Traditionalist Catholic

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A traditionalist Catholic is a Roman Catholic who believes that there should be a restoration of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions, and the presentation of Catholic teachings that prevailed in the Latin Church before the Second Vatican Council.

Contents 1 Terminology 2 Survey of traditionalist groups 3 Traditionalist beliefs 4 Allegations of discontinuity and rupture 5 Practices of traditionalist Catholics 6 Places of worship 7 Relations with the Holy See 8 Criticisms by other Catholics against some traditionalist Catholics 9 References 10 See also 10.1 Doctrinal and liturgical issues 10.2 Important figures 10.3 Historical events 10.4 Notable organizations 11 External links

[edit] Terminology

Traditionalist Catholics generally prefer to be referred to either simply as Catholics or, if a distinction must be made, as "traditional Catholics" (with a lower-case T). However, since the general body of the Roman Catholic Church considers itself to be traditional (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 84), they are referred to within this article as "traditionalist Catholics" or "Traditional Catholics" (with an upper-case T), without thereby intending to imply either that they are not part of the Catholic Church, or that "Traditional Catholic" is a formal title.

[edit] Survey of traditionalist groups

Traditionalist Catholics have in common a dedication to attending Mass celebrated (in Latin) in accordance with different editions of the Roman Missal published before the liturgical reform of 1969-1970 (see Tridentine Mass: Revision of the Roman Missal). Linked with this is observance of the liturgical calendar of saints' days as it was before the simplification of 1960 (see Traditional Catholic Calendar), not as it is after the 1979 revision and the addition of celebrations such as those of the Chinese, Korean, Ugandan and Vietnamese martyrs, and of other saints such as Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Edith Stein, Martin de Porres, Maximilian Kolbe and Pio of Pietrelcina (see Roman Catholic calendar of saints).

Groups authorized by the Holy See and the diocesan bishops use the 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal issued by Pope John XXIII, which the unrecognized Society of St. Pius X also uses. Some of the recognized religious orders that use that edition (for instance, the Benedictine Monastery of Fontgomblaut and its daughter houses) follow the 1965 rubrics issued by Pope Paul VI in the immediate wake of Vatican II.

Groups such as the Society of St. Pius V question John XXIII's validity as Pope and so reject the 1962 edition. Some object also to Pius XII's 1955 Holy Week revisions.[2] [3]

Many traditionalists associate themselves with a particular priestly society. Some of these societies, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, as also the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, are recognised as canonically regular institutions of the Catholic Church.

Others, such as the Society of St. Pius X, exist in a state of dispute with or separation from Rome, although they claim canonical legitimacy.

"Sedevacantist" groups, such as the Society of St. Pius V, the Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen and the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement, reject the validity of the popes elected since Pius XII's death in 1958.

Conclavists, such as the True Catholic Church and the Palmarian Catholic Church, have elected or recognised their own popes. Accordingly, they are in the same position as those independent Catholic Churches, such as the Society of St. John of the Cross, that consider themselves traditionalist Catholics.

Other small local groups of traditionalist Catholics sometimes form around an individual priest who has broken with his diocese or religious institute.

Sedevacantists, even those who have not set up Churches of their own, stand in opposition to traditionalist Catholics who accept as Pope the present occupant of the See of Rome.

Those traditionalist Catholics who recognize the current Pope stand divided between those who recognize the 1970 revision as legitimate, even if distasteful, and those who consider it wrong or evil.

The Society of St. Pius X's condemnation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and attendance at its Masses illustrates this conflict.^[1] However, some traditionalists attend without qualm Masses celebrated by priests of either group.

[edit] Traditionalist beliefs

Traditionalist Catholics believe that they are preserving Catholic orthodoxy by not accepting certain changes officially introduced since the Second Vatican Council, changes some of them have described as amounting to "a veritable revolution". They claim that the positions now taken by mainstream Catholics would have been considered "Modernist" or "liberal" at the time of the Council, and that they themselves hold positions that were then considered "conservative" or "traditional".

