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Traditionalist Catholic
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Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics, or people who identify as Roman Catholics, who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). They are most commonly associated with an attachment to the Mass liturgy in general use in that time period (often called the Tridentine Mass, the Traditional Mass or the Latin Mass), but their theological and practical concerns are broader in scope.
Traditionalist Catholics are distinct from mainstream Catholics who have a broadly "traditional" or conservative outlook, since the latter tend to accept in general terms the legitimacy and appropriateness of the changes associated with the Second Vatican Council.
itionalist 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).
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Encyclopedia
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics, or people who identify as Roman Catholics, who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). They are most commonly associated with an attachment to the Mass liturgy in general use in that time period (often called the Tridentine Mass, the Traditional Mass or the Latin Mass), but their theological and practical concerns are broader in scope.
Traditionalist Catholics are distinct from mainstream Catholics who have a broadly "traditional" or conservative outlook, since the latter tend to accept in general terms the legitimacy and appropriateness of the changes associated with the Second Vatican Council.
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 Roman Catholics in general consider themselves to be "traditional" in the sense of being faithful to historical Catholic teaching, the term "traditionalist Catholics" is used in this article as a means of clearly distinguishing them from other Roman Catholics.
Different types of traditionalists
Traditionalist Catholics may be divided into four broad groups.
- Traditionalists not enjoying the favour of the Holy See and who practise their faith outside the official structures of the Church, though they affirm their loyalty to the Church and to the papacy. The largest priestly society of this tendency is the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which was established in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a founding figure of Catholic traditionalism. Members of this category view the post-Conciliar changes as being doctrinally and pastorally unacceptable. The fact that they recognise the official Church hierarchy while rejecting its decisions draws accusations of disloyalty and disobedience from the preceding group - whom this group in turn accuse of blind, un-Catholic obedience. Negotiations between the SSPX and the Holy See have been in progress for some years, and in January 2009 the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops remitted the excommunications which the Congregation had declared to have been incurred by the Society's bishops in 1988. He further expressed that hope that the Society would speedily return to full communion with the Church by showing "true fidelity and true acknowledgment of the Magisterium and the authority of the pope".
- Sedevacantists, who regard the generally recognized Pope and bishops as having fallen into heresy and having therefore forfeited their authority. Such people neither possess nor seek the approval of the Church hierarchy. The terms sedevacantist and sedevacantism derive from the Latin phrase sede vacante: "while the chair [of Peter] is vacant", a term which is normally applied to the period between the death of one Pope and the election of his successor. Sedevacantists usually date the vacancy of the papacy from the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, though some regard Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) as a true pope. Sedevacantist groups include the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV) and the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI).
- Conclavists: priests and laypeople stemming from the sedevacantist movement who have given recognition to a nominee of their own as the true Pope. Since they hold that the see of Rome is no longer vacant, they are not, strictly speaking, sedevacantists, but they are often classified as such, since they reject the official papal succession (and do so for the same reasons as sedevacantists). Conclavist groups include the true Catholic Church, the Palmarian Catholic Church, and the followers of David Bawden ("Pope Michael").
There is some tension between the different groups at the official level - the SSPX, for example, condemns the FSSP and attendance at its Masses - but the divisions are sometimes less pronounced at the lay level, with some happily attending Masses celebrated by priests of any group. Divisions between sedevacantists and other traditionalists are generally somewhat more pronounced.
Many traditionalist Catholics associate themselves with a particular priestly society. Other small groups of traditionalists sometimes form around an individual "independent" priest who has no ties with any particular organisation. Other Catholics again, known as "Home Aloners" do not associate themselves with any priests, and attempt to practise their faith individually in the privacy of their own homes.
Some leaders of Independent Catholic Churches also claim to be traditionalist Catholics and to be preserving the Tridentine Mass and ancient traditions.
Traditionalist positions
Traditionalist Catholics believe that they are preserving Catholic orthodoxy by not accepting certain changes introduced since the Second Vatican Council, changes that some of them have described as amounting to a "veritable revolution". They claim that the positions now taken by mainstream Catholics - even conservative 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".
