Independent Catholic Traditionalism is Wrong
Independent Catholic Traditionalism is Wrong
Table of Contents
Summary
Personal notes
1. What is Independent Catholic Traditionalism?
2. Independent Catholic Traditionalism is wrong
2.1. Apostolic succession – public and perennial
2.2. Visibility, unity, government
2.3. Ministry without authority?
2.4. The independent traditionalist church is defective
3. The solution: traditionalism without independence
4. Objections I – in favor of independent traditionalism
5. Objections II – against the “conciliar” church
6. Quotations
6.1. The Apostolic College cannot die out
6.2. Visibility, Unity, Mission
6.3. Necessity of Mission for Ministry
Summary
The essence of independent Catholic traditionalism is to create replacement clergy and churches because the official clergy and churches defected from the Catholic religion, in matters of doctrine, liturgy, and sacraments. But according to Catholic doctrine, a universal defection of this kind is impossible. Such a defection could occur in one or many particular churches (e.g. Constantinople or England), but the faithful could never lawfully create their own clergy and churches in response to such a crisis. To do so would be a schismatic act.
By their way of acting, independent traditionalists assert a universal defection of the Church, because they regard their ministry as necessary in every single diocese in the world. Nowhere do they recognize a Catholic bishop now in office whose permission is needed for a public ministry in his diocese. Some independent traditionalists verbally recognize the official or “Novus Ordo” bishops as legitimate office-holders, while others don't, but all behave as if those bishops have no authority. Thus, the “universal church” of independent traditionalists lacks the Apostolic succession, which requires bishops who teach, sanctify, and govern by legitimate authority, as true shepherds of particular churches. Without such bishops, the independent traditionalists have no means of propagating the Church's legitimate mission and ministry, and their church lacks unity and apostolicity.
Independent traditionalists have invented two doctrinal errors to justify their position:
It is lawful and necessary for priests to carry on a routine ministry of the word and the sacraments without any commission or authority, if such ministry would otherwise be lacking for a long time. This is authorized by the law itself: if not the ecclesiastical law, then certainly the divine law, which guarantees the Church's right to perpetuate her own existence and to provide the ordinary means of salvation. If such a ministry without authority must continue for a long time, it includes the right to ordain priests and consecrate bishops in order to perpetuate itself.
The Apostolicity of the Church does not require bishops who are successors of the Apostles in the full sense – by doctrine, orders, and authority – to be living and publicly known at all times. There are two possible explanations for how the Catholic Church retains her Apostolicity today:
a. All that's strictly required is that the Church retain the ability to provide herself with a legitimate pope and legitimate bishops again in the future; they will be true successors of the most recent legitimate pope and bishops. Meanwhile, the public adherence of traditionalists to magisterial teaching and papal law as it existed before the Vatican II revolution is sufficient to maintain the mark of Apostolicity.
b. The independent traditionalist bishops must be the pastors and doctors who are today's successors of the Apostles, despite their not having visibly succeeded to any existing ecclesiastical office, and despite the fact that most of them claim no office or authority. The fact that the teaching Church must endure to the end of time proves that the independent traditionalist bishops must be legitimate pastors, because presently they are the only suitable candidates for that role.
As the independent traditionalist movement is now more than 40 years old and is passing its torch to a new generation of priests and bishops, it is becoming more clear that its position is untenable. The fact can no longer be evaded, that the independent traditionalist worldview necessarily implies that the Church's ordinary ministry has fallen into universal corruption or has become extinct. Since Catholic doctrine says that such corruption or extinction is impossible, independent “Catholic” traditionalism becomes a self-refuting position, attempting to be Catholic while interpreting the events of the last 60 years as having disproved the Church's Apostolicity, unity, and indefectibility.
This is not to say that independent traditionalists realize this about their position. Quite the opposite. I know from experience, correspondence, and research, that the vast majority of independent traditionalists earnestly believe that their position is the best, safest, most reasonable Catholic reaction to a series of events that appears catastrophic and previously unthinkable. Even traditionalists who admit that they are probably wrong about something, or that their lack of any practical way to rebuild a legitimate hierarchy is a serious problem, still see their overall course of action as irreproachable.
In their view, it's simple: one must practice the Catholic religion by public worship and by receiving the sacraments. That requires priests who are Catholic, but the Novus Ordo is not Catholic. So the alternatives are to stay home and let the Catholic religion die out, or to make your own priests
and chapels and do the best you can.
The problem is that this position is simply not compatible with Catholic doctrine. This paper aims to explain why, and to provide an alternative position: that the only way to maintain a non-defected Catholic Church is to recognize the official bishops as legitimate office-holders, visible successors of the Apostles, with whom all Catholics must maintain unity of communion and of government.
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