Title: A Tridentine Mass under Fluorescent Lights the Immaculate Conception Mission, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Abstract: In one way or another and to a greater or lesser degree since Second Vatican Council, more than 200,000 Roman Catholics have felt it necessary to break with Vatican. These groups typically refer to themselves as Catholic. They hold in common Tridentine mass, that is, mass mandated by Council of Trent, a standardization and revision of more diverse medieval masses. And they also share a deep reverence for pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church, and an equally deep distaste for modern world. In their view, Popes Pius IX (1846-78) and Pius X (1903-14) rightly condemned liberalism and modernism, denned as combinations of indifferentism, relativism, democratism, ecumenism and a host of other intellectual trends. During and after Vatican II Roman Catholic Church reversed itself by accepting these heretical practices and opinions. For instance, Vatican II incorporated previously condemned Protestant elements into Nonas Ordo Missae, new mass. So, quite simply, council was heretical. The most extreme traditional Catholics take position called sedevacantism (from Latin, the seat is vacant): these few hold that throne of Peter has gone empty since Vatican II. The nominal bishops o(Rome, from John XXIII to John Paul II, who conceived and enforced these heresies, could not possibly be true popes. The bishops they have appointed are not bishops. Their priests are not priests. As one sedevacantist website puts it: To believe otherwise [that these popes were valid]...would be to imply that Catholic Church has failed in its purpose, that Church of Christ is not infallible and indefectible, that Pope is not rock upon which Christ founded His Church, that promise of Christ to be with His Church 'all days even to consummation of world' and that special assistance of Holy Ghost, have failed Church, conclusions which no traditional Catholic could ever maintain. (http://www.cmri.org). Put even more starkly: if these popes have been true popes, God has abandoned his people and his church. In this worldview, very existence of Roman Catholicism depends on revealing nominal popes as heretics. Most traditional Catholics, however, stop short of this position. Indeed, largest traditional Catholic body, with about 150,000 members, Society of St. Pius X, condemns sedevacantism. Its members believe God promised humankind that he would never leave his people without a leader. Since sedevacantists have yet to produce anything like a credible papal candidate, either God's revelation erred, or sedevacantists did. The society began within mainline Roman Catholic Church. In 1976, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), a former missionary in Africa and delegate at Vatican II, founded it as a religious order of priests dedicated to traditional mass and traditional Catholicism. The Vatican agreed to society's formation, and granted it a charter, but relationship soon turned sour. Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers persistently refused to say Novus Ordo Missae, leading to a series of condemnations, expulsions, and suppressions by Vatican. For much of this period, society did not officially exist. Nevertheless, its numbers increased steadily, and it opened seminaries and parishes around world-in Switzerland, Rome, Michigan, Australia, and elsewhere. The Vatican, however, grew steadily less patient. Matters came to a head in 1988. Anticipating his imminent death, Archbishop Lefebvre asked Rome to appoint his successor as head of society. The Vatican neither agreed nor refused. Then roof fell in: on 30 June, in front of a crowd of 8,000 in Econe, France, Archbishop Lefebvre himself consecrated four bishops without Vatican approval (something some maintain he could do legitimately, on supposition that in early Christianity only one bishop was necessary to consecrate others). …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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