That old time religion

Traditionalist Catholicism grew from opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council Actor-director Mel Gibson is among

Latin is a dead language, but for traditionalist Catholics like Mel Gibson, it's alive and well in their churches.

Traditionalists are a small minority compared to the world's 1 billion mainstream Catholics. Their numbers are difficult to compile because many groups operate underground or practise their faith privately in the belief that there are no priests left who administer the sacraments properly. Estimates vary from 250,000 to 7 million worldwide

While relatively small in number, the movement has gained attention recently with the popularity of Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ.

The United States is believed to have about 100,000 traditionalists. In Canada, there are 5,000, according to Fr. Jean Violette, of Toronto, District Superior for the Society of St. Pius X, one of the largest traditionalist groups.

The society, with some 600 chapels and 300 priests worldwide, runs more than 100 schools and six seminaries. Canada has two schools and the largest traditionalist group is in Calgary.

Traditionalist Catholicism is a reactionary movement against changes within the Church after the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965. Its followers uphold beliefs and practices predating Vatican II: They attend the Tridentine mass in Latin, abstain from meat on Fridays and the women cover their heads in church.

Traditionalists are also dismayed by what they see as the loss of Rome's disciplinarian hand on the faithful, resulting in "cafeteria Catholicism." They argue that today's mainstream Catholics pick and choose which church teachings to follow in areas such as sexual morality and the priesthood.

While some simply have a personal preference for the old mass, others have used the Tridentine mass as their "language of Catholic dissent," believing that the post-conciliar Church has "fallen into error."

The main differences between the old and the new mass is that in the old rite, the altar was against the church wall facing east, toward Jerusalem and in the direction of the rising sun, which symbolized Jesus.

The new mass is said in the vernacular instead of Latin and the laity participates more.

In the new mass, the priest faces the congregation. The old mass is celebrated with the priest turning his back to pews and facing the altar in the belief that the priest alone offers the sacrifice to God for the congregation. Post-Vatican II theology says the celebrating community offers the sacrifice to God with the priest.

There are three main factions of traditional Catholicism, each with its own view of Catholic dogma and the authority of post-Vatican II popes: the Indult, Independent and Sedevacantist Catholics.

The indult movement consists of Catholics whose main concern is the post-Vatican II liturgical reform (that is, the mass and the sacraments).

Indult, a legal term, means a special permission from the Pope to practise something other than the common law of the church. In 1984, John Paul II granted an indult for the continued use of the traditional Tridentine mass, with the local bishop's permission. The indult reversed the church ban on the old rite instituted after the new mass became the official church liturgy after the 1960s.

In 1988, the Pope reiterated this permission and called on all bishops to use the indult "widely and generously." While several have complied, some traditionalists say many bishops restrict use of the old mass.

Indult masses are celebrated by regular priests in various archdioceses. Some Indult supporters have a personal preference for the old mass and are quietly indifferent to post-Vatican II teachings.

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Others are openly critical of the modern liturgy and Vatican II. The followers of this independent faction operate separately from the mainstream church, running their own chapels, schools, churches, seminaries and monasteries without ties to the local bishop.

Most acknowledge the Pope and his bishops are Catholic, but they don't follow post-Vatican II teachings. They operate underground and maintain that they are the true holders of the Catholic faith. Independent traditionalists practise the pre-Vatican II mass and teachings, believing the Church is in a profound state of crisis and that most within its hierarchy, especially the Vatican II church fathers, have been "infected" by the vices of liberalism and modernism.

The largest traditionalist organization, the Society of Saint Pius X, was established by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France. Lefebvre and his group were excommunicated in 1988 when he consecrated four bishops in defiance of the Pope. This is a hotly contested issue and St. Pius members deny their ex-communication.

The third group are the Sedevacantists, from the term sede vacante," Latin for "see (diocese) vacant, who believe in the theory of a "popeless church." They have the most uncompromising stance of all the traditionalists and claim that all post-conciliar Popes are false popes since none of them was a genuine Catholic. For them, the seat of the Pope has been vacant since Vatican II.

Unlike most indult traditionalists who merely question post-Vatican II doctrine, this group claims that such teachings are false and all who follow them are not authentic Catholics. The group has also established its own churches and seminaries outside of the mainstream church's jurisdiction.

Even with their differences, the three groups share three common beliefs: the pre-Vatican II Tridentine rite for masses; that most of the Vatican II teachings contradict church tradition; and that many of the post-conciliar changes are "neo-modernist errors."

According to Violette, the main "error" is the post-Vatican II teaching on ecumenism. He says that the society is in communion with Rome but isn't in agreement with all of its teachings. According to one pamphlet, John Paul II's liberalism is "destroying" the church.

