#347: What is a “Traditionalist”?

EXCERPT:

In all my years, I have never before had to defend myself on this particular charge!

In early November one of my blog readers charged me with being a peculiar kind of backsliding traditionalist:

You've become a "traditionalist"! That's right, a "Spirit-of-the-Council Traditionalist"! … nostalgic and reactionary, bewailing the impending loss of their venerable patrimony of almost five decades…I think what you are really mourning is the inevitable death of the Spirit of the Council. Hence your nostalgia.

On its surface, this charge is silly enough to be ignored. But on second thought, I realized it might provide the opportunity for some more substantive reflections on the term “traditionalist.” What, after all, does this really mean?

Am I, after all, a “traditionalist”?

Yes I am, if “traditionalist” equals an outlook that embraces Roman Catholic tradition at its core and attempts to persuade other Catholics of its meaning and value--especially in the face of widespread popular illiteracy about tradition on the part of many Catholics.

Any “tradition” is, of course, a human living reality: the process by which each generation shapes its legacy for its children by guarding some things their own parents left them, changing other things, dropping some things altogether, and adding some things of their own. This enables a human family--or a family of faith --to build a developing wisdom and richness based on present experience, the clarity of hindsight into the past, and the need to meet future challenges which the past never knew. Certainly 100 generations of Catholicism have produced a version of Christianity vastly different, and more developed, than the version known by the 1st, or the 10th, or even the 50th generation of Christians.

Built into tradition, however, is a risk: in passing from one generation to another, something essential may be lost, or its meaning distorted. This may even disturb the core of the tradition--the basic foundations that support the entire, developing structure. It then falls to the “traditionalists” to retrieve such essential core elements and restore them to their place as pillars of the tradition.

This in turn requires reviewing many elements of our Catholic heritage to correct serious misconceptions, often rooted in generations of bad education.

What are some examples of such review, retrieval, and restoration in the last 50 years? Let me cite some examples that have been especially important to me during my own lifetime. [These examples can be found in the full-text version, available on request]…

The simple fact is that my grandparents would not recognize today’s Catholic Church, mostly because, in its teachings and practices, it has restored the core of our tradition to its rightful place, often after generations of misplaced priorities, misconceived beliefs, and even distorted teachings.

If “traditionalist” means anyone happy with this historic transformation, and distressed that too many Catholics, despite these advances, still cling to a distorted version of Catholic tradition, then yes, I am a “Traditionalist”—and proud of it.