Many traditionalists further believe that errors have crept into the presentation and understanding of Catholic teachings since the time of the Council. They attribute the blame for this to liberal interpretations of the Conciliar documents, to harmful post-Conciliar pastoral decisions, to the text of the Conciliar documents themselves, or to some combination of these.
Most traditionalists view the Council as a valid, albeit problematic, Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church, though most sedevacantists regard it as wholly invalid. It is common for traditionalists in dispute with Rome to affirm that the Council was "pastoral", and hence that its decrees were not absolutely binding on Catholics in the same way as the dogmatic decrees of other Ecumenical Councils. Support for this view is sought in Pope John XXIII's Opening Address to the Council, Pope Paul VI's , statements from Pope Benedict XVI, and the lack of formal dogmatic definitions in the Conciliar documents.
Pope Benedict XVI has contrasted the "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture" which many traditionalists apply to the Council with the "hermeneutic of reform" put forward by the Church authorities, quoting with approval Pope John XXIII's statement that the Council was intended to "transmit [Catholic] doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion". He made a similar point in a speech to the bishops of Chile in 1988, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger:
[Archbishop Lefebvre] declared that he has finally understood that the agreement he signed aimed only at integrating his foundation into the 'Conciliar Church'. The Catholic Church in union with the Pope is, according to him, the 'Conciliar Church' which has broken with its own past. It seems indeed that he is no longer able to see that we are dealing with the Catholic Church in the totality of its Tradition, and that Vatican II belongs to that.
Traditionalists' claims of "discontinuity and rupture"
Traditionalists' claims that substantive changes have taken place in Catholic teaching and practice since the Council often crystallise around the following specific alleged examples:
- 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 this 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 which does not require 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.
- Acceptance of the principle of religious liberty, based on one interpretation of Second Vatican Council's decree Dignitatis Humanae, allegedly in contradiction to Pope Pius IX's teachings in Quanta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors.
- A revision of the Mass liturgy of the Roman rite. They affirm that this revision de-emphasizes the central Catholic doctrines that the Mass is a true sacrifice and that the bread and wine are changed through transubstantiation into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, that it has been stripped of important prayers, that it is centered on the congregation rather than on God, that it is less beautiful and spiritually edifying, and that it omits certain Bible readings that mention subjects such as hell, miracles and sin. Traditionalists hold differing opinions on the validity and acceptability of the revised rite of Mass:
- Some see it as valid, and as acceptable when necessary, though the older rite should be attended when possible.
- Some, including the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X, hold that it is in principle valid as a sacramental rite but maintain that the revisions in the liturgy are displeasing to God, and that it is often celebrated improperly to the extent of being sacramentally invalid. They therefore generally refuse to attend it.
- Some, including many sedevacantists, see it as categorically invalid in principle and entirely unacceptable.
- An inappropriate emphasis 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 utopianism that sees world peace as possible without recognizing the kingship of Christ. They see this orientation as contradicting Pope Pius XI's , Pope Leo XIII's , and other papal and conciliar documents.
- A teaching on collegiality that attributes to the bishops of the world a share, with the Pope, of responsibility for the Church's governance in a way that they claim is destructive of papal authority and encourages a "national" church mentality that undermines the primacy of the Holy See. They also claim that national bishops' conferences, whose influence was greatly increased following the Council, "diminish the personal responsibility of bishop[s]" within their dioceses.
- A new and critical attitude towards the Bible that, they say, contradicts Leo XIII's and Benedict XV's , among other documents.
- 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 , Leo XIII's and other papal warnings against Freemasonry and other alleged enemies of Christianity have gone unheeded.
Mainstream Catholics' criticism of traditionalists' claims
Mainstream Catholics responding to claims of "discontinuity and rupture" have made the following points:
- Such claims are stated to be false, exaggerated, or lacking appreciation of 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, and that the revised rite of Mass represents a prudent development of the earlier liturgy.
- Traditionalists are said not to distinguish properly 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). Traditionalists deny this claim.
