Helpful History on Liturgy in MKE

The Pope apparently intends to make war, not peace.

Pope Francis on Saturday blasted Catholics who, hewing to old-school versions of liturgy like the Latin Mass, have made an ideological battleground of the issue, decrying what he described as devil-inspired divisiveness in the church....

... Speaking at the Vatican to instructors and students of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, Francis said it’s not possible to worship God while using the liturgy as a “battleground” for nonessential questions that divide the church....

(As though a Jesuit has some sort of Special Liturgical Propriety charism.  /sarc.) 

Here's the 'helpful history' part of this post.

After the Great Liturgical Revolution's forcible implementation, one Milwaukee-area pastor refused to obey, and continued celebrating the 'Old Rite' (1962) at his parish church.  This attracted hundreds of people to a church which had been losing members for a decade.  It also attracted a large and well-trained choir and organist.

Eventually, the Archbishop--Rembert Weakland--evicted the group and the pastor from the church.  That group then moved to a dance hall in the far northwest suburbs.  After some expense and a good deal of labor and materials, that dance hall was re-created as a chapel every Sunday morning, and then 're-re-converted' to a dance hall by Sunday afternoon.

The Archbishop and the priest kept quiet.  There were NO public statements about the somewhat irregular situation from the Chancery, nor the priest.  Everything was peaceful.  

The situation became volatile only after the press got wind of it and one of the members of the group opened his mouth to them.  And volatile it was; Weakland could not remain un-involved, partly because there were a lot of other pastors who were on shaky ground with the forcible implementation of the 'New Liturgy' and made that known to the Chancery and partly because of a new threat:  the SSPX.

After a period of turmoil which allowed the SSPX to get a foothold in the area,  a resolution was offered by the same Archbishop--Weakland--who made a seminary chapel available to the group.  This was defense, really; Weakland did not want the SSPX initiative to grow much larger, nor did he want any 'bad press' about 'suppressing' Catholics.  

(Eventually, that group moved into a parish church, then into a much larger and more beautiful church  which is now the property of the Order which runs it.  It attracts a congregation of about 1,000 souls.)

The point here?  The Pope should follow the example of Weakland:  shut up, accept the "trads", and see how successful a peacemaker approach will be.  It worked in Milwaukee.

Think he'll do that?

Oremus.