Catholics ‘retreating’

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 18

Catholics ‘retreating’

The Roman Catholic “traditionalist movement” was a classic example of a group of people who reacted to change in their group by retreating to the old familiar way of life, said the Rev. G. J. Gray, parish priest of the Chatham Islands. Father Gray was commenting on advertisements in “The Press” by the Catholic Research Centre, a group of Catholics concerned about changes in their Church. Father Gray said that people who reacted to change in this way often reinforced their position by attacking the reforms and changes as wrong or even evil. For some the problem was not primarily a religious one, even though this might be how it was expressed. It was more one of a personal feeling of security in life, “expressing in the sphere of religion an attitude that is also political, social and cultural,” said Father Gray. “It is noteworthy that the followers of the rebel Archibishop Lefebvre are largely (drawn from the middle classes — those most threat-

ened economically, politically and culturally by the socialistic and liberal philosophies of modem Europe. “Of course these people need personal security in life and the comfortable pew of the pre-Vatican 11 Church with its pietistic devotions and somnolent Latin was good insulation against the harsh demands of life.” The demands of the Gospel of Christ were being heard more clearly in the vernacular of the modem church, conscious of its role to preach social justice in an exploiting world, true religion to a selfish people, and brotherly concern to the apparently indif-i ferent. Perhaps those unable to! cope with this were opting ( for the old, more comfortable' ways, said Father Gray. I “For others I believe thej problem is more genuinely religious in the sense that they are perhaps confusing the 1 letter and the spirit of the! law in regard to the things! of Christ and the Church. “The external ritual of worship must always be subordinate to the interior spirit,”!

said Father Gray. A spokesman for the Catholic Research Centre said the group was not “traditionalist.” This was merely a label attached to a group of people who were simply Catholics. The Research Centre’s advertisements did not contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church because the Church could not contradict its own teachings. The European Catholic* who followed Archbishop Lefebvre were some of the “cream” of the religion. Thev were from the intellectual classes — people able to understand what had happened | to the Church. .Many priests had not uniderstood the changes. The Christchurch eroup was made up of good Catho|lics — people who had gone Ito Mass daily before the changes of Vatican II but (could not bring themselves to Igo to Mass any more than was absolutely necessary after the changes. i These people were concerned with wider political land social changes only in so far as thev interfered with. Catholic tradition and orthodoxy.