AS THE thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council approaches, we may hope that the occasion will jog some minds in high places into new thoughts about the reality of what is happening to the Church.
At the twentieth anniversary in 1985, the Pope held a special synod to evaluate the results of the council. Many orthodox Catholics, the great bulk of them worshipping then as now at Masses in the Modern Rite, hoped that the hour of counter revolution had struck. They were disappointed. The synod produced no immediate substantial result. The presuppositions underlying the failed policy of aggiornamento were not analysed or rebutted. Instead, the dwindling band of orthodox believers was told that the council had been a great success, and that any problems following it were due to its being misunderstood and misapplied.
Nonetheless, one serious initiative can be traced to that synod, for it was there that Cardinal Law of Boston suggested that a universal catechism be produced. The Catechisme de L'Eglise Catholique of 1992, and its fairly satisfactory English translation of 1994, really are a gift from God's good Providence and a great encouragement to those who have avoided heresy and schism, both of which have assailed the Catechism.
Modernist spirits (those holding one or more of the Modernist propositions condemned in the decree Lamentabili) have openly or snidely attacked the Catechism, or, even more snidely, said that they welcome it, while privately resolving to let it present no obstacle to current erroneous teaching. Schismatic spirits (those who have despaired of the Church, and who deliberately put the least orthodox possible interpretation on all the doings of the Pope and the bishops) have indulged in what one superior in the Society of St Pius X has described as "nit-picking" criticism of the Catechism. Another prominent traditionalist, Father Schmidtberger, has said that the Catechism is "materially orthodox". In the light of these positive remarks, it is curious that some traditionalists persist in taking a relentlessly negative attitude to this splendid utterance of the Church's magisterium.
Although most of the structure of the Church in Western countries is now quite rotten with Modernist heresy, and will, at least in this country, probably collapse over the next fifteen years, the official norm of Catholic orthodoxy has been triumphantly reasserted by means of the Catechism. The lex credendi has come through the aggiornamentist crisis intact.
Broad Fronts
How should those of us who worship in the Roman Rite react to this development? By forming broad fronts with others, not by retreating into ourselves! One hesitates to use a slogan drawn from a secular context, but it may clarify matters to point out that we are part of a world wide "Campaign for Real Catholicism" that embraces true believers worshipping in every eucharistic rite, Eastern or Western, approved by the Catholic Church.
It is most important that we see the "Old Mass Movement" as part of this much broader fight for the conversion and reconversion of those around us to the Catholic faith, and as a prime support in the spiritual struggle of Christian living. Sociologically, there is a danger that the traditional Roman Rite could shut itself into a ghetto, analogous to AngloCatholicism within the Church of England. This is likely to happen if a narrowly liturgical frame of mind becomes dominant among those worshipping in that rite. By wholeheartedly embracing and using the Catechism in conjunction with the traditional Roman Rite of Mass, we develop our own grasp of the Faith, deepen our Catholic sense, and also seize the opportunity to show other orthodox Catholics that we are not merely liturgical antiquarians or aesthetes, but rather people who really want to sentire cum Ecclesia - to feel with the Church. We want to advance in Catholic holiness; to live in the way the Holy Spirit has led men and women to live in God's Church down the centuries, and to share as much as possible with Catholics of other rites living in our own age.
The lex credendi of the Catechism is universal and binding on all Catholics, but the lex orandi embraces a variety of rites. It is therefore our belief in the doctrine of the Church, and our communion with the Holy See, that qualifies us as Catholic, while the Mass rites we worship in are various. The prejudice against the Eastern liturgies traditional among some Latin Catholics has not been overcome since the Council. Rather that same narrow mindedness has been directed against the historic Roman Rite as well. Doctrinal unity combined with liturgical plurality is a concept that many have still to master, despite the conciliar statement that all rites are equal in dignity, and that the Church wishes them all to be preserved in the future. We must all overcome the instinct to regard those who worship in a rite other than our own, as not being true Catholics.
Multiply Contacts
Should this pluralism embrace even the Modern Rite? The late Archbishop Lefebvre, in a memorable dictum which some other traditionalists seem to have forgotten, managed to make a balanced assessment of the Modern Rite: it was, he said,"valid, licit and not heretical, but favens haeresim" that is, favourable to heresy. Just as the creeds used by the Arians were often not heretical in what they said, but objectionable, in their historical context, because of what they refused to say, so the Novus Ordo of 1969 is unsatisfactory because of its systematic suppression of certain traditional Catholic ideas: a comparison between the old and new prayers for the Jews on Good Friday will provide a striking example of this deliberate ambiguity designed to suppress aspects of Catholic doctrine uncongenial to the liberal mind. Nonetheless, our sensus Ecclesiae, our sense of belonging to the Church, should constrain us to multiply our contacts with those of our brothers who, for the time being, are lumbered with this unsatisfactory liturgy, which, because of its pluralistic spirit, has so often proved "pernicious in practice".
Spread tradition
We have a serious obligation to avoid a pharisaical or puritanical spirit of the sort that would refuse, in all circumstances, to attend or take part in a Mass in the Modern Rite, even when celebrated by an orthodox priest, and in a traditional manner and spirit. To behave like that is counterproductive of our aim of spreading a love of tradition among those less familiar with it, and also tends to imply that the Church has approved an heretical or invalid sacramental formula. This in turn calls into question the indefectibility and infallibility of the Church, and creates the impression that those who worship in a traditional rite constitute the "faithful remnant" that is all that remains of the Great Church. It may well be that orthodox believers are now a minority within the ostensible Catholic Church, but they are not a minority wholly contained within, or wholly excluded from, any one liturgical rite.
Let us never forget that our task is to be the leaven mixed in with the dough, not an ecclesiola or "Little Church" that boycotts our struggling brethren in order to maintain its own ideological or aesthetic purity.
Return to past editorials
Return to Oriens home page