Latin Mass & Catholic Tradition: What to Do / How You Can Help

Sometimes it is difficult for Traditional Catholics to avoid discouragement. Not only might they have to take inconvenient or drastic steps (e.g. driving hundreds of miles, uprooting one's family, etc.) just to attend the Mass that should be their birthright, but often they suffer abuse from prelates, have to deal with unfriendly or unorthodox priests, encounter error or heresy, and frequently suffer insults or endure unwarranted charges of disobedience. When this occurs, it is good to remember our Lord's words:

"Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you." (Mt. 5:11-12)

In addition to keeping one's spirits up and offering up one's suffering, there may be various other steps that can be taken to help the traditionalist's position, and the Church at large during this difficult time. For example, consider:

• Educating others regarding the Traditional Latin Mass and other Catholic traditions

• Teaching the traditional practices of the Faith to children

• Petitioning your bishop / priest / the pope in favor of the traditional Latin Mass (as well as other important Catholic traditions)

• Meeting with your bishop in person to discuss how to increase the availability of the 'Tridentine' Mass

• Joining appropriate groups that support the Traditional Latin Mass 

• Learning as much as possible about the Traditional Latin Mass & other Catholic traditions - you may find that "the more you learn, the more your appreciation for tradition will grow and the more your enthusiasm will shine through to others!"

• Becoming more firmly rooted in authentic Catholic doctrine 

• Distributing fliers, as appropriate. Note: Try here for some free fliers

• Homeschooling your children

• Inviting others to the Traditional Latin Mass

• Attending only traditional (& licit) Latin Masses

• Making every appropriate effort to support Catholic tradition

• Holding fast to every aspect of Catholic tradition (e.g. observing penitential days, fasting, etc.)

• Holding fast to your rights

• Rebuking / correcting as applicable

• Alerting others, as appropriate, to problems within the Church. "It is a deed of love to cry the alarm when the wolf breaks into the sheepfold" (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church) 

• Rejecting modernism in all its forms   

• Supporting appropriate organizations which support the traditional Latin Mass (as well as other important Catholic traditions)

• Objecting to abuses, as applicable, using all appropriate means

• Obtaining and lending out important works concerning various changes (e.g. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci's Critical Study, the "Ottaviani Intervention") 

• Engaging in appropriate "advertising" (e.g. bumper stickers, rubber stamps, etc.)

• Using positive sounding terms with regard to tradition (e.g. the "original Mass", the "Mass of St. Pius V", the "Mass of the Saints", etc.)

• Using illustrative, truthful terms to refer to novelties (e.g. the "the 1960's Mass", "the noisy Mass", etc.)  

• Engaging in frequent letter writing (e.g. to bishops, priests, the pope, etc.) supporting the traditional Latin Mass (as well as other important Catholic traditions), including appropriate letters of praise. Note: Try here for bishops' addresses.

• Sending copies of your letters and petitions as well as any follow up correspondence to Rome or to other appropriate third parties

• Directing contributions away from organizations, parishes, publications, etc. which are not "traditionalist friendly" 

• Supporting (licit) 'Tridentine' Masses with one's attendance and financial support

• Not supporting parishes where Masses are irreverent - either with your money or your attendance 

• Being especially generous with contributions at traditional Latin Masses

• Striving to constantly increase in faith, hope, and love: "So we see that God expects us, in the present devastation of His vineyard, to respond first of all by growing in faith, hope, and love; secondly, by being especially watchful lest we be infected in any way; thirdly, by struggling against the devastation with all the means at our disposal; and fourthly, by not forgetting that the absolute truth of the deposit of the Catholic Faith remains untouched by all the empty talk of certain theologians." (Von Hildebrand)

• Preparing for ridicule and learning how to answer objections

• Setting a good example 

• Loving God wisely: "God is Wisdom, and wants to be loved not only affectionately, but also wisely... Otherwise, if you neglect knowledge, the spirit of error will most easily lay snares for your zeal; nor has the wily enemy a more efficacious means of driving love from the heart, than if he can make a man walk carelessly and imprudently in the path of love". (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church) 

• Not abandoning the way of truth: "We have fallen upon times when a violent and well-nigh daily battle is being fought about matters of highest moment, a battle in which it is hard not to be sometimes deceived, not to go astray and, for many, not to lose heart. It behooves us, venerable brethren, to warn, instruct, and exhort each of the faithful with an earnestness befitting the occasion: that none may abandon the way of truth." (Pope Leo XIII, "Sapientiae Christianae", 1890 A.D.) 