Most traditionalist Catholics view the Second Vatican Council as a valid, albeit problematic, Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church, though most sedevacantists regard it as wholly invalid. Although Pope Paul VI stated: "In view of the pastoral nature of the Council, it avoided any extraordinary statement of dogmas that would be endowed with the note of infallibility, but it still provided its teaching with the authority of the supreme ordinary Magisterium. This ordinary Magisterium, which is so obviously official, has to be accepted with docility, and sincerity by all the faithful, in accordance with the mind of the Council on the nature and aims of the individual documents",^[2] some traditionalist Catholics claim instead that the "pastoral" character of the Council meant that it was not definitive or authoritative. They seek support for this view in Pope John XXIII's Opening Address to the Council, Pope Paul VI's closing address, the lack of formal definitions and anathemas in the Council's sixteen documents, and what they describe as the ambiguity of those documents.

Pope Benedict XVI has contrasted the "interpretation of discontinuity and rupture" which Traditionalists apply to the Council with the interpretation of "reform and continuity" proposed by the Church authorities. He has quoted in this regard John XXIII's Opening Address to the Council, in which the Pope who opened the Council stated that it wished "to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion", and he continued:

"Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us...". It is necessary, Pope John XXIII said, that "adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness..." be presented in "faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another...", retaining the same meaning and message.[4]

By contrast, many traditionalist Catholics believe that errors have crept into the presentation and understanding of Catholic teaching since John XXIII spoke those words. They attribute the blame for this is to liberal interpretations of the conciliar documents, to harmful post-conciliar pastoral decisions, to the conciliar documents themselves, or to some combination of these.

[edit] Allegations of discontinuity and rupture

Many traditionalist Catholics maintain that the following perceived innovations characterize the present-day teaching and practice of the Church authorities, and that they are incompatible with the teachings and provisions of earlier Church documents (all of which claims are disputed by mainstream Catholics):

• A new ecclesiology which they claim fails to recognise the Catholic Church as the one true church established by Jesus Christ, and instead holds that the true church "subsists in" the Catholic Church in an unclear way. They claim that the typical interpretation of this phrase contradicts Pope Pius XII's Mystici Corporis Christi and other papal documents.
• A new ecumenism which they see as aiming at a false pan-Christian religious unity without requiring non-Catholics to convert to the Catholic faith. They see this as contradicting the teachings of the Bible, Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XII's Humani Generis and other documents.
• An acceptance, in the Second Vatican Council's decree Dignitatis Humanae, of the principle of religious liberty, which they claim was condemned by Pope Pius IX in Quanta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors.
• A new rite of Mass, which they refer to as the "Novus Ordo Missae" or "Novus Ordo" (see Mass of Paul VI). They regard this as de-emphasizing the traditional Catholic doctrine that the Mass is a true sacrifice, and contend that it has been stripped of important Catholic prayers; is man-centered rather than God-centered; is less beautiful, poetic and spiritually edifying than the earlier liturgy; de-emphasizes the ordained priesthood; is open to abuse because of the variety of options allowed; and omits certain readings that mention Hell, miracles or sin, or might offend Jews. Traditionalists hold differing opinions on the validity and acceptability of the revised Mass liturgy:
  • Some see it as valid, and as acceptable when necessary, though the Tridentine Mass should be attended when at all possible.
  • Some, including adherents of the Society of St. Pius X, hold that it is in principle valid but must in practice be avoided because the pastoral practices are sacrilegious and harmful to the Catholic Faith, and because Masses celebrated in the revised rite are often in fact celebrated improperly and are hence invalid.
  • Some, including most sedevacantists, see it as invalid and entirely unacceptable.
• A departure from the traditional belief that the Church and the world are at variance with one another to some degree, and that the Church has enemies. They believe that Pope Pius X's warnings in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Leo XIII's Humanum Genus and other papal warnings against secret societies and enemies of Christianity have gone unheeded, and that the enemy warned against has entered into the human element of the Church itself.
• A new understanding of collegiality that they claim has weakened the papacy and made bishops' conferences a veritable "second Vicar of Christ" for the Church. They see this as contradicting, among other documents, Pope Leo XIII's Satis Cognitum and the Nota Praevia (appendix) to Vatican II's Lumen Gentium.
• A new focus on the "dignity of man", which they claim ignores original sin and the need for supernatural grace, and which they also claim has led to a sort of Utopianism that sees peace as possible without recognizing the Kingship of Christ. They see this attitude, and teachings rooted in it, as contradicting Pope Pius XI's Quas Primas, Pope Leo XIII's Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae and Rerum Novarum, Pope Pius X's Notre charge apostolique, and other papal and conciliar documents on social matters.
• A new and critical attitude towards Sacred Scripture that, they say, contradicts Leo XIII's Providentissimus Deus and Benedict XV's Spiritus Paraclitus among other documents.

