Talking Traditionalism

This week I'll explain why I call myself a "traditionalist," and why the world still needs the Latin Mass.

Liturgical traditionalism is in the news again, ever since SSPX consecrated four new bishops on July 1, prompting the Vatican’s subsequent excommunication. It’s kind of a funny topic in that everyone seems to have an opinion about it, even though very few people are directly affected by the Vatican’s policy in this area.

Only a fraction of a percent of Catholics regularly attend the Traditional Latin Mass. A more sizable minority of practicing Catholics have seen one at one time or another, and before Pope Francis imposed greater restrictions on the old rite through Traditionis custodes, roughly 3-4 percent of all US parishes offered TLM at least sometimes. So it’s a small number of people who actually want to worship at the Traditional Latin Mass. Not vanishingly small, but small. The number of people who want to talk about liturgical traditionalists, their methods, their motives, and their proper place in the Christian landscape, is much larger.

I do not regularly worship at the Traditional Latin Mass, but there was a time when I did. I was baptized, confirmed, and married in the old rite, and my children were likewise all baptized in the old rite. I still love old liturgy, and traditionalists, though I’m well aware that they have their shortcomings. Even in my very first encounters with traditionalism, more than 20 years ago, I actively decided that I did not wish to raise my family in a TLM parish. Too reactionary. I myself, being an adult, could come for the liturgy and hold the conspiracy theories and other bizarre opinions at arm’s length, but for a child growing up in that community those would become the norm, and I didn’t want that.

We found a still-traditional-but-not-so-reactionary parish for our family, and I’m very happy with that choice. I still believe, though, that traditionalists have a vital role to play in revitalizing Christendom. And in saying that, I now mean for “traditionalist” to be understood broadly; it includes the lovers of TLM, but also a much wider range of people with a strong attraction to older customs, rites, and practices, some of whom may also be found in Orthodoxy or some branches of Protestantism. This week I’ll explain why we need those people, warts and all.

It may be worth noting up-front that I don’t blame Pope Leo at all for the SSPX excommunications, because I think they’ve clearly made their choices. I do however blame Pope Francis to a significant extent for his treatment of traditionalists, which in my own view often showed a serious lack of pastoral concern for a portion of his flock whose needs and gifts weren’t such as to appeal to his natural sympathies. Were there traditionalists in that period who behaved quite badly, particularly in their treatment of the Pontiff? Oh, absolutely. But he was the pope, the head of the Universal Church. Popes are supposed to be bigger than their petty online detractors. I don’t think he always achieved that. Which is sad, because his decisions affected a great many people who weren’t being uncivil online.

Especially now, when the SSPX seems to be making a harder and more definite break with Rome, it would be wonderful to see the Church returning to a paradigm more like Pope Benedict XVI’s, making a more concerted effort to care for people with traditional liturgical sensibilities, recognizing them as a distinctive group with their own spiritual temptations but also gifts that are genuinely needed. Part of the point of “Christendom” is that it has deeper roots than, say, liberal democracy. Constitutionalism. Modern economics. These other pieces of the cultural-political puzzle also add something important, but the Christian piece channels sources of wisdom that the world clearly still needs. And traditionalists have the deepest roots of all. They remember things others have forgotten, and are formed by older influences that others may nominally remember without much understanding of them. That’s why I once found myself gratefully associating with them, and why I still often surprise people by pivoting into pro-traditionalist advocacy, despite my regular critiques of “reactionaries.” (“Aren’t these often the same people?” Yes! They absolutely are!)

I still reflexively use the word “traditionalist” to describe myself. I think that’s fair, because it accurately captures some of my own sensibilities and loves. I’m aware though that a great many traditionalists aren’t particularly impressed by me. That’s okay. I can like them without being liked in return. I got pretty used to that actually, back in the day.

Tomorrow I will explain these views in more detail, in my very descriptively titled, “The West Needs Traditionalists.” Thursday I’ll look at a more specific topic: traditionalism and women. The stats show that they’re less into it than men. I think there are some very understandable reasons for that, and yet, traditionalism needs women and they also have a lot to gain (potentially) from it. I’ll get into that Thursday.

Stay tuned.