The New Secretary of the CDW: A Friend of the Traditional Mass?

I will cut to the chase: while one prefers not to rely upon the SSPX for news, they are indisputably a well-connected and acute group. Now, in 2002, while our late Holy Father was still presiding from Peter's chair, a Society priest had this to say about the man who is now No. 2 at the Congregation for Divine Worship:

Another tiny light of hope is the appointment of a bishop from Sri Lanka to the Roman Curia. His name is Bishop Malcolm Ranjith [say: Ran'-jit]. I had the opportunity to meet him last year in March (2001) in his diocese in the bishop's house in Ratnapura, located in the middle of Sri Lanka. We had a very good discussion for two hours. He told me, there is no doubt that there is a profound link between the crisis of the priesthood, the crisis of the identity of the priest, on the one side, and all that is going on in the liturgy on the other side. He said if we want to restore the Church, if we want to bring a true renewal to the Church, we must begin there, in the very center. We understood each other very well.

At the very beginning of the month of October, we suddenly heard that Bishop Ranjith was nominated an Archbishop, and that he was appointed Joint Secretary to the Congregations for the Propaganda of the Faith and the Evangelization of the People in Rome. Some days later, I again had the opportunity to meet him, because he has a married sister in Germany. Once again, we had a very deep and very healthy conversation, and he said, "I agree 200% with you that there really is a problem in the Church with the liturgy and the priesthood, and both go together. We must work on this, and there is no doubt that the Pope has to set free the true Catholic Mass for everyone—I am going now to Rome where I will have my private chapel. I have just taken care to get a Missal of St. Pius V to celebrate Mass as it should be."

(taken from Light in the Darkness, SSPX Canada)

And while this alone is exciting enough for friends of the old Mass -- the CDW has not been a friend, even under Cdl. Arinze -- there is other evidence, albeit uncertain, that this Bishop Ranjith Don has been a long-known friend of the Tridentine Mass.

Msgr. Bernard Fellay, in a Nov. 2004 letter to the supporters of the Society, says, We have an archbishop in Rome -- well, now he is no longer in Rome, he has been kicked out -- who says the Church is not going out of the crisis without going back to the Tridentine Mass (click here for the rest). Note that Archbishop Ranjith had been appointed to Sri Lanka as Apostolic Nuncio in April, 2004.

Alone, this is vague. But in the SSPX Great Britain newsletter, Christendom, (see p. 8) Msgr. Fellay spoke of a Prelate who had been proposed to Pope John Paul II by then-Cardinal Ratzinger as -- yes, you guessed it -- Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship who "is convinced that the Church will not come out of this crisis without a return to the old Mass, a bishop who says that the priest cannot find his identity in the new Mass." At the time, the bishop "was not appointed, because the secretary of the pope [JP II, ed.] had already promised the office to someone else." (note that the former Secretary, Arbp. Sorrentino, was appointed Secretary in Aug. 2003).

So ... while it seems almost too wild to speculate, could Arbp. Ranjith Don be this promised friend of Tradition -- the Pope's man at the CDW, saying the Tridentine Mass privately by night and fighting for a traditional "reform of the reform" by day? Only time can tell, but this is indeed hopeful news!

On a final, related note: Arbp. Ranjith's very positive Commentary on the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum is available here, from EWTN.



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