Steve's Manifesto

I like to imagine that I had some hand in Steve's new direction.

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Catholic Restorationists

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”

- G.K. Chesterton

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Charter

It is the experience of every Roman Catholic living in the modern world to find themselves standing at the edge of a tremendous chasm, a gaping void between what was and what is. Some look at this chasm with great satisfaction, glad that there is no bridge between “the before time” and the present. Piled upon that far shore are the trappings of antiquity: every vestment, every oath, every relic, every discipline, every prayer in Latin or in Greek, in short – everything distinguishable about the Church that grew up from the soil of Golgotha, made fertile by the blood of Christ and the countless martyrs who followed in His footsteps. Standing monolithic amongst the ruins is the Mass of Old, that liturgy which springs eternal from the depth of the worship of The One True God. Ever present on its altar of sacrifice is the Unblemished Lamb, victorious over sin and death and piercing by the light of His countenance the darkness of this world.

Some are grateful for the leave-taking and see nothing but a pile of worthless rubble - the rightly discarded debris of pomp and circumstance, of structure and ceremony and sacred nonsense, unintelligible and unlamented.

Others look upon this treasure, ancient and yet somehow ever new, and long for its return. They hear the whispered but resounding plea for mercy, “Introibo ad altare dei...” We are among those few, the ones to whom has been revealed the beauty of what was and the emptiness of what is, and we have been charged with bridging the gap.

Though our affections lie with the things of old, we are more ignorant of them than we should like. We know little of “the before time”, and less still how to bring about its restoration. And yet restore it we must, because Christ is there, a quiet voice calling us back to tradition. Tradition is not the old way; it is the way; it is ancient and new, it is mercy and justice, it is sacrament and sacrifice. It is life. The life of the Church - the Mystical Bride and thus Mystical Body of Christ.

An inversion has been perpetrated. The beauties of the True Faith – Latin, the ancient Mass, the divine office, the old rites of sacraments, the habit of modesty, the virtue of mystery, the sacred character of the priesthood, the proper role of laymen, the feminine and submissive nature of wives, the masculine and authoritative nature of husbands, the catechesis of children, the reverence due the Eucharist, the exclusivity of salvation through the Church – all of these things, and more, have been scorned by many as the relics and follies of a bygone and unenlightened time.

So let us be clear in our intent: Our mission is nothing less than a relentless crusade for the restoration of authentic Catholicism, first and foremost through the return of the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments, without which the crisis in the Church will never be abated. Lex orandi, lex credendi. It is as simple as this: As the Mass goes, so goes the Church.

It is also of paramount importance that we restore Catholic culture, for without an environment that nurtures the life of the soul, the faith cannot grow. It is our belief that we must work together to re-establish the concept of what Catholic culture is, but we know that it has much to do with our lifestyle, our dress, our work, our play, our art, our music and our example. We must re-learn our roles, in the family and in the world, and we must create a safe haven for our children, our religious and our priests. Men must be men again, and women must be women. Our children can only learn from us, and their hands will produce the more fruitful work of the restoration. It has taken generations to get to where we are. It will take generations to get back. There is much work to be done, and no time to waste.

We have seemingly reached a time of convergence. Something is happening both in the world and in the Church. The Traditional Latin Mass will be freed, and with it will be loosed the seeds of restoration that our families will tend to, nurture, and grow. It is up to the willing, among whom we wish to be counted.

The age of modernism is weakening under its own excess, and is drawing near to an end. No longer will the Faith be submitted to the “small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be have been walking about” since the time of the inversion. We have heard it said that there must be a “hermeneutic of continuity” that seeks to reconcile the pre- and post-conciliar periods, lest there be a split within the Church. The split exists, and it has grown into the chasm of which we speak. We insist that rather than a “hermeneutic of continuity” there must be a “hermeneutic of recovery”, one that seeks to draw into the modern age the wisdom of those wise souls long since in the past; popes, doctors and saints alike. It is to their voices we must pay heed, it is upon their counsel we must rely. Some will say that the pre-conciliar Church needs to be viewed in light of the Council and what has followed from it. We say that the Council and what has followed from it must be viewed in light of all that came before it, for this perennial teaching of the Church is not only proven but infallible. It is the sum total of our forebears in the faith. It is “the democracy of the dead.”