How do you feel about the term "Traditional Catholic?"

I don't like it;  I feel like I'm being described as some variant of a regular Catholic.  Are the NO Catholics the de facto heretics?  Shouldn't we be described as Catholics and NO Catholics as some deviation from the norm?

In fact "Traditional Catholics" should be called just Christians.  Protestants and N.O. should be heretics.

I say "Catholic" and, if someone looks affronted, I quickly add "with no guitars".

When speaking of a NO Catholic, I merely say, "[Person] attends [NO parish]" and that usually explains that. The ones I refer to most commonly (acquaintances) usually identify with another belief-system, like Buddhism, or sometimes I learn of a surprise addition to their belief system, and I bite my tongue from saying what I think ("new age catholic") and just leave.

Catholic is Christian, but Christian in common parlance isn't always Catholic because apostolic succession, or at least that's how I was taught. (Catholic, not anathematized, is where we want to be; someone raised Protestant who is Baptised, and otherwise does the best they know how in this evil age, hopefully will at least fall under invincible ignorance, and EENS/Church, but I'm not dogmatic at all on what exactly constitutes "the Church on earth" in this age. I think Baptism is pretty necessary unless you live in the bush somewhere in Africa.)

Yeah, I like Catholic.

The "true" protestants that I run into are mainly "ex-catholic".

My evangelical niece and I had a conversation years back where I tried to explain to her that Catholics do not worship Mary, she argued that she had a friend who was ex-Catholic at Church who said we did too, among other things. I explained to my niece that at least every Sunday these ex-Catholics said a Credo swearing an oath to God and asked her if they would lie to God, why would they not lie to her also ?

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This message has several good points:

This is a perennial question, but it comes down to common usage.

Even though it's not fair that the heretical conciliar NewReligion gets the buildings, the name, the "Catholic" reputation, the public mindshare, etc. it's nevertheless true that they have possession of all these things.

To pretend otherwise would be unrealistic.

If you don't distinguish yourself from the protestants, many will assume you're protestant if you refer to yourself as a Christian today.

Likewise, you have to do SOMETHING to show people that you're a REAL Catholic, and not just one of those fake ones like John Kerry. If you can manage it without using the term "traditional", then more power to you.

Not to show off, but to be a good example. You can't let people think that EVERYONE finds real Catholicism "too hard" or "outdated".

The whole conciliar experiment is a major disaster and an embarrassment for Catholicism. You have to remember that.

But the fact is that there are two kinds of Catholics today:

A) Novus Ordo, which are more like protestants (and they get along better with protestants than they do with...[trads]...

B) Traditional Catholics, who live the Faith and truly believe all its dogmas and follow the morality it imposes.

Language should reflect reality. Ergo...

I like the word, "Novordien."

When you say "Novus Ordo" it's too unlike English and Americans don't listen.  Add to that the fact that Newchurch groupies have been uttering "Novus Ordo" in reverent tones for decades now, and the phrase has taken on a life of its own.

They have the same solemn tone with "Vatican Two" and "The Council," as if it's something to be awestruck about.  These are holdouts from that age, an age that is thankfully fading away.  What it left behind is a legacy of deprivation, as you say, The whole conciliar experiment is a major disaster and an embarrassment for Catholicism. You have to remember that.

Curiously, it is largely the trappings of the real Catholic Church that these dwindling holdouts, these Novordiens, hang on to, that keeps their enthusiasm alive.  There is nothing in the Newmass that can stand up on its own.  It gets its only appeal from what it STOLE from the Canonized Traditional Latin Mass (CTLM).

I talked to one of them just the other day.  She retains a Catholic sense, because she was reared in the Faith before "The" Council.  But she likes to dig through the Vat.II docuмents and look for one sentence that makes her happy, and then she uses that as her "proof" that "The" Council was a 'gift' of the Holy Spirit, I guess you could say, "make that gift number ten."  (There are 9 gifts of the Holy Ghost.)

How anyone can be so blind is a mystery to me.  

It comes down to a deliberate act of the will, and even God honors that.  God gave us free will and it is a most precious gift, something that the animals do not have at all.  

Novordiens have chosen a different path.  

Novordiens have abandoned the Apostolic Faith of our Fathers, even while they fool themselves into thinking that they have not abandoned it.  

Novordiens get along fine with protestants, because they have something in common:  they both share the fact that they have abandoned the Faith of our Fathers.  Neither prots or Novordiens sing Faith of Our Fathers, that great hymn of continuity with our forebears that keeps us tied to what the Apostles taught.  The truth is in the pudding.  They don't sing it because they don't believe it.  

Novordiens chose a different path, and it's not just the same as the protestants, and therefore it's a whole NEW RELIGION.  

Newchurch has a Newfaith and a Newcreed and a Newmass with Newsacraments.

It's a whