Trad bloggers finally touching the Third Rail

It is a subject that had to be addressed at some point; Cardinal Hoyos alluded to it when he filed his public complaints against traditional Catholics this past summer:

Cardinal Castrillon...said his office continues to receive letters requesting the Tridentine rite be used not just at one Mass a week but at every Mass, and that such Masses be available not just at one church in a town but at every church...Such people, he said, are "insatiable, incredible."

"They do not know the harm they are doing," Cardinal Castrillon said, adding that when the Vatican does not accept their demands immediately "they go directly to the Internet" and post their complaints.

...Asked about the status of those detailed instructions, Cardinal Castrillon told Catholic News Service that his office had completed its work and passed the draft on to the pope, who would make the final decision about its publication.

Is this the source of his frustration? Obviously, the delay in the publication of the PCED "clarification" comes from Pope Benedict XVI himself, not PCED or Cardinal Hoyos. Yet Cardinal Hoyos & the PCED have shouldered much of the blame for the perceived inaction of the Vatican in the face of recalcitrant bishops.

And some big guns in trad Catholic blogdom are daring to explore this reality, even if obliquely.

Damian Thompson at his Telegraph Holy Smoke blog writes,

Is Pope Benedict losing the confidence of the Latin Mass faithful?

Just over a year ago, Pope Benedict's decree liberating the traditional Latin Mass came into effect. But it contained so many loopholes that liberal bishops have been able to sabotage it - and a much-needed clarification from Rome has still not appeared.

But if the bishops of England and Wales (and of many other countries) are playing fast and loose with Summorum Pontificum, that's because Pope Benedict XVI is allowing them to.

The original document was not tightly drafted: it left plenty of room for confusion [...] they have not been clarified or amplified by Ecclesia Dei. Why not?

[...]there is still not the slightest indication that His Holiness will celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form publicly. Why? No one knows the answer.

Let us be blunt about this. If the Pope were to die tomorrow, he would be remembered for many fine achievements, most of all his encyclicals, but his liturgical reforms would peter out. Summorum Pontificum would remain on the statute book, but the Magic Circle in England and its powerful allies in the Vatican and Europe would quietly suffocate the work of Ecclesia Dei.

Even Fr. Zuhlsdorf is willing to grant now that the blame for any perceived delay lies with Pope Benedict XVI:

Holy Smoke: Are traditional Catholics losing hope? - Fr. Z responds

[...]Is Pope Benedict losing the confidence of the Latin Mass faithful?

Just over a year ago, Pope Benedict’s decree liberating the traditional Latin Mass came into effect. But it contained so many loopholes that liberal bishops have been able to sabotage it – and a much-needed clarification from Rome has still not appeared. [And it must be said that that is entirely the decision, or non-decision, of the Holy Father. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei completed its part of the work a long time ago.]

There is only so much Cardinal Hoyos can do, when the delay in publishing the PCED clarification is at the sole discretion now of the Holy Father.

With the exception of the schismatics, most traditional Catholics have been loathe to criticize the present Holy Father. Its been the Third Rail that no trad blogger would touch. But with the Vatican's recent public criticism of the trad blogosphere, combined with few if any verified examples of Vatican intervention in favor of the rights of the laity and priests against intransigent bishops, these questions are going to increase.

Is it time to stop writing to PCED, and instead write directly to the Pope, begging him to put some teeth into what is now perceived to be his Summorum Pontificum toothless tiger -- at least in those dioceses in which the bishops are recalcitrant?