Proud Member of The Moms Clean Air Force
Print This Post
Jan
26
Mel Gibson’s Traditionalist Catholic beliefs are not mentioned by that phrase or with his name anywhere in this New York Times article, but that pop culture reference might be the most familiar way to give non-Catholics a touchstone for the impact of a reinstatement of four bishops who practice Catholicism as though Vatican II had not occurred, and then some, as members of the Society of Saint Pius X:
A Roman Catholic Mass was held Sunday in Midtown Manhattan that seemed to be from another time. The women covered their heads with delicate lace veils and the priest said the Mass in Latin with his back to the congregation.
Their missals, or booklets, were dated 1962, the year that the Second Vatican Council began ushering modernization and openness into the Catholic Church, changes that the worshipers at Sunday’s Mass reject.
The Mass was held by the Society of Saint Pius X, a deeply conservative and traditional group that has been at odds with the church since it was founded by a French archbishop in 1970 to protest the changes spurred by Vatican II.
You can read sections of the Vatican II here or more generally, the Wikipedia entry. Also, this article at Beliefnet.com explains more about different strands of Catholic Traditionalists.
Georgetown University, my alma mater, was one of the very first institutions of any kind to embrace Vatican II and its easing of many stances, including its disavowal of the assertion that Jews actively be blamed for killing Jesus. In fact, the school sought to bring on its first rabbi as a chaplain the same year as Vatican II and took other moves that became permitted and encouraged as a result of the sessions.
This relaxation by Pope Benedict to allow a more fundamentalist version of Catholicism to exist with less stigma seems parallel to movements in other religions – I’m most familiar with it in Judaism. I know I have a lot of issues with Orthodox and Chasidic practices but there’s no question that they’re gaining in interest among Jews. I’m not that familiar with Reconstructionist but frankly, there’s no branch of Judaism with which I don’t have some issues, but I still embrace being and observing Judaism, in my way. In fact, it is my branch, Conservative, that is struggling the most, member-wise.
In any case, we often give more fringe branches of any religion – truly, any religion including Islam and Christianity (look at the split just in the Episcopal Church) – a lot more scrutiny than whatever gets defined as the mainstream version – think about Jesus Camp for example. And although it sounds as though this branch of Catholicism is quite small, and Pope Benedict’s moves have probably made Mel Gibson a very happy Catholc Traditionalist, I still find the shift to be notable. Again, not sure why but something that seems to be a piece of a bigger shift in some segments of society, globally.
For those readers like John Ettorre who have decades of experience in the Catholic Church and who has mentioned his religion now and then in comments here, feel free to give more context, perspective. This post obviously only reflects my experience.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:02 am January 26th, 2009 in conservatives, Judaism, Religion
Comments
8 Responses to “Mel Gibson’s pre-Vatican II mass gains steam w/bishops reinstatement”
Voted into Top 25 Political Mom Blogs
Now on sale-WLST essay included!
Posts About Pepper Pike City Council2010 WE Magazine 101 Women Bloggers to Watch
Category Specific RSS
Pepper Pike Cleveland+ Politics Women Ohio Elections Law Jewish
Mel Gibson is scary. He is single handedly going about the world and seductively whispering what he beleive it tradtional catholicism.
When folks embrace fundamentalism or traditionalism in any religious order bad shit happens. History is full of examples.
Ignorance masquerading as religious piety is SCARY!
Jill,
I am not a fan of the Society of Saint Pius X, mostly because I believe that they cross the line from fundamental to radical extremist in many cases. That being said, having been trained as a young man in serving in the Latin mass, I found something magical and mystical (and as a consequence, deeply spiritual) in this type of service.
I was happy to see Vatican II embrace a more open relationship with other religions, but disappointed to see it turn its back on its own past. I see some part of this new trend as embracing a part of the Catholic church and tradition which had been demonized recently.
Extremism in any religion, as we are all far too aware, is a constant danger. Let us hope that this does not develop into that.
I do consider these elements to be on the fringes of the faith, the last dying remnants of those who are still arguing against Vatican II’s comprehensive reforms that brought the Catholic church into the 20th century while also keeping its most vital and essential elements in place. There will always be an obnoxious, unthinking & unyielding hard right in the church, just as there is in the larger society. And while I and just about anyone my age or younger might consider it to be on the fringes, you’d be foolish not to also be mindful of how it can still cause lots of damage, just like the fringe elements of the neocon movement did when it got control of the Bush Administration. When fringe Catholics control the papacy, they can do similar damage. But in the same way that Bush didn’t speak for tens of millions of Americans, the current Pope doesn’t speak for literally hundreds of millions of Catholics. Papal infallibility (something the church’s hard right still takes as a given) is just a remnant of superstition from the Middle Ages to the rest of us.
Anyway, for these and a host of related reasons, a lot of thinking Catholics (and I include myself among them) now consider themselves to be Christians first, and cultural Catholics second. In other words, we still respect and enjoy many of the soothing traditions with which we were raised, but we’ve also steadily moved away from and flat out ignored the loonier elements of the worldly hierarchy’s teachings. No one I know, for instance, still believes that you’ll go to hell if you eat meat on Friday or fail to confess your sins to a priest each week. Some–perhaps much–of what old line right-wing Catholics argue for retaining is little more than ancient superstitions, which educated people left behind long ago.
I really appreciate all this input/perspectives. I didn’t want to go all crazy myself on what any of this means, in part because I couldn’t possibly really know. But I do think, from a bigger picture perspective, the shift toward more traditional, going back to the way people thought it was stuff is very interesting. I think it’s a comfort thing and a fear of the future and unknown. I like comfort too – but sometimes we have to remember when we’re only loving the memory and not the way it actually would be if we went back in time.
Jill:
Your comment in 4 makes a strong point. We do tend to “love the memory” without considering what it would actually be like to go back in time. Many Christian fundamentalists would love to go back to the 1950s, possibly the most prudish decade in the 20th century, when children were so protected that adults could not be adults. (However, we have probably since gone too far the other way).
Moderates in every religion seem to be taking a hit right now, whether it is your Conservative Judaism, or my United Methodism; but it comes at a price for the religions as a whole — young people are rejecting Christianity because they cannot agree with the fundamentalists.
The best thing we can do is to pray for wisdom in facing the future.
Harold
I love the Latin language and see merit in its universality; however, the superstitious nonsense traditional Catholics cling to is repulsive to me. Sin. Sin. Sin. The word means “missed the mark.” Not so much does it connote condemnation into oblivion as much as having not achieved what one should and could. Many traditionalists I have known hate shades of gray. They like it spelled out in black and white. For them, there is no inbetween. They’re often highly intolerant, dictatorial and dogmatic. Some I’ve known were nasty people towards others of another opinion and persuasion. Isn’t that Christ-like?
[...] 29, 2009 Fundamentalist Christian producer and Hollywood’s mouthpiece for Pre-Vatican II arch-conservative Catholicism Mel Gibson is seen publicly with his new Russian [...]
The post V2 church is NOT Catholic Church, it does not hold the unchanging Catholic Faith of two thousand years, Benedict xvi is not even a valid bishop much less a true pope. SSPV.NET