Traditionalist Catholicism


Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council. Traditionalist Catholics particularly emphasize the Tridentine Mass, the Roman Rite liturgy largely replaced in general use by the post-Second Vatican Council Mass of Paul VI.
Many traditionalist Catholics disliked the liturgical changes that followed the Second Vatican Council, and prefer to continue to practice pre-Second Vatican Council traditions and forms. Some also see present teachings on ecumenism as blurring the distinction between Catholics and other Christians. Traditional Catholicism is often more conservative in its philosophy and worldview, promoting a modest style of dressing and teaching a complementarian view of gender roles.
Some traditionalist Catholics reject the current papacy of the Catholic Church and follow positions of sedevacantism, sedeprivationism, or conclavism. As these groups are no longer in communion with the pope and the Holy See, they are not regarded by the Holy See to be members of the Catholic Church. A distinction is often made between these groups and those who adhere to current papal authority but prefer traditional practices.

History

Toward the end of the Second Vatican Council, Father Gommar DePauw came into conflict with Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, Archbishop of Baltimore, over the interpretation of the council's teachings, particularly on liturgical matters. In January 1965, DePauw incorporated an organization called the Catholic Traditionalist Movement in New York State, purportedly with the support of Cardinal Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, conservative Catholics opposed to or uncomfortable with the theological, social and liturgical developments brought about by the Second Vatican Council began to coalesce. In 1973, the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement was founded by two priests, Francis E. Fenton and Robert McKenna, and set up chapels in many parts of North America to preserve the Tridentine Mass. Priests who participated in this were listed as being on a leave of absence by their bishops, who disapproved of their actions.
In 1970, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the Society of Saint Pius X, made up of priests who would say only the Traditional Latin Mass and who opposed what he saw as excessive liberal influences in the Church after Vatican II. In 1988, Lefebvre and another bishop consecrated four men as bishops without papal permission, resulting in excommunication latae sententiae for all six men directly involved. Some members of the SSPX, unwilling to participate in what they considered schism, left and founded the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, which celebrates the Tridentine Mass and is in full communion with the Holy See. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four surviving bishops, but clarified that the society had "no canonical status within the Catholic Church."
The Istituto Mater Boni Consilii was founded in 1985. It is a sedeprivationist religious congregation of clergy who were dissatisfied with the SSPX's position on the Pope, i.e., acknowledging John Paul II as pope but disobeying him. Sedeprivationists hold that the current occupant of the papal office is a duly elected pope but lacks the authority and ability to teach or govern unless he recants the changes brought by the Second Vatican Council.
Some Catholics took the position of sedevacantism, which teaches Pope John XXIII and his successors are heretics and therefore cannot be considered popes, and that the Catholic Church's sacraments are not valid. One sedevacantist group, the Society of Saint Pius V, broke off from the SSPX in 1983, due to liturgical disputes. Another sedevacantist group, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, formed spontaneously among the followers of Francis Schuckardt, but he was later expelled due to scandals and CMRI is now more aligned with other sedevacantist groups.
Other groups known as Conclavists have elected their own popes in opposition to the post-Vatican II pontiffs. They are not considered serious claimants except by their very few followers.

Different types

Canonically regular with the Holy See

Since the Second Vatican Council, several traditionalist organizations have been started with or have subsequently obtained approval from the Catholic Church. These organizations accept the documents of the Second Vatican Council and regard the changes associated with the Council as legitimate, but celebrate the older forms with the approval of the Holy See.
There are also multiple monastic communities, including
See Communities using the Tridentine Mass for a more detailed list.

Society of Saint Pius X

The Society of Saint Pius X was founded in 1970, with the authorization of the bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Lefebvre was declared to have incurred automatic excommunication in 1988, after illicit consecrations. In January 2009 the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops remitted the excommunications the Congregation had declared to have been incurred by the Society's bishops in 1988.
More recently, the Vatican has granted SSPX priests the authority to hear confessions and has authorized local ordinaries, in certain circumstances, to grant delegation to SSPX priests to act as the qualified witness required for valid celebration of marriage. The Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Silver City, New Mexico, which is affiliated with the SSPX, is seeking Vatican approval through the society.
In 2017, a statement from the Holy See said the SSPX had an irregular canonical status "for the time being".

Sedeprivationists

Sedeprivationists hold the view that the current occupant of the papal office is a duly elected pope but lacks the authority and ability to teach or govern unless he recants the changes brought by the Second Vatican Council. Sedeprivationists teach that the popes from Pope John XXIII onward fall into this category. Sedeprivationism is currently endorsed by two groups:
hold the view that the Vatican II popes have forfeited their position through their acceptance of heretical teachings connected with the Second Vatican Council and consequently there is at present no true pope. This constitutes an act of schism and is an offense which can result in excommunication. They conclude, on the basis of their rejection of the revised rite of Mass and of certain aspects of postconciliar Church teaching as false, that the popes involved are also false. This is a minority position among traditionalist Catholics and a highly divisive one, so that many who hold it prefer to say nothing of their view, while other sedevacantists have accepted episcopal ordination from sources such as Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục.
The terms sedevacantist and sedevacantism derive from the Latin phrase sede vacante. Sedevacantist groups include:
  • Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, formed in 1967. It operates in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia; is based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States; and is headed by Bishop Mark Pivarunas.
  • Society of Saint Pius V, formed in 1983 when nine American priests of the Society of Saint Pius X split from the organization over a number of issues including using the liturgical reforms implemented under Pope John XXIII. It operates in North America, is based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, United States, and was headed by Bishop Clarence Kelly until his death in December 2023.
  • Sociedad Sacerdotal Trento, formed in 1993 by the priests of the deceased Bishop Moisés Carmona. Its bishop is Bishop Martín Dávila Gandara.

    Conclavists

is the belief and practice of some who, claiming that all recent occupants of the papal see are not true popes, elect someone else and propose him as the true pope to whom the allegiance of Catholics is due.

Positions

contrasted the "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture" that some apply to the Council with the "hermeneutic of reform, as it was presented first by Pope John XXIII in his Speech inaugurating the Council on 11 October 1962 and later by Pope Paul VI in his Discourse for the Council's conclusion on 7 December 1965." He made a similar point in a speech to the bishops of Chile in 1988, when he was still Cardinal Joseph 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.
Responding to a comment that some consider tradition in a rigid way, Pope Francis remarked in 2016, "there's a traditionalism that is a rigid fundamentalism; this is not good. Fidelity on the other hand implies growth. In transmitting the deposit of faith from one epoch to another, tradition grows and consolidates itself with the passing of time, as St Vincent of Lérins said 'The dogma of the Christian religion too must follow these laws. It progresses, consolidates itself with the years, developing itself with time, deepening itself with age'."