• Maintaining purity of conscience 

• Not being indifferent regarding tradition (e.g. "I don't care which Mass my children go to as long as they go to a Mass", etc.)

• Trying to win over others to tradition using factual, reasoned arguments. If persons are apathetic, one may consider an attempt to rouse them with questions such as "Don't you care that...?" [insert negative facts regarding the New Mass (e.g. acceptance by Protestants), negative fruits of the New Mass (e.g. loss of faith, frequent cases of sacrilege, irreverence, profanation, etc.), lost traditions, saint quotes, papal quotes, scripture quotes, martyrs who died rather than..., etc.]

• Having confidence. As the Catechism of the Council of Trent states, "The faithful should also reflect who is their leader against temptations of the enemy; namely, Christ the Lord, who was victorious in the same combat. He overcame the devil; He is that stronger man who, coming upon the strong armed man, over came him, deprived him of his arms, and stripped him of his spoils. Of Christ's victory over the world, we read in St. John: Have confidence: I have overcome the world; and in the Apocalypse, He is called the conquering lion; and it is said of Him that He went forth conquering that He might conquer, because by His victory He has given power to others to conquer." 

• Being especially watchful to protect your own faith. As Von Hildebrand says:

"We have to realize that our time is like the time of Arianism, and so we have to be extremely careful lest we be poisoned ourselves without noticing it. We must not underestimate the power of those ideas which fill the intellectual atmosphere of the time, nor the danger of being infected by them when we are daily breathing this atmosphere. Nor should we underestimate the danger of getting used to the evils of the times, and then becoming insensitive to them. At first perhaps many people see the devastation of the vineyard, and react in the right way. But gutta cavat lapidem (dripping water slowly erodes the stone) - after a while one becomes accustomed to it. Then, too, there is this to consider, that the devastation of the vineyard is an increasing process, and so certain evils which belong to the earlier stages, seem harmless in the light of the later stages. And so we are in danger of becoming insensitive, on the one hand, because we get used to the devastation, and on the other hand, because the devastation progresses, and its beginnings seem insignificant in light of its advanced forms. But it is still worse to become infected than to be insensitive. The first thing to be done in order to avoid both dangers is to realize completely how extraordinary is the situation in which we live today. St. Peter tells us, 'Brethren, be watchful, be sober, for your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour' (1 Pt. 5:8). Just fifty years ago this watchfulness mainly referred to our temptations to sin, to the danger of offending God by sins of impurity, pharisaism, pride, greed, ambition, lack of charity, disobedience to the commands of God. Of course, even then there was the danger of being tempted by those intellectual and spiritual trends of the time which were incompatible with the revelation of Christ - but those dangers were outside the Church, and the danger for a Catholic was to fall away from the Church under their influence (and this happened often enough). But today these trends are able to develop within the Church... Since these bad trends encounter so little resistance within the Church, it has become much more difficult for the simple faithful to grasp their incompatibility with the deposit of faith. Thus St. Peter's exhortation to watchfulness applies today in a special way to watchfulness with respect to heresies within the Church... [T]oday we have to develop in ourselves a special awareness, a holy mistrust, for we not only live in a poisoned world, but in a devastated Church. In our present trial God requires of us this watchfulness, this holy fear of being infected. It would be a lack of humility to think that we are in no danger of being infected. It would be a false security rooted in pride if we were to think that we are immune. Each of us must become aware of his frailty, and understand that this special watchfulness is required of us by God in the trial which we are going through."

