I’m inclined to agree. The rad trads are very upset (and their schismatic tendencies came out on the first day when they slimed the new pope on the basis of the tiniest shreds of evidence. They are all convinced he’s liturgically tin-eared, as most Jesuits are.
He may indeed be that. But even if he is, it’s not the end of the world (and I write that as one devoted to the Extraordinary Form but not to the exclusion of the NO) and so the incredible overreaction was way out of line.
I’m guessing this quotation is a distortion of something that did happen (he may indeed have rejected the ermine-trimmed cape, which does have a technical name, but the BBC could be caught dead mentioning it, but even if he chose not to wear it I very much doubt he said the words put in his mouth here), a distortion DELIBERATELY spread abroad in the press by his enemies who seek to split off from him all those who love the old liturgy and traditions.
Divide and conquer.
Divide and conquer is their program. That said, I was as stunned as you are by the rad trads and their vituperative, foul-mouthed reaction. There isn’t an EF mass at my Cathedral parish, and the two that do exist in the diocese are so horrible they look like parodies (the worst liturgical hits of 1955, howled into a mic by one or two of the worst voices of the 21st century, combined with priests who barely know their way around). However, I have always supported it and I thought it would be nice to bring it back...until now. Then I suddenly realized that a lot of people involved with it have no interest in the faith. They’re all out there broadening their phylacteries, and could just as easily be high-church Anglicans, as far as the Faith is concerned.
So I’ve sort of bailed on the project. I think the best thing of all would be to go back to the 1965 missal (mostly in the vernacular, but simply a translation of the 1962 missal with a few minor changes) and start over. It wouldn’t upset the rational EF people, and I think it would be perfectly acceptable to most of the non-doctrinaire Novus Ordo folks.
Actually, that’s what everybody thought the “new mass” that was announced was going to be: nobody expected the Novus Ordo, and it was a real shock to everybody, including the clergy, and was imposed with great ferocity by the boy bishops (such as Mahony) appointed under Paul VI.
So maybe we should start over again. But that said, the important thing is the faith, and while Francis may not be a great liturgist, I don’t think he would approve of anything that distorted the Faith, and that’s what matters.