to exercise it.

Miguel de Unamuno was a Spanish philosopher and novelist who is very hard to categorize. I am morally certain he would be delighted to hear that assessment. I will have a post about this most Spanish of philosophers once I finish his vexing and intriguing Tragic Sense of Life.

Near the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, on October 12, 1936, he engaged in a debate with Millan Astray, an officer in the Spanish Legion, at the University of Salamanca regarding the War. In a quote attributed to him (1), he castigated the notion of might making right in no uncertain terms:

You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right.

And so it is here: they have the power, and that will suffice for their purposes.

But that does not mean anyone has to accept such exercises.

Footnote (1): That Unamuno said the words attributed to him is subject to serious historical question. The earliest record of these words was after the War, and Spanish researchers have recently raised doubts as to their provenance.