Editor’s note: The following statement of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò addresses a CBS “60 minutes” interview clip with Pope Francis and was first posted on his personal account on X (formerly Twitter).

(LifeSiteNews) — You have heard it: “A conservative is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond it. It is a suicidal attitude… to lock oneself in a dogmatic box.”

For once, Bergoglio is absolutely right: conservatism wants to “preserve” the outward appearances of Tradition, without the doctrinal substance that makes it alive. Conservatism is the attitude of those who criticize the excesses of the synodical church but are careful not to question the causes, which are to be found in Vatican II.

READ: Pope Francis says ‘conservative’ bishops have ‘suicidal attitude’ during 60 Minutes interview

Conservatism is really “suicidal behaviour” because it creates an artificial “dogmatic box,” made of Novus Ordo ad orientem with Roman chasubles and Gregorian chants and also of Vetus Ordo; made of selected quotations of some conciliar documents, accidentally not contrasting with the Catholic Magisterium of all time; made of the apotheosis of John Paul II and the regret of Benedict XVI, whom we all loved.

But Tradition is not conservatism; Tradition is not a “dogmatic box” because it draws from the limpid and pure water of the divine source, drawing from grace and fidelity to the Gospel and the Depositum Fidei the lifeblood that makes it capable of looking to the future without denying the past.

Tradition develops like an athlete, who goes from childhood to adolescence and adulthood always remaining the same and developing his body harmoniously, so that he can face new challenges and overcome them.

Semper idem, always the same.