Hi, I’m an Orthodox Christian and would like to ask a few questions:
- Are all Traditionalist Catholics Sedevacantists?
No; a very small minority of them are. After all, being out of communion with the Bishop of Rome is not a very traditionally Catholic way of doing things
- How do Traditionalist Catholics see the “fruits of Vatican 2” such as the neo-catechumen movement and the womanpriest movement etc…?
Most of them, including myself, see them as harmful to the Church, because they remove it from the Traditions which it has safeguarded, and which have safeguarded it in return. Groups like that will die out along with eir main proponents, the baby-boomers of the sixties. As for the “fruits” or the “spirit of Vatican II,” traditional Catholics understand that Vatican II was NOT meant to kick off a “new Catholicism” or change the way we do things. It was meant to be considered through the lense of tradition and the other councils. When read this way, it is not very “radical” at all. However, many of Vatican II’s documents were very vague, and too open to radical interpretations by the dissident progressives who came later.
- If the current Novus Ordo Catholic church is heretical, then why not join the Orthodox Church?
There isn’t a “Novus Ordo Church.” There is a Catholic Church. It still uses the Tridentine Mass, which was never abrogated or outlawed. As i said above, when Vatican II is interpreted in the light of Catholic tradition, it is not so raidcal. It is only when it is purposefully misinterpreted and used by dissident progressives that we see problems.
And why not join the Orthodox Church? Many reasons. One one level, it would be hard to sacrifice our love for the Latin Rite, even though the large majority of traditionalists hold the eastern rites in high esteem. Traditional Catholics also disgaree as to the state of the Orthodox Church’s orthodoxy; some still believe all orthodox will go to hell. Others, like me, hope that such is not the case at all. Personally, i do not believe most Orthodox faithful are guilty of heresy. However, the Orthodox Church is without a doubt, from the Latin perspective, guilty of schism. And true, traditional Catholics couldnt stomach schism or seperation from the Holy Father.
- Why do yo think the Novus Ordo mass brought into the Catholic Church? What is wrong with the Tridentine mass?
Vatican II simply recommended a few potential changes. It was after the council itself that Bugnini and his followers (notably former Papal MC Archbishop Marini) wrote the new mass from scratch. I believe, as the above poster said, that it was adopted because people thought it would lead to conversions back from Catholicism, and would engage the youth. This was during the baby boom, when there were more youth running around than ever before in history. And that changed everything. On some level, Vatican II is a reflection of how ALL of western civilization was changed in the aftermath of the World Wars, the massive population boom afterwards, and the cultural change it brought on.
The eastern world did not have to deal with this to such an extent as the Western world.