- Traditionalists, it is claimed, treat papal authority in much the same way as the liberal Catholics whom they claim to oppose. It is said that liberals believe, on sexual matters, that "the Pope can teach whatever he wants... but whether or not he should be listened to is very much an open question". This is compared to traditionalists' stance on the reform of the Mass liturgy and contemporary teachings on ecumenism and religious liberty, and their view that, on these issues, "faithful Catholics are always free to resist [the Pope's] folly.... As theories of religious dissent go, Catholic liberals couldn't ask for anything more."
- The traditionalist claim that the Second Vatican Council was pastoral is often countered by referring to Paul VI subsequently emphasizing the authoritative nature of the Council's teachings.
Sedevacantists' claim that mainstream criticisms do not apply to them
Sedevacantists claim that they avoid much of the mainstream Catholic critique of traditionalism because their view is that, beginning with John XXIII or Paul VI, one or both of whom and all their successors they consider to be heretics, there is no valid Catholic Pope or body of bishops to whom allegiance or obedience is owed. They criticise non-sedevacantist traditionalists for recognising the recent Popes, on grounds such as the following:
- By declaring that the revised liturgy of the Mass promulgated and defended by these Popes is evil, they teach that the Church can and has decreed evil.
- By declaring that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council contradict 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 or they implicitly deny that the Pope and bishops at the Second Vatican Council were truly the Pope and truly Catholic bishops.
- By refusing subjection to a supposedly legitimate 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."
Traditionalist practices
The rite of Mass
The best-known and most visible sign of Catholic traditionalism is an attachment to the form that the Roman Rite liturgy of the Mass had before the liturgical reform of 1969-1970, in the various editions of the Roman Missal published between 1570 and 1962. This form is generally known as the Tridentine Mass, though traditionalists usually prefer to call it the Traditional Mass. Many refer to it as the Latin Mass, though the Mass of Paul VI that replaced it can also be celebrated in Latin. In his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum Pope Benedict XVI relaxed the regulations on use of the 1962 Missal, designating it "an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite". Some refer to it, less exactly, as "the extraordinary form".
Different traditionalist priests use different editions of the Roman Missal to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. Most, not only those in good standing with the Holy See but also such as those in the SSPX, use the 1962 edition, the only one that the Holy See authorises. Since this edition was promulgated by Pope John XXIII, sedevacantists reject it and generally use the 1920 Missal, with feasts updated perhaps to 1954, before Pope Pius XII's changes to the calendar. Those who follow the 1954 calendar also reject the same Pope's revision of the rites of Holy Week. There are no reports of priests regularly using any edition of the Missal earlier than that of 1920, which incorporated the rubrical and calendar changes made by Pope Pius X in 1910. A series of modifications to the 1962 liturgy introduced in 1965 are used by some traditionalists in good standing with Rome. This version of the liturgy is sometimes referred to as that of the "1965 Missal", though no new edition of the Roman Missal was in fact published in that year.
Linked with the celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the observance of the liturgical calendar of saints' days as it existed before the revision of 1969 (see General Roman Calendar of 1962). Some also ignore the revisions of 1960 by Pope John XXIII, and of 1955 by Pope Pius XII, and use instead the General Roman Calendar of 1954.
Individual and private devotions
Traditionalist Catholics lay stress on strict following of customs prevailing immediately before the Second Vatican Council, such as the following:
- Abstaining from meat on Fridays. Present discipline maintains Fridays and Lent as days and times of penance, declares that abstinence from meat or some other food as determined by the local episcopal conference is to be observed on all Fridays (excluding solemnities) and on Ash Wednesday, and allows episcopal conferences to permit other practices of personal penance to take the place of abstinence from meat.
- Fasting from midnight before receiving Holy Communion. This discipline was modified in 1953 by Pope Pius XII, who reduced the fast period to three hours, and this modification is accepted by many traditionalists. Few accept the one-hour rule promulgated by Paul VI, which is that laid down in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
- Kneeling to receive Communion directly in the mouth, in the form of consecrated bread alone, and from the hand of a cleric rather than a layperson. Some would refuse to receive even from deacons, who, before the reforms of Pope Paul VI, were allowed to give Holy Communion only if there were a serious reason for permitting them to do so. Many traditionalists regard the ancient practice of receiving communion in the hand as sacrilegious.