Criticisms (all of which are disputed by Traditionalists) by mainstream Catholics of Traditionalists' allegations of discontinuity and rupture include the following:

• They claim that these allegations are false, exaggerated, or fail to appreciate the organic character of Tradition. They argue, for example, that Dignitatis Humanae does not in fact contradict the Church's earlier teaching on religious liberty, [5] and that the revised rite of Mass represents a legitimate development of the earlier liturgy rather than a dangerous break from it.
• They maintain that Traditionalists fail to distinguish between changeable pastoral practices (such as the liturgy of the Mass) and the unchangeable principles of the Catholic Faith (such as the dogmas surrounding the Mass), which admit no discontinuity or rupture.
• They argue that, in declaring decisions of the Church authorities to be incompatible with the unchangeable Tradition of the Church, Traditionalists are themselves violating the teaching of Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis 8, that to "the Teaching Authority of the Church ... has been entrusted by Christ Our Lord the whole deposit of faith - Sacred Scripture and divine Tradition - to be preserved, guarded and interpreted" (emphases added). Traditionalists reply with the First Vatican Council's teaching that the "the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine" (emphases added), thus implying that, in their view, the Teaching Authority of the Church has in fact introduced new doctrines, and without indicating to whom - if the interpretation that the existing Teaching Authority of the Church presents is therefore erroneous - true interpretation of Scripture and divine Tradition is in such cases entrusted, unless it be left to private interpretation.

Sedevacantists claim that they avoid these criticisms because they believe that the Holy See is vacant and there is at present no Pope whose teaching must be accepted. They accuse those Traditionalists whom they call sedeoccupantists - such as the Society of St. Pius X - of inconsistency. A talk available as audio files at a sedevacantist website attributes three grave theological errors to the "sedeoccupantist" Traditionalists, precisely because they recognize the post-Second Vatican Council Popes:

1. By declaring that the revised liturgy of the Mass, promulgated and defended by these Popes, is evil, they teach that the Church can decree evil and actually has decreed evil; moreover they contravene canon 7 of session XII of the Council of Trent: "If anyone says that the ceremonies, vestments, and outward signs which the Catholic Church uses in the celebration of masses, are incentives to impiety rather than stimulants to piety, let him be anathema."
2. By declaring that the teaching of the Pope together with the bishops in the Second Vatican Council contradicts the Church's tradition, they either repudiate the teaching of the First Vatican Council on the infallibility of even the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Pope and the bishops - according to Father Philippe Laguérie, founding member of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, this was in fact taught in the Ecône seminary of the Society of St. Pius X^[3] - or they implicitly deny that the Pope and bishops who composed the membership of the Second Vatican Council were true Pope and bishops.
3. By refusing subjection to one whom they recognize to be Pope, they contravene the famous Bull Unam sanctam in which Pope Boniface VIII stated: "... we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

[edit] Practices of traditionalist Catholics

In keeping with their preference for the customs prevailing in the Church before the Second Vatican Council, traditionalist Catholics are often associated with practices such as the following:

• Abstaining from meat on Fridays. Before the twentieth century, it was customary to abstain from meat not only on Friday but also on Wednesday, a custom from which is derived the names of some days of the week in Gaelic ^[4] and which is still followed in some, if not all, Eastern Churches. In the Latin Church, abstinence was once obligatory also on Saturdays,^[5] a law that was not abrogated until the entry into force of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which limited the obligation to Friday. Present discipline maintains Friday as a day of penitence, but allows episcopal conferences to permit other practices of personal penance to take the place of abstinence from meat. (The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India has allowed abstinence from meat to be reckoned a penitential exercise only for those for whom meat is a normal part of their diet.)
• Fasting from midnight before receiving Holy Communion. This discipline was modified, several years before the Second Vatican Council, by Pope Pius XII, who reduced the obligatory fast before Holy Communion to three hours.
• Women wearing a head covering in church. Only with the 1917 Code of Canon Law did this rule (which corresponded to what the Apostle Paul prescribed in 1 Corinthians 11:1-17) become a universal law for the Latin Rite of the Church. Canon 1262 of that Code mandated that, in church, women should cover their heads and men should uncover theirs "unless this is in contrast with approved customs of peoples." The same canon declared it desirable that, in line with long-standing custom, women and men should be separate from one another in church. The photograph here of Mass in the Netherlands in about 1946, two decades before the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council, shows that neither practice was then universal.

