Tradicat

 + JMJ I am not a 'cradle' Traditional Catholic. In fact, one of my earliest 'church memories' is of the pews in my family's first parish.  Specifically, how they tasted. I remember a lot of people standing up around me as I got as much of the pew in my mouth as possible.   At that moment as I reached the sweet spot, an older lady caught my eye and I got the impression she was less that impressed that I had achieved the maximally effective amount of pew in my 4 year-old mouth. Looking back, I realised that the parish of my youth was a haven for Conservative Catholics. The Pastor had succeeded in isolating the parish from much of the madness of the 1970's. The result of a conservative parish with doctrinally sound teaching, catechesis and confessions was a parish packed to capacity. The downside, as I heard decades later, was that when a young member of that parish moved into another parish, he found a completely different Church from the one in which he had grow...

 + JMJ Diane Montagna has posted an interview with Bishop Schneider (link)   I strongly encourage my readers to see the full and original interview at Diane Montagna's Substack and if possible support her work. P^3 Sources Mons. Schneider breaks his silence on Écône: the SSPX had to choose between Rome and «the integrity of the faith» – INFOVATICANA Bishop Schneider says SSPX gives Church a ‘service of historical value’ Bishop Schneider: The SSPX Provides the Church a Historic Service | FSSPX News Bishop Schneider: Serious Vatican Engagement with SSPX Would Mark “Beginning of the End” of the Modernist Project Key Excerpts ROME, 17 August 2026 — Bishop Athanasius Schneider has issued his first public statement since Rome declared six SSPX bishops to have incurred automatic excommunication over the Society’s episcopal consecrations at Écône on July 1, against the will of Pope Leo XIV. ... In his statement, Bishop Schneider also argues that the SSPX, far from threatening the...

 + JMJ As long as you are ok with what happens in other Catholic Churches, Traditional Catholics will be left 'alone'.  This is a paraphrase of words spoken by an Archbishop to Traditional Catholics (with a sprinkling of SSPX) who had requested the Traditional Latin Mass under Summorum Pontificum. This reflects that attitude of the Church towards anyone who takes issue with some of the ambiguities of Vatican II and the post-conciliar magisterium.  If you reject the papacy but are ok with V2, the New Mass, and what Rome has stated since 1965 - then you are welcome. Question some of the more abiguous statements and ask for Rome to realise that a circle is not a square - then you are in for a world of hurt. This is where the SSPX exists and has existed from almost its very first moments. Pointing out contradictions with previous magisterium is not acceptable - under any condition. Why? Because it will cause the whole V2 house of cards to fall. I guess only when the contradic...

 + JMJ There is a feeling that before the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church had a solid understanding of its place in the world, its mission and its identity. Then we had the Second Vatican Council and in the turmoil that followed practically everything was subject to explosive decompression.  Muchw as thrown out the window opened by Pope John XXIII, followed by the Smoke of Satan entering the vacuum left behind as per Pope Paul VI. Now it seems that there is only one thing that cannot be tolerated in the Catholic Church, anything that reminds Catholics of the Catholic Church as it existed pre-council.  As some have labelled it, the pre-conciliar Church. Even Pope Benedict XVI experienced this rabid reaction ( see Rorate-Caeli for full text ).  At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the...

 + JMJ What Is Tradition? The basic premise, from my perspective, is that what was taught before cannot be contradicted by the 'present' magisterium, only deepened and expanded upon. I recall the Roman theologians called the SSPX protestants while the SSPX called them modernists.  I believe this was all surrounding the concept of Traditon. SSPX's Understanding of Tradition One accusation made against the SSPX is that they don't have a correct understanding of 'Tradition'.  This is how the SSPX understands Tradition: I finally profess that Tradition is not a dead memory, but the living transmission of the doctrine received from the Apostles. It remains living, in distinction to Revelation, which is closed. It is so both in the activity of the Magisterium of the Teaching Church and in the profession of Faith of the Church Taught, of which the sentire cum Ecclesia is the result of the teaching of the Magisterium. Tradition may be called ‘living’, not in the sense t...

 + JMJ Introduction I subscribed to Jesuit Review America Magazine in order to improve my perspective on the crisis of the Church. At first, I found that I had a hard time reading through the articles that caught my attention.  Actually, at best, I didn't get further than a few sentences.  Mostly due to demands on what time I have left on this Good Earth. Then a title caught my eye in a latest article ... someone is saying that the Liturgy is not a space for self-expression.  Then there's the Performative Piety?  What does this mean? What is Performative Piety? I had a sense that "Performative Piety" is the practice of making external acts of piety to be seen by others and Matthew 6:1 (link) confirms this thought. Let's break down the Knox translation: Be sure you do not perform your acts of piety before men ,  for them to watch ;  if you do that,  you have no title to a reward from your Father who is in heaven. If you stopped after the first ph...

 + JMJ I had the following thought a while ago as I read yet another article of the sad state of the world and the viral death spiral of the various humans stuck in the doom loop.  Man amasses knowledge yet learns nothing. A empty shell with no wisdom. I'm not certain how to break this down. So ... this I will be relying on the principle of progressive elaboration. Someone can learn how to use a handgun - that is knowledge.  Then they can decide whether or not to shoot at a steel plate beside them.  That is where wisdom / judgement comes into play. Those with wisdom know the risks of a ricochet coming back at you. The sound of a bullet twirling in the air as it comes back at you is not comforting, it is terrifying.  The wise man or woman doesn't take the risk. So the fact is that we are in the midst of one of the worst crises of the Catholic Church. That is probably the worst part - we are surrounded by every aspect of this crisis. The perspective of e...