Turns out Walt is a Recusant!

Walt is a sometime student of Church history but still has a lot to learn. For instance, what should one call Catholics who refuse to attend the Protestantized "New Mass" which is one of the poisoned fruits of Vatican II? Some traditionalists go even farther and have abandoned the Society of St. Pius X because it uses the "transitional" Roman Missal of 1962.

But what do you call these "Ultra-traditionalists"? Pope Francis recently called them "extremists". Cardinal Bertone inveighed against "Fatimists". But there is an older term, dating back to the days of Henry VIII. Those who refused to attend the "masses" of Henry's schismatic "Church of England" came to be known as Recusants.

The faithful Catholics (and others) who refused to conform to the beliefs and practices of the new English "church" were made criminals by the Recusancy Acts. They suffered fines, confiscation of their property, imprisonment, and even capital punishment -- the death of martyrs like St. Thomas More, who happens to be Walt's patron saint.


Taking their cue from the St. Thomas and the other English martyrs, a group of clergy and laity have separated from the Society of St. Pius X, because they disagree with the desire of it's Superior-General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, to reach some sort of compromise with Rome.

The breakaway group has started a new publication aptly titled The Recusant. The raison d'être of the newsletter/website is to fight "a guerrilla war for the soul of Tradition." This is declared in a signed Letter of Entreaty dated 21 May 2013, which attacks Bishop Fellay and the SSPX for "wilfully pursuing a new direction and a new agenda, remaking the Society in their own image with reckless disregard for the souls which Divine Providence has placed in their care."

The letter charges the SSPX with "having deviated from its essential mission of fidelity to Catholic Tradition and opposition to Modernism due to the betrayal of its liberal leadership." The Recusants argue that the faithful must secede from the corrupted society, which they describe as a "sinking ship, which is beyond repair."

Walt finds the lack of unity in the forces of Tradition within the Church deeply disturbing. Still, one must cling to that which is known to be right -- to the eternal truths taught to us by Our Lord Himself and handed down to us through His Church. If that means refusing to conform to the novelties and outright heresies which was are told are necessary to adapt to the modern world, then yes, let us be "nonconformists". Let us be Recusants!