- Women wearing a headcovering in church, a practice that was widespread, but not universal, before the Council, and that also is not universal among traditionalists today.
- Frequent confession, a practice that grew in the first half of the twentieth century, when increasingly frequent Communion led to more frequent confession. It is now standard practice among traditionalists to go to confession just before attending Mass, especially if Mass is not available every week.
- Prayers such as the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary in the form in use before the late twentieth century, and so without the alterations in the number and identity of the Stations that became common, though by no means universal, in the time of Pope Paul VI and without the addition of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary recommended by Pope John Paul II.
These practices are of course not confined to traditionalists: many mainstream Catholics also follow them.
Traditionalism and the Eastern Catholic Churches
The Second Vatican Council's decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum encouraged the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches to return to their own past traditions and practices, which in some cases had been overlaid with elements taken from the Latin Church. Subsequent Vatican documents reinforced this tendency. Some of the Latinizing modifications to be undone date back decades or even centuries, and the process of reviving older traditions is ongoing. This process is has been opposed by some, perhaps most notably by the Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat which claims to be part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and which has close links with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). In some other Eastern Catholic Church too, there are small numbers who, like the Latin-Rite traditionalist Catholics, try to hold to practices as they were at the time of Pius XII's death (1958).
Relations with the Holy See
The Holy See recognises as fully legitimate the preference that many Catholics have for the earlier forms of worship. This was apparent in Pope John Paul II's 1988 apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei and Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Naturally, however, the Holy See does not extend its approval to those who take a stand against the present-day Church leadership.
Schismatic?
A fiercely debated question is whether traditionalists who operate outside the ordinary structures of the Church and in dispute with the Church authorities are schismatic and excommunicated.
The clearest cases of schism are provided by sedevacantists and conclavists, who openly refuse communion with Pope Benedict XVI and his bishops. Many other traditionalists are also regarded by the Holy See as schismatic, though their schismatic status derives, on a case-by-case basis, from their attitudes and conduct as individuals rather than from their association with any particular group (such as the SSPX). The situation of the SSPX has been described as a "situation of separation ... even if it was not a formal schism". With regard to the 1988 episcopal consecrations that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer performed for the SSPX against the orders of Pope John Paul II, the Holy See recognizes their validity, but sees those bishops as having thereby committed a schismatic act. It views the priests of the SSPX whom these bishops ordain as validly ordained, but, in accordance with canon 1383 of the Code of Canon Law, prohibited from exercising their priestly functions. The Ecclesia Dei Commission has stated that attendance at Masses offered by such priests is "morally illicit" for Catholics in normal circumstances, though attendance is not, of itself, an act subject to ecclesiastical penalties such as excommunication.
The Ecclesia Dei Commission
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was founded in July 1988 in the wake of Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei. Pope Benedict XVI was a member of the Commission during his tenure as Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Speaking on 16 May 2007 to the , Cardinal Castrillón, the current head of the Commission, stated that his department had been founded for the care of those "traditionalist Catholics" who, while discontented with the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, had broken with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, "because they disagreed with his schismatic action in ordaining Bishops without the required papal mandate". He added that at present the Commission's activity is not limited to the service of those Catholics, nor to "the efforts undertaken to end the regrettable schismatic situation and secure the return of those brethren belonging to the Fraternity of Saint Pius X to full communion." It extends also, he said, to "satisfying the just aspirations of people, unrelated to the two aforementioned groups, who, because of their specific sensitiveness, wish to keep alive the earlier Latin liturgy in the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments."
In the same speech Cardinal Castrillón indicated that it was intended to make the Commission an organ of the Holy See for the purpose of preserving and maintaining the traditional liturgy; at the same time he stated that this was not with the purpose of "going backward, of returning to the times before the 1970 reform.... The Holy Father wishes to preserve the immense spiritual, cultural and aesthetic treasure linked with the old liturgy. Recovery of these riches goes together with the no less precious riches of the Church's present liturgy."
