{"id":50994,"date":"2024-06-13T14:55:40","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T18:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=50994"},"modified":"2025-01-14T11:17:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:17:29","slug":"on-radical-traditionalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/on-radical-traditionalism\/","title":{"rendered":"On Radical Traditionalism","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some people are reporting that this blog appears as white text on the tan background. That is a problem with your browser. Update or switch to another browser, such as Firefox. <\/em><\/div>\n
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THERE<\/strong> is no question that a post-Vatican II revolution of “progressives” has wreaked havoc in the Church, ultimately levelling entire religious orders, church architecture, music and Catholic culture \u2013 manifestly witnessed in all things surrounding the Liturgy. I have written much about the damage to the Mass as it emerged after the Second Vatican Council (see Weaponizing the Mass<\/em><\/a>). I have heard first-hand accounts of how “reformers” entered into parishes late at night, white-washing iconography, smashing statues, and taking a chainsaw to ornate high altars. In their place, a simple altar covered in a white cloth was left standing in the middle of the sanctuary \u2014 to the horror of many churchgoers at the next Mass. \u201cWhat the Communists did in our churches by force,\u201d immigrants from Russia and Poland have said to me, \u201cis what you\u2019re doing yourselves!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In the outstanding account of what took place in the first years after Vatican II, the sleeve to John Eppstein’s 1971-73 book gives an apt summary of what was unfolding:<\/div>\n
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Never before in its long history has the Roman Catholic Church been in such disarray as now. Its rituals and disciplines, its splendour, its unchanging confidence, the very features which in the past attracted so many converts, seem to have been wantonly abandoned. The authority of the Pope is questioned. A stream of highly-publicized priests and nuns have rejected their vows. The Mass and the catechism have been given strange new forms. Clergy in at least one entire country seem on the verge of schism. There is deep distress and perplexity amon the faithful. To some these changes are a sign of renewal: but to many others, no less loyal, the Church seems suddenly to have gone mad and to be squandering its 2000-year inheritance.<\/strong> \u2014from Has the Catholic Church Gone Mad?<\/em> (cover sleeve), The Catholic Book Club, 1973<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
That was five decades ago but could have been written yesterday. During this period, however, many positive <\/em>signs also emerged revealing God’s grace at work as a counter<\/em> to the growing apostasy. But it’s these very Divine Interventions that are now being assailed by what Cardinal Joseph Zen calls “extreme conservatives” or others call “rad trads” (radical traditionalists). Posting their declarations on social media, they are causing a great deal of consternation, confusion, and division… if not preparing the soil for schism. Here are just a few examples of claims being made by extreme conservatives (though these views may be held by others in the mainstream to one degree or another)…<\/div>\n
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I. “Vatican II is the source of apostasy”<\/span><\/div>\n
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Second Vatican Council<\/p><\/div>\nThis is one of the most breathlessly repeated assertions, yet do people know what they mean by blaming Vatican II? They hardly ever offer specific substantive proofs other than perhaps a handful of ambiguous statements in Second Vatican II documents that can just as easily be interpreted in accordance with<\/em> Sacred Tradition. In fact, whenever there is an ambiguity, it must <\/em>be interpreted according to a hermeneutic of continuity with the past.<\/div>\n

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Pope Benedict believed strongly in the continuity of the Magisterium guided by the Holy Spirit, for him the only hermeneutics of the Council must be that of continuity, not of rupture… Obviously, when he said: \u201cWe must remain faithful to the today of the Church”<\/u>, he meant faithful to a today which is guaranteed to be faithful to the yesterday<\/u>. A Council of today is faithful to all the Councils of yesterday, because the actor of today\u2019s Council is properly the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who guided all the past Councils; He cannot deny himself.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

…To which \u2018yesterday\u2019 do you want to be faithful? To the First Vatican Council ? Or to the Council of Trent? You trust more the Holy Spirit of the previous Councils? Don\u2019t you think that the Holy Spirit may have said something new to all the previous Councils and may have new things to tell us today (obviously, nothing in contradiction to previous Councils)?<\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Joseph Zen, May 28, 2024; <\/span>oldyosef.hkdavc.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cardinal Zen then rightly points to the misconstrued understanding of what took place after the Council asking whether the metastasizing of modernism was a result of “The Council itself or the situation of the Church after the Council?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Post hoc<\/em> is not necessarily propter hoc<\/em>. You cannot blame on the Council all the wrong things that happened after it in the Church.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The liturgical reform, for example, was maturing in the Church long before the Council, many thought that they knew what it had to be, and they simply ignored the Council Document. Then we could see so many abuses, with the consequent loss of the sense of reverence for the sacred Mysteries. When Pope Benedict appealed for the \u201creform of the reform\u201d, he did not mean to repudiate the Council, but a distorted understanding of the real Council.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Distortions and amputations of Vatican II teaching abound.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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In truth, there were already serious warnings of apostasy prior to Vatican II. Many repeat the mantra that, if we just return to the Tridentine Mass, it would resolve our problems. However, they either forget or are unaware that it was precisely at the height<\/em> of the Latin Mass’s glory \u2014 when churches were full and pomp and piety were on full display \u2014 that Pope St. Pius X stated:<\/p>\n

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Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is \u2014 apostasy from God\u2026 When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the \u201cSon of Perdition\u201d of whom the Apostle speaks.<\/strong> \u2014POPE ST. PIUS X, E Supremi<\/em>, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

In fact, six years prior, Pope Leo XIII warned:<\/div>\n
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\u2026he who resists the truth through malice and turns away from it, sins most grievously against the Holy Ghost. In our days this sin has become so frequent that those dark times seem to have come which were foretold by St. Paul, in which men, blinded by the just judgment of God, should take falsehood for truth, and should believe in \u201cthe prince of this world,\u201d who is a liar and the father thereof, as a teacher of truth: \u201cGod shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying <\/strong>(2 Thess. ii., 10). In the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils\u201d<\/strong> (1 Tim. iv., 1). \u2014Divinum Illud Munus<\/em><\/a>, n. 10<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Clearly, the popes saw something brewing beneath the facade of popular piety. Indeed, when the sexual revolution arrived in full bloom, it quickly swept away many Catholics, laity and clergy alike, who gave “heed to spirits of \"\"error and the doctrines of devils.” Ad orientem<\/em>, communion rails, veils, and Latin were not enough to stop the apostasy from spreading within the Church’s ranks. It’s precisely why Pope St. John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council in order that the Holy Spirit would guide the Church anew and prepare her to be ushered into an Era of Peace after the coming days of tribulation.<\/div>\n
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The task of humble Pope John is to \u201cprepare for the Lord a perfect people,\u201d which is exactly like the task of the Baptist, who is his patron and from whom he takes his name. And it is not possible to imagine a higher and more precious perfection than that of the triumph of Christian peace, which is peace at heart, peace in the social order, in life, in wellbeing, in mutual respect, and in the brotherhood of nations.<\/strong> \u2014POPE ST. JOHN XXIII, True Christian Peace, <\/em>December 23rd, 1959; www.catholicculture.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Therefore, “It is nonsense to talk about the spirit of the Council,” writes Cardinal Zen, “if you ignore the Documents of the Council. Were the long sessions of fierce discussion a futile exercise? The careful analysis of sentences? Even the meticulous pondering of a single word? The Documents are the fruit of the cooperation between the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the hard work of the Council Fathers with the help of many outstanding theologians. Only through the attentive reading of the Council Documents can you get to the real spirit of the Council.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>May 28, 2024; oldyosef.hkdavc.com<\/a><\/span><\/span>