[edit] Places of worship

Some traditionalist Catholics attend celebrations of the pre-1969 rite of Mass which are officially sanctioned by the Church authorities. The Congregation for Divine Worship's circular letter Quattuor abhinc annos of 3 October 1984 granted an "indult" (from Latin indultum) for bishops to authorize "priests and faithful, who shall be expressly indicated in the letter of request to be presented to their own bishop, ... to celebrate Mass by using the Roman Missal according to the 1962 edition", on certain conditions, including that those who make the request clearly do not question the lawfulness and doctrinal soundness of the 1970 edition. Pope John Paul II reiterated this in his 1988 letter Ecclesia Dei: "Respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962." Priests who offer these "indult" Masses may be members of priestly societies in good standing with the Holy See, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, or they may be ordinary diocesan priests or members of religious institutes. Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, the President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, occasionally celebrates Mass in public with the 1962 Missal, and other cardinals have also done so in recent years, though much less frequently.

The website of the traditionalist International Federation Una Voce provides an international list, with addresses and other contact information, of priestly societies and religious institutes in good standing with the Church authorities that are dedicated to preserving the older rite of Mass.

Many other groups and individual priests celebrate the Tridentine Mass in a situation of schism or separation^[6] from the Church. The best known such group is the Society of St. Pius X, which offers Mass according to the 1962 Missal in its own Mass centres, maintaining that Catholic priests do not require any permission to celebrate the Tridentine rite. It rejects the conditions laid down in Quattuor abhinc annos, teaches that it is unlawful to attend what it calls the Indult Mass,^[7] and takes the view that "those who are only near Masses 'of Pope Paul VI' or to traditional Masses said under the 'Indult'" are excused from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass.^[8] The Society adopts a similar attitude towards Mass celebrated by members of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, founded by former members of SSPX who reconciled with Rome.^[9]

Others, rejecting the 1962 Missal, offer Mass according to earlier editions, especially sedevacantist groups who do not recognize Pope John XXIII as Pope. They include the Society of St. Pius V and the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen. It is debatable whether these groups are Catholic at all (in the sense of being part of the Roman Catholic Church, which they claim to be), since, while theoretically professing their obedience to the Papacy, in practice they do not recognize the Pope nor any means of electing a new Pope (see also Great Apostasy and anti-Catholicism).

Those who worship independently of the diocesan bishops justify their position on the grounds that they must do so in order to ensure they are able to administer or receive all of the Sacraments - including, but not limited to, the Eucharist - in the traditional way, and to be able to give or hear sermons on controversial matters (e.g. ecumenism, evangelism, liberalism, sin, Hell, political issues) without fear of reprisal from disapproving bishops.

[edit] Relations with the Holy See

The relations of traditionalist Catholics with the Holy See naturally vary according to their attitude towards it.

Some traditionalist Catholics do not dispute the lawfulness or doctrinal soundness of decisions taken by the Holy See in recent decades - for example, on the revision of the Mass liturgy. They do, however, question the wisdom of those decisions.

Other traditionalist Catholics reject as illegitimate and even doctrinally erroneous certain recent declarations and decrees of the Holy See (see above, Allegations of discontinuity and rupture). One criticism that is levelled at some of them is that they appear to treat the decisions of the Pope and senior churchmen (to whom they may refer using expressions such as "Vatican hierarchs") as little more than the opinions of individuals.

Finally, in denying the legitimacy of the recent popes, sedevacantists also deny the authority of the decrees that they, and the Holy See in general, have issued.

The Holy See views as schismatic both sedevacantists and many other individual traditionalist Catholics - in particular, many of those involved with organizations in which priests act in complete independence of the Holy See and the diocesan bishops, even in matters for which a link with those bishops is normally a condition for validity of the act.[6] The personal situation of such individuals is therefore distinguished from that of the associations to which they may belong: for instance, the situation of the Society of Saint Pius X has been described as a "situation of separation ... even if it was not a formal schism."[7]

On the other hand, the Holy See recognizes as fully legitimate the preference for "the Latin liturgical tradition" shown by those traditionalist Catholics who do not dispute the authority of the Holy See.[8] While the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" normally leaves the decision to the local bishops, who have the advantage of direct knowledge of the situation in their dioceses, it recommends them to grant permission generously for the celebration of "Tridentine" Mass. The Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter are examples of associations of traditionalist Catholics that operate as a normal part of the Catholic Church in harmony with "the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him."(Lumen Gentium, 8).

