Radical Catholic "Traditionalism" vs. Optimism and the Indefectibility of the Church

February 18, 2007

by David Armstrong

The heretical and schismatic tendencies have always been with us. Yet I contend that no Catholic doctrine has ever been subverted or overthrown, because God doesn't allow that to happen. Radical Catholic "traditionalists" disagree, but their argument is really with God Himself, and Holy Scripture. There are a host of causes for the present crisis in the Church, going back to Protestantism (even elements of the Renaissance and the earlier nominalism), the Enlightenment, materialistic evolutionism, the utopian ideal of Progress, massive secularization, Marxism, philosophical relativism, political and theological liberalism, the sexual and radical feminist and unisex cultural revolutions, idolatrous wealth and all the myriad temptations of modern American life, the disintegration of the family, the incessant propaganda and brainwashing of TV and movies and advertising, lack of education and catechesis, etc.

All these cultural and intellectual fads and fashions infiltrate Catholics as individuals, but they cannot penetrate the fortress of Catholic dogma or ecclesiological structure. If this were even possible, it is obvious, I think, that certainly we would have had by now (at the very least) permitted contraception and abortion and divorce, female priests, a denial of the dogma of Transubstantiation, process theology, liberation theology, a demotion of the papacy, democratic governance in the Church, etc.

Radical "traditionalists" contend with a straight face that the Church has collapsed, apparently mainly because of the New Mass, ecumenism, and religious liberty. But if they want to see a real collapse, they should go look at the various liberalized Protestant denominations, such as the Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, or many Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians these days. Even the Orthodox (who view themselves as strict traditionalists and immune from modernism) accept contraception and divorce. One can't fail to note the striking contrast. All these groups have institutionalized theological errors and various forms of immorality, and (in those instances) call evil good, and heresy, orthodoxy.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has not done so. She has heroically resisted, with God's supernatural help. The most recent battle for the Church is already over. The liberals / modernists / "progressives" have lost, and they know it full well (if only radical "traditionalists" - or even some legitimate traditionalists, such as many of us at St. Joseph's - could realize this fact). The Church is like Europe after World War II. It would take a while to rebuild, but it was inevitable, and the nightmare was over.

In 1990, I was amazed at the preservation - uniquely and fully in the Catholic Church - of the traditional morality that I had increasingly come to admire and espouse as an evangelical Protestant missionary and pro-life activist. I viewed it as the very last dependable, consistent bastion against modernism and the secular humanist onslaught, and the glorious fullness of apostolic Christianity. I was, therefore, compelled to join such a wonderful Church, the Church, and was delighted to discover that it actually existed. And now radical "traditionalists" come around and tell me that all this was an illusion. Nonsense! The beliefs have not changed! Obviously, these two outlooks are completely polarized views of reality, regarding the Church. Someone must be wrong.

Clearly, the Church has (institutionally) resisted the tides of secularization. There have been many individual casualties, sadly, as always with these huge, momentous spiritual/cultural battles. Many, including priests, bishops, nuns and monks, heretical lay activists, DRE's (even popes) will indeed one terrible day have to give account to God for their actions or inactions. But whatever the case may be, the dogmas and structure of the Church have survived intact. History shows us that - generally - the centuries following terrible centuries are times of revival, reform, and rejuvenation in the Church. Revival is cyclical, and recurring. It has always been this way.

The tide is turning. Signs are all around us. Converts abound, vocations are increasing, and the younger priests are overwhelmingly orthodox. Catholic outreach and apologetics on the Internet are thriving. Catholic radio and TV and book publishing are finally coming up from the ashes. The Catholic home schooling movement is flourishing. Catechesis is slowly improving . . . Things are far different even from the late 1980s (right before I was received into the Church). I didn't know a thing about, for example, Catholic apologetics in those days, apart from G.K. Chesterton, who was dead for over 50 years (and I was a Protestant lay apologist). Now one can hardly avoid it. This is almost a Golden Age of Catholic apologetics.Only a blind person could fail to see and rejoice over all these positive developments. One can see the wave of the future if one looks closely at the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3). We ought to be optimistic and joyful, in faith: trusting that God is fully in control, as always.

The radical "traditionalists" will tell us how many liberals are still around, and point to the scorched earth left in their wake. Well, so what? There were many liberals around during the Catholic Reformation and the Council of Trent, too. It so happened that most of them had left the Church, rather than remain in it. Protestantism, by definition, involved a forsaking of many tenets of Catholicism. There were "liberal" dissenters during the Councils of Nicea (Arians) and Chalcedon (Monophysites), and Vatican I in 1870 (known as the "Old Catholics": those who dissented from papal infallibility, just as most "liberals" today do).

The radical "traditionalists" often claim that so-called "conservative" Catholics (conservative implies that there is a legitimate liberal option within Catholicism, which I would vociferously deny, so I prefer the qualifier - if there must be one at all - "orthodox" [Catholic] ) deny the modernist crisis by pretending it doesn't exist, or by rationalizing and justifying it. Speaking for myself (and I have often been a target of these people, due to my public writing and apologetics apostolate): I don't deny a crisis at all. My difference with the radical "traditionalist" position lies in the cause and precise nature of the crisis. I don't locate its primary cause in Vatican II and post-1958 popes (supposedly "modernist" or "ambiguous," etc., etc.), or the Novus Ordo Mass. I place it where it belongs: on the shoulders of heterodox modernists who have worked to undermine traditional orthodoxy and piety and morality - whether in sincerity, or according to a diabolical plan to destroy the Church (which is, of course, impossible to do - Matthew 16:18).

My own opinion (highly influenced by the late Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., who was a bit of a mentor of mine, as I came into the Church) is that the present crisis is the most serious the Church has ever faced, per Pope St. Pius X's summation of the evils of modernism. At the same time, I remain a total optimist as to eventual outcome - through faith, seeing all the positive developments, and in light of the facts regarding previous crises in Church history. I vehemently deny that the Church has defected or that it has been taken over by the forces of evil. I think all is indefectible in the Church, not hunky dory. It never is perfect. Even our Lord Jesus, after all, had a traitor in His own ranks, and was denied by the one He chose to lead the Church. Human beings are fallen sinners, so we are to expect this. No Utopia will exist on earth. We will never have heaven on earth in this age.

But times of great revival and reform can occur even while heterodox liberals and heretics remain a problem. God is not bound by our silly little timetables, desperation and alarmism, limited perceptions, and conceptions of things. He simply ignores the theologically liberal dissenters and modernists and postmodernists and goes about His business. They are merely pawns in His Grand Scheme, just as the Egyptians or Assyrians or Babylonians or Persians or Greeks or Romans or Nazis or Soviet Communists were (all immensely powerful in their heyday). The modernist dissenting movement is already irrelevant, and destined for obsolescence in the dust bin of history, like all other heresies and schismatic sects (where are, e.g., the Marcionites or Albigensians these days?). Theological liberalism, too, will largely disappear as any sort of major influence, because it has no life in itself. It can't reproduce itself because it is the counsel of despair and disbelief. The very next generation will largely reject it, because it is a purely negative, destructive force, not a positive, (spiritually) life-giving one. The demise (the real "autodemolition") may take a while yet, but it will happen. Of this we can be absolutely certain.

David Armstrong, a parishioner at St. Joseph's, is a well-known writer on Catholic apologetics and the Biblical defense of the Catholic faith. Visit his blog, Cor ad cor loquitur, and his book page, to learn more about Dave and his writings. For more on the subject of this article, visit his pages "Traditionalists": Catholic Quasi-Schismatics and Liberal Theology & Modernism.

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