Should we bring in traditionalists to save our dying parishes?

From Mr Ray Knight SlR — Your leading article (August 31) raises some important issues regarding the present state of the Church in this country and in many other parts of the world.
Bishop Fernando Areas Rifan of Campos, Brazil, is urging our bishops in England and Wales to invite other traditionalist groups to take over failing parishes instead of closing churches. "Traditionalism" had been so important to the Campos group that it had been part of the Lefebvrist movement but eventually broke away and sought reunion with Rome. That reunion came about in 2002, under Pope John Paul II. and the traditionalist priests were given the right to continue celebrating Mass in the Tridentine rite. Clearly Bishop Rifan thinks that his diocese has benefited to the extent that he now has two faithful communities each with its own Mass, now living side by side in perfect communion. I can see that, compared with the division of the past in that diocese, the arrangement seems like perfect communion, but I would not see it as an ideal, nor as a solution to our problem. Should our acceptance or rejection of the findings of Vatican II have been so heavily prejudiced by our personal likes or dislikes? Surely the main consideration should be, firstly, is this what God wants, and, secondly, does it make it easier for us to come into a closer working relationship with Jesus Christ? Like any tradition, that in which we were brought up too easily becomes so much a habit that the routine loses its original objective and becomes an end in itself. This is surely an important contributory factor in our present decline. In all the early arguments and protestations Jesus Christ and his part were seldom mentioned. In his Sacramentum Caritatis Pope Benedict XVI gives us food for discussion and meditation in our parish prayer groups: "There can be no active participation in the sacred mysteries without an accompanying effort to participate actively in the life of the Church as a whole, including a missionary commitment to bring Christ's love into the life of society:' Yours faithfully, RAY KNIGHT Baldock