The Holy See has declared devoid of canonical effect the consecration ceremony conducted by Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục for the Carmelite Order of the Holy Face group at midnight of 31 December 1975, though it refrained from pronouncing on the validity of those consecrations. It made the same statement with regard also to later ordinations by those bishops, saying that, "as for those who have already thus unlawfully received ordination or any who may yet accept ordination from these, whatever may be the validity of the orders (quidquid sit de ordinum validitate), the Church does not and will not recognize their ordination (ipsorum ordinationem), and will consider them, for all legal effects, as still in the state in which they were before, except that the ... penalties remain until they repent" (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decree Episcopi qui alios of 17 September 1976 - Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1976, page 623). A similar declaration was issued with regard to Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo's ordination of four men as bishops on 24 September 2006: two days later, the Holy See stated not only that all five involved were automatically excommunicated in accordance with canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law, but also that "the Church does not recognize and does not intend to recognize in future these ordinations or any ordinations derived from them and holds that the canonical status of the four alleged bishops is that in which they were before the ordination."[9]

With regard to the episcopal consecrations that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer conferred without papal mandate, the Holy See explicitly recognizes their validity, but sees the bishops involved as automatically excommunicated. It views the priests of the Society of St Pius X whom these bishops ordain as validly ordained, but, in accordance with canon 1383 of the Code of Canon Law, "suspended from the order received", i.e. prohibited from exercising it (canon 1333). The Ecclesia Dei Commission has stated that attendance at Masses offered by these priests is "morally illicit" for Catholics in normal circumstances, but that attendance at such Masses is not, of itself, an act subject to ecclesiastical penalties such as excommunication.[10][11][12]

[edit] Criticisms by other Catholics against some traditionalist Catholics

Many Catholics, traditionalist or not, who accept, as part of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, confirmed and acted upon by the Holy See, point out that Catholic teaching, even the non-infallible teaching of the "ordinary Magisterium", demands obsequium religiosum, that is, religious assent, which, in this case, may be considered as somewhat analogous to that which is commonly called "the benefit of the doubt". These Catholics believe that this sacred duty is transgressed in the open dissent of some traditionalist Catholics against statements and decisions of the bishops of the Catholic Church gathered with the Pope in the Second Vatican Council, as well as later statements issued by the Holy See and accepted and acted upon by the bishops.

They see this dissent as not unlike that of liberal Catholics who place their own judgment above that of the Magisterium, and they argue that the spiritual dynamic of the dissent is a failure of submission of the will. This failure of submission, they claim, has negative consequences for the Church, such as anger, bitterness, disunity and ultimately schism, consequences that contradict the spirit of unity that is a mark of the Church.

The traditionalist Catholics thus criticized reply that their attitude is not at all like that of liberal Catholics, because, instead of revolting against traditional teachings of the Church, they are merely trying to follow these teachings, which they see as contradicted by what they qualify as unlawful decrees and unsound doctrine of the Second Vatican Council and the Holy See.^[10] They say that they practice Catholicism as the faithful did for many centuries, Saints among them, and ask how that can be considered wrong or schismatic.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] Doctrinal and liturgical issues

• Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus
• Sedevacantism
• Sirianism
• Papal Oath
• Pre-Tridentine Mass
• Tridentine Mass
• Post-Tridentine Mass
• Roman Missal

[edit] Important figures

• Marcel Lefebvre
• Antônio de Castro Mayer
• Fernando Rifan
• Licínio Rangel
• Alfredo Ottaviani
• Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục
• Clarence Kelly
• Daniel Dolan
• Francis Schuckardt
• Malachi Martin
• Rama P Coomaraswamy
• Leonard Feeney (partly)

[edit] Historical events

• First Vatican Council
• Second Vatican Council
• Council of Trent

[edit] Notable organizations

• Society of St. Pius V
• Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen
• Society of St. Pius X
• Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
• Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney
• Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
• Latin Mass Society of England and Wales
• Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce
• Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

[edit] External links

• International Federation Una Voce The main international organization of Traditionalists considered regular by the Holy See
• The Society of St. Pius X The largest traditionalist body considered irregular by the Holy See