'To Rome or Not to Rome' - That is the Question

 In this writer's humble opinion, Catholicism today is in shambles. Efforts to modernize the church have utterly failed as church membership has declined since the infamous second Vatican council of the 1960's. A simplified liturgy in the vernacular and a modernized theology were not attractive to Catholics or non-Catholics whatsoever. With these facts most so called 'Traditional Catholics' are familiar.

The various conservative movements which soon followed have greater membership than most other  Catholic parishes - even those which formally broke from Rome. Almost all of them focus on the Latin mass and have an extremely conservative social teaching. Familiar names run from the FSSP, ICKSP, SSPX, SSPV...etc. While there is much attraction to these groups by Catholics of all types, none of these movements are likely to grow beyond certain confinements. 

 Unknown to many Catholics is the fact that the so called 'traditionalist' Catholics are quite modern. Their movements are largely offshoots inspired from the 1800's  circle of ultramontanists  who in their obsession for Roman dominance over the entire church pushed Rome to make papal infallibility a dogma in the first Vatican council. In other words, these traditionalists are papists in the strongest sense. Before the first Vatican council, no catholic whatsoever was required to believe in either the infallibility of the pope or in his universal jurisdiction over the entire church. 

The true traditional Catholics are the Old Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. We were not altered nor influenced by the ecclesiastical innovations of Vatican I. We do not hold that the Bishop of Rome is the infallible head of the entire church. We allow both the Latin and the vernacular mass. We do not make social controversies matters of dogma.

 This position is perhaps the only position modernity will accept. Modern people today crave traditional liturgies and counterculture beliefs. But modern people also find it impossible to manage the numerous ever expanding litany of modern social controversies. It is simply exhausting to follow the hairsplitting ethical arguments that Rome forces Catholics to believe under penalty of sin. 

In the complex and bewildering Modern world, a responsible, knowledgeable, grace-guided conscience is our most reliable guide.