By Nicholas Trandem, M.J.C.
I apologize for the delay in getting this posted. It is now well past “later this week or next.” Much has happened (both personally and in the Church and the world) in the intervening time, but that is not the main reason this post has been delayed. I have been deep at thought on this topic, and have discussed it with many Trads of different stripes. The scope of this work, which was already ambitious, ballooned. What started as a tretise on the state and goals of the Traditionalist movement following the Motu Proprio has become more of a roadmap of a full Restoration of Christendom. With the additional scope and import, I began to fret about how best to start the series. I was paralyzed. I'm still having a lot of trouble trying to tackle this, but I have a plan. I'm going to go ahead and move forward with this series of posts on TiR, but I'll also be working (and reworking) them into a single, coherent document. I'll make the whole thing available at the end of the series, and I'll periodically post a draft of the work thus far. This will allow me to crank out the blog posts to address the major issues involved without killing myself over how they fit in the grand scheme.
The thesis of this series is: To rebuild the Church and Society, we must work to restore Christendom one level at a time, from the bottom up.
The Church is a Monarchy. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ, Head of the Church Visible, and all men must submit to him to be saved. His Holiness could (and ought to!) do a great deal to restore the Church to vitality. That does not, however, absolve anyone else from the work he is duty-bound to perform for the restoration. It does not mean that we get to sit on our thumbs and wait (and gripe) for the Pope to change things. Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia does not equal “L'Église, c'est moi” (the great error of Papal Absolutism, which helped lead the way to the collapse, will be one of the topics examined later in the series).
Most, if not all, of the great Reforms, either of Orders or of the entire Church, have started as local, grassroots movements. The Discalced Carmelites. The Cistercians. Cluny. The Counterreformation. Subsidiarity, one of the bedrock principles of traditional Catholic social teaching, dictates that matters ought to be handled at the lowest possible level.
What this means is that we must start with our own souls. We must start with personal conversion and the total dedication of our lives to Our Blessed Lord and His Holy Church. Then we must found and build our families in the Faith and give them completely to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts (much of our commentary on this matter will be specific to our vocations as fathers, but we're hoping to get some guest writers from the other vocations – I'm looking at you, Br. Alexis!). Once we have set our homes aright, the next arena that we must dedicate ourselves to is the Parish and our neighborhood (or town, for those lucky enough not to be stuck in the nigh-ubiquitous urbanity of the present age).
This will require work. Not just prayer. Prayer must always come first, but we must not give in to Quietism. Ora ET labora, especially for those of us called to live in the world. This, then, is the main goal of this series – to outline a practical, workable plan, a sort of (though I hesitate to use the word) manifesto of how to bring our society in line with our credo.
Here's a smattering of topics that are slated for inclusion in the discussion. Please help out by participating in the comments box with your ideas and critiques.
- Short-term strategies: TLM at local NO Parish vs. Trad Personal Parish
- “Doing” the TLM right: roll up your sleeves and give Father a hand
- More than the Mass: Source and summit doesn't equal be all and end all
- RadTrad Parenting: Or, do you want your kids to grow up to be devout Catholics or nationalistic bourgeois consumo-bots with an affinity for smells and bells?
- Tradditude: They will know us by our love, even when we're kicking their teeth in
- Know thy neighbor
There are several other topics bouncing around, and we hope you'll suggest more. All of these will be addressed within the context of the above thesis.
Posted on the Feast of St. Porphyry of Gaza, a.D. MMVIII
