TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

The old order changeth, yielding place to new. Tennyson

Sede Vacantism. Sede Privationism. Sede Plenism. Recognition and Resistance. Suppression of the Leonine Prayers. Suspect Episcopal Lineages. Una-cum Masses. The Contagion of the Pius XII Rite. Vitiation of Novus-Ordo Holy Orders. 

These are more than Traddie catchwords. They are shibboleths to detect "subversives" who might not agree with certain cult leaders. They also needlessly divide Catholics of a similar mind from each other. Each of these buzz words has its fanatical proponents and opponents.  Each has been the cause of aching distress and disunity. Yet every one of these Traddie rallying cries is nothing but a mere theory, which must remain hypothetical until a restored Catholic Church renders an authoritative decision. 

At first, many of us thought these terms represented a principled attempt to explain the shattered state of the Church visible in the long, post-conciliar nuclear winter. However, we've all grown up. Shape-shifting clergy have at times both advocated and later condemned the same position, leaving the laity to scratch their heads in stunned bewilderment. The motive behind these trigger words now seems to be more economic than spiritual -- to compel, on pain of mortal sin, the faithful to remain in and support one chapel no matter how disgracefully its clergy behave. If people don't think they have a choice, so the reasoning goes, then they'll tolerate the intolerable for their souls' sake and keep on forking over their cash.

Now, we say, is the time to discard all this fruit of a poisonous tree. Traditional Catholics don't need divisive tests of their faith, tests based on opinions. More importantly, many of these opinions have been loudly promoted by half-educated clergy without the requisite training to speak on such weighty matters. We need something simpler, an idea that will unite us in our holy faith, not separate us from our brethren. Let's no longer allow worldly Mammonites to keep us apart over what are in essence amateurs' guesses about the unknowable.

As an alternative, we propose the following simple affirmation as the mark of a Catholic: something is wrong with the institution that emerged after Vatican II -- somehow the Vatican Establishment has gone off in the wrong direction.  If our proposal must have a name, then we'll call it the aliquid pravi* thesis. (Traddies love Latin slogans, even if they and their clergy have never mastered the language, so we'll oblige.) Like the Church itself, aliquid pravi is a "Big-Tent" concept. SSPXers, conservative conciliar Catholics, and every stripe of sede-ist can find shelter and fellowship there.  There'll be no finger-pointing or infantile "mine's-better-than-yours" taunts. Instead, Catholics will enjoy the harmony that results when virtuous men and women share a common purpose.

Since aliquid pravi is not a cult movement, there'll be no attempt at thought-control. Catholics are free to hold and discuss any detailed explanation they please for the current crisis. For instance, we Readers, if really pressed on the subject, are partial to the materialiter theory, but we listen to other positions, ever hopeful for a more satisfying account. We frankly don't know who's right or who's wrong. What we won't do, however, is condemn a Catholic who has another take on the problem. As long as a person admits that Rome has gone astray by rejecting immemorial tradition, then for us that person is a fellow Catholic whether he be some kind of sede, use the Pius XII rite or the '62 Missal, attend a Summorum Pontificum Mass, or belong to a conservative Novus-Ordo parish. We may choose by reason of conscience, taste, social status, or habit not to worship at that person's church, but we won't call him a heretic.  More to the point, we won't uncharitably lay the charge of mortal sin against anyone who chooses to pray with a fellow Catholic. They are all our brothers and sisters in the holy crusade against Modernism, so we'll let everyone follow the dictates of his conscience (and keep our noses out of what isn't our or the malformed clergy's business).

Lay governance of chapels will hold aliquid pravi harmless from cult-inclined priests, especially from those money-hungry, wandering bishops who falsely suggest (or, worse, assert) that they are true successors to the apostles. Those sharpies know they haven't a whit of jurisdiction, so they foment disunity in order to direct the flow of resources into their pockets alone. They are brother no man. Any loyalty they possess is to their own narrow self-love. They would devour each other if it were to their advantage. Their savage "apostolate" has two clear-cut policies: (1) divide families and friendships, and rake in the bucks, and (2) keep the faithful irrationally frightened, and act with impunity. Aliquid pravi is indeed a "Big Tent," but there's no room under it for the likes of these ruthless preachers of discord, these cynical apostles of malice.

Yes, now is the time for lay well-intentioned women and men of shared purpose to (a) repudiate the self-interested narrative of flim-flam prelates, (b) take control, and (c) unite with fellow Catholics whose hearts have counseled them with moral certainty that something is wrong with Rome.

*We would also accept aliquid pravum (Virgil wrote aliquid magnum, "something big") because many Traddie clergy don't understand the usage of the quantitative partitive. Pistrina likes the genitive of the thing measured because it echoes the refined colloquial sophistication of Terence's aliquid mali, "something bad," our in-house name for the Terrible Trio.