"Catholic ecumenism is to try to convert non-Catholics to the Catholic church," explains Violette. "That's what the church has always done, following the word of Jesus to go out and preach the Gospel, make disciples and to bring them into the church.

"The modern ecumenism since Vatican II has ended up being a watering down of the faith, worship and devotions in order to please non-Catholics and that's what we say they cannot do, (that) they have no right to do, and that's what we are opposed to is the watering down, in the name of ecumenism, of faith and morals and of the practices of the church.

"So it is in fact destroying the church. It is leading people away from the church. Even Catholics are falling away from the church because of the novelties and if it's not because of the novelties, well it's a very strange coincidence that it just happens at the same time."

Violette points to the state of the church today as evidence of the harmful effects of Vatican II, namely the crisis in the priesthood and the religious orders, the growth in born-again Christian sects and lax Catholicism.

"I just offered mass this morning and in the mass, every day, we pray for the Pope. We pray for the local bishop and we certainly don't wish anybody harm. We're not animated by bitterness but we do want to keep the faith and we're going to protect it no matter what it takes.

"One may have to be considered excommunicated, to distance himself from the official church ... That's basically what we've done. We have distanced ourselves from them because we feel we can't trust them to give us the faith."

Mel Gibson's religious adviser, Fr. Stephen Somerville, of Queensville north of Toronto, says he and Gibson are not members of the Society of St. Pius X, but are independent traditionalists. Gibson has refused to publicly describe his exact religious affiliation, only saying that he attends Latin mass and recently built his own chapel near Malibu, Calif., because his previous church in San Gabriel Valley was taken over by the society. Earlier interviews don't indicate he's part of the "far-right" group.

The largest traditionalist groups are the indult and independent groups who comprise four-fifths of the traditionalist movement while Sedevacantists and other groups are the remaining fifth. Estimates about Society of St. Pius X members range from 250,000 to 1 million.

The Vatican has considered "traditionalism" to be enough of a problem that, in recent years, Pope John Paul II has been trying to heal divisions within the church and reconcile with the Society of St. Pius X. In 2003, bans on three of the four bishops illicitly consecrated by Lefebvre were lifted. This past May, the first Tridentine mass since Vatican II to be celebrated by a Cardinal took place in Rome. Negotiations with the group are reported to be continuing.

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Sheila Dabu is a Toronto freelance writer with a special interest in Catholicism.

"Sheila Dabu is a Toronto freelance writer with a special interest in Catholicism."

She could do to take some serious study of her subject before spouting forth, however!

"Post-Vatican II theology says the celebrating community offers the sacrifice to God with the priest."

This is sheer bunk - no official teaching of the Church since Vatican II has claimed this.

"In 2003, bans on three of the four bishops illicitly consecrated by Lefebvre were lifted."

This is news to me - has anyone else heard anything to this effect or is she just spouting more nonsense?

I assume by "ban" she means excommunication. (Not that I am trying to start up another "are they/aren't they" debate - simply querying whether the Vatican has officially changed its stance).

She could do to take some serious study of her subject before spouting forth, however!

I think she has done a rather good job putting the whole complicated situation into a nutshell. About the best you could expect from any secular news source, and much better than you could expect from any organ of the hierarchy.

"Post-Vatican II theology says the celebrating community offers the sacrifice to God with the priest."
This is sheer bunk - no official teaching of the Church since Vatican II has claimed this.

In actual fact, every teaching since Vatican II that comes from any kind of liturgical organization makes exactly this claim. I have a book called "The Communion Rite at Sunday Mass" by Gabe Huck that says precisely this. Right on the first page he says,

"Our eucharist is always the eucharist of the church [sic]. It has no existence apart from the celebration of particular assemblies."

This book has more than just an imprimatur, it is actually copyrighted by the Archdiocese of Chicago. It is published by Liturgy Training Publications, the organization that supplies liturgy materials for nearly all the parishes in the United States. I can tell you that virtually every "suggestion" in this book was implemented in the New Mass parish we used to attend.

The bishops are part of the official magisterium of the Church, and this is what they are teaching and practicing in every diocese around the world.

""The Communion Rite at Sunday Mass" by Gabe Huck that says precisely this."

The day that Gabe Huck has any official teaching capacity in the Magisterium of the Universal Church will be the day that I become a sede vacantist.

His infantile theology is widespread and heretical, but it has never been taught by the Pope or the organs of the Holy See.

As his was one of the first scalps to fall to Cardinal George, I would suggest that he does not have universal appeal.

"I can tell you that virtually every "suggestion" in this book was implemented in the New Mass parish we used to attend."