• Avoiding Masses offered by sinful priests: "The people, in obedience to the precepts of the Lord and in the fear of God, ought to separate themselves from a sinful prelate, nor ought they associate themselves with the sacrifices [that is, the sacrifice of the Mass] of a sacrilegious priest" (St. Cyprian of Carthage, 256 A.D.) [Note: Of course, avoiding Masses of sinful priests does not excuse us from our Sunday obligation.]

• Not being afraid to appropriately present the truth, even if it is unpleasant (remember that "the emperor was best served by the one who told him he had no clothes")

• Being charitable and avoiding quarreling: "As a dutiful mother is ever anxious about the health of her children and is uneasy until any dissension among them has been quieted, so and to a much greater extent Holy Mother Church, which regenerates its children to eternal life, is wont to strive with every effort that [her children] may put aside all quarrelling and may guard in fraternal charity the unity of the faith, without which there can be no salvation." (Council of Basil)

• Not allowing an entrance to the devil: "For indeed We know and it is certain that the battle line of a camp appears terrible to an enemy when it is continuous and crowded together, with no open spaces. For if there is a vacant place by which the enemy could enter, then it no longer arouses fear in him. And therefore, since we make a spiritual line of battle against the evil spirits, we must of necessity always be found united, drawn together by love and never severed by discord. Whatever good works may be found in us, if love is lacking, a place is opened by evil discord in our line of battle by which the enemy is able to enter and to strike us." (St. Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church)

• Remembering to keep the commandments, practice mortification, give alms, etc.: "[St. Gregory Nazianzen, Doctor of the Church] taught them that the way to salvation was not to be ever disputing about matters of religion (an abuse that was grown to a great height at that time in Constantinople) but to keep the commandments, to give alms, to exercise hospitality, to visit and serve the sick, to pray, sigh, and weep; to mortify the senses, repress anger, watch over the tongue, and subject the body to the spirit." (Butler)

• Not condemning valid Novus Ordo Masses as invalid: "I wish to add something that is plainly awe-inspiring, but do not be astonished or upset. This Sacrifice [of the Mass], no matter who offers it, be Peter or Paul, is always the same as that which Christ gave His disciples and which priests now offer: The offering of today is in no way inferior to that which Christ offered, because it is not men who sanctify the offering of today; it is the same Christ who sanctified His own. For just as the words which God spoke are the very same as those which the priest now speaks, so too the oblation is the very same." (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)

• Not attempting to mingle "Novus Ordo" type practices with Traditional practices 

• Keeping the faith and not losing hope! "Padre Pio told a friend of mine who was deploring many of the liturgical changes, 'You are right - but Christ has not abandoned us. He is still present in the tabernacle, and the Holy Sacrifice still takes place objectively!' And so it is clear that the attitude of resignation, of despair over the Church is not the right response." (Von Hildebrand)

• Being strong

• Praying for the restoration of the Traditional Mass and of all Catholic tradition

• Patterning your actions after the saints and your good Catholic ancestors

• Increasing devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary 

• Praying with much perseverance!  

It is also important to keep the Traditionalist position free from dishonor. To this end, one should be charitable, not engage in schismatic activities or unlawful disobedience, and one should respect persons in authority and act in accordance with Gospel principles. We must remember that we have many enemies, including Satan, who will do what they can to secure our downfall. 

A perículis cunctis, líbera nos, Dómine. (From all dangers, deliver us, O Lord.) [Latin/English]

"In the present time, 'when a teacher of religion may be within the Church's pale, yet external to her faith', we must nourish ourselves with the thought of the great theologians of the past, with the works of St. Augustine, St. Anselm, St. Thomas, St. Francis de Sales, Cardinal Newman. Let us arm our souls against the theological poison of the times, by reading those condemnations of errors which were pronounced by Trent and Vatican I. Let us read the Credo of our Holy Father Pope Paul VI. Let us sharpen our sense of the specifically supernatural ethos by reading the lives of the saints. Let us preserve a lively contact with the saints, let us ask them to intercede for us. And then we have to fight with all our strength - each of us according to his own possibilities - against all the heresies which are being spread everyday without being explicitly condemned, without being anathematized, and without the heretics themselves being excommunicated." (Von Hildebrand)