Summorum Pontificum
Following months of rumour and speculation, Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in July 2007. The Pope ruled that priests of the Latin Rite can freely choose between the 1962 Roman Missal and the later edition "in Masses celebrated without the people". Such celebrations may be attended by those who spontaneously ask to be allowed. Priests in charge of churches can permit stable groups of laypeople attached to the earlier form to have Mass celebrated for them in that form, provided that the celebrating priest is "qualified to [celebrate] and not juridically impeded" (this would exclude traditionalist priests not in good standing with Rome).
The document, as well as being welcomed by the traditionalist groups that have been in good relations with Rome, has been considered by groups such as the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, which have been in dispute with Rome, to be sufficient grounds for seeking an agreement. The Society of Saint Pius X welcomed the document, but referred to "difficulties that still remain", including "disputed doctrinal issues" and the notice of excommunication that still affected its bishops. Sedevacantists of course consider all documents issued by Benedict XVI to be devoid of canonical force.
Validity of holy orders of traditionalist clergy
Catholic doctrine holds that any validly ordained bishop can ordain any other baptised male as a priest or a bishop, provided that he has the correct intention and uses an acceptable ordination liturgy. This remains the case whether or not the ordination is performed with official approval, and even if the individuals involved are not Catholics. The conferring of holy orders may therefore be valid but illicit.
The Catholic Church obviously considers the orders of traditionalist clergy who are in good standing with the Holy See, such as the priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, to be both valid and licit. It sees as valid but illicit the orders of the bishops and priests of the Society of Saint Pius X, and accordingly considers them to be forbidden by law to exercise priestly offices. As for the "independent" traditionalists, whether bishops or priests, it certainly sees their ordination as illicit, but its judgement on the validity is less clear. The Holy See declared devoid of canonical effect the consecration ceremony conducted by Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đ́nh Th?c for the Carmelite Order of the Holy Face group at midnight of 31 December 1975, while expressly refraining from pronouncing on its validity. It made the same statement with regard also to any later ordinations that those bishops might confer, 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 recognise 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."
Traditionalists themselves are divided on the question of the validity of the orders conferred using the Those who deny or put in doubt the validity of the sacramental liturgies as revised after the Second Vatican Council pass the same negative judgement on all such ordinations. The Society of Saint Pius V split from that of Saint Pius X for reasons that included Archbishop Lefebvre's acceptance of priests ordained according to the revised sacramental rites as members of the traditionalist Society that he founded.
Number of traditionalist Catholics
According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, the Catholic Church's worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2005 was 1,114,966,000. Estimates of the total number of traditionalists within this population have ranged from 1 million to 7 million. It has also been claimed that there are upwards of 2 million traditionalists in dispute with Rome, and a similar number in good standing with Rome. Estimates of the number of supporters of the SSPX range from 600,000 to 1 million.
The two most prominent societies of traditionalist priests - the SSPX and the FSSP - claim to have a presence in 31 and 14 countries respectively. A disproportionately large share of their members in each case are stationed in France.
For purposes of comparison with mainstream Catholic organisations, the Knights of Columbus in the United States are stated to have 1.7 million members, the Neocatechumenal Way is reported to have around 1 million members, and Opus Dei is claimed to have 87,000 members.
Another comparison is that Eastern Rite Catholics number 16 million. Approximately 7,650,000 belong to the fourteen Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite, whether they attend the Divine Liturgy in that liturgical rite or in another, and 8,300,000 belong to other Eastern Catholic Churches of Armenian, Coptic and Syriac traditions.
See also
Doctrinal and liturgical issues
Notable Traditionalist Catholics
Canonically regular traditionalist groups
Canonically irregular traditionalist groups
Sedevacantist groups
Generic list of groups
External links
- The main international organization of Traditionalists considered regular by the Holy See
- The largest traditionalist body considered irregular by the Holy See
- The Vatican department which deals with relations with traditionalists
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