I'm sure they were, and I'm sure they were all implemented in the French parishes where I have spent the last two weeks, and where the Masses were some of the worst travesties that I have ever seen. (I thought the situation was bad enough in England but in France I was so disgusted that I couldn't receive Communion.)

That still does not make his ideology the official teaching of the Church, though!

The day that Gabe Huck has any official teaching capacity in the Magisterium of the Universal Church will be the day that I become a sede vacantist.

Time to become a sedevacantist! Here is what Vatican II says about the teaching authority of the bishops:

"Christ gave the Apostles and their successors the command and the power to teach all nations, to hallow men in the truth, and to feed them. Bishops, therefore, have been made true and authentic teachers of the faith, pontiffs, and pastors through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to them.
Bishops, sharing in the solicitude for all the churches, exercise this episcopal office of theirs, which they have received through episcopal consecration, in communion with and under the authority of the supreme pontiff. As far as their teaching authority and pastoral government are concerned, all are united in a college or body with respect to the universal Church of God."

Remember, the Archdiocese of Chicago published this stuff, they own the copyright, I think they might even own the publisher, Liturgy Training Publications. Virtually every bishop in the US (and in France according to your report) has followed the same theology and taught the same things. I'm friends with a seminarian in a New Mass seminary, and I can confirm that this is what he is being taught, and what he will believe when he becomes a priest -- that his job is to preside over assembly as they celebrate the eucharist. This is the teaching of virtually the entire Catholic hierarchy which shares in the collegial magisterium, according to Vatican II.

"Time to become a sedevacantist!"

Are you certain I'm not? For all you know I may be the only sedevacantist N.O. deacon in the world! ;)

"As far as their teaching authority and pastoral government are concerned, all are united in a college or body with respect to the universal Church of God."

The bishops' teaching office - membership of the Magisterium - and ability to define doctrine, is dependendent on their unity in this with all the other bishops of the world, and particularly dependent on their unity with the Supreme Pontiff.

It wouldn't matter if every bishop in the world apart from the Pope said "The Eucharist has no existence apart from the celebration of particular assemblies." - that would still not make the doctrine "Church teaching".

Just as when every bishop in the world, apart from Athanasius and the Pope, adopted Arianism - that never meant that Arianism became official Church teaching.

The Archdiocese of Chicago may have published Huck's drivel, but that does not mean it is formally taught by Cardinal George. He may well have been negligent in failing to scrap the publication of this trash, and will at some point answer to a higher authority because of it. But that is still not the same as if he had formally promoted these ideas himself.

Even if the Pope himself decided to endorse Huck's sacramental theology - it would still not become the official teaching of the Church as no Pope or Council has the power from God to invent new doctrine. Even Vatican II reiterated this latter point.

"I'm friends with a seminarian in a New Mass seminary, and I can confirm that this is what he is being taught, and what he will believe when he becomes a priest -- that his job is to preside over assembly as they celebrate the eucharist."

That may be the case, and he will probably become another casualty of the modernist heresy infecting the Body of Christ. However, this was not taught at my seminary and none of the candidates on the diaconate formation course were taught this by any of our lecturers. (We were blessed by the chap who designed and set up the course - he now runs round the country offering the Tridentine Mass wherever there is the need!)

"This is the teaching of virtually the entire Catholic hierarchy which shares in the collegial magisterium, according to Vatican II."

So? Many of the current hierarchy are at least material heretics - tell me something I didn't know already!

The most encouraging thing about the last Mass I attended in France was that out of a congregation of 400, only 10 were under the age of 60. That particular parody of the Catholic Church does not have much to look forward to.

It was the spookiest feeling - all these ancient white-haired dears locked in this folksy pap of a 1960's timewarp. It reminded me of the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" where the "Child Catcher" had created a town devoid of children - desperately sad really!

It was the spookiest feeling - all these ancient white-haired dears locked in this folksy pap of a 1960's timewarp. It reminded me of the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" where the "Child Catcher" had created a town devoid of children - desperately sad really!

Not only is that a good metaphor for so many New Mass Catholic parishes (main-line protestant parishes are even worse of course), but for all of Western Civilization at this point. The "child catcher" seems to have arrived in every town in Europe. And why did they hate children in Vulgaria? Because the adults wanted to play, they wanted to continue behaving like children rather than taking on the obligations of supporting flesh and blood children of their own. Sounds very much like all the "developed nations" of today, and also very much like the New Mass hierarchy that wants to "celebrate liturgy" rather than to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There is nothing more refreshing than to attend Mass at our traditional parish where the pews are overflowing with dozens of young children, and there are new beautiful young families being formed all the time, young people in their twenties starting on the job of "the procreation and education of children," not just for themselves but perhaps for 5 or 6 other "families" that have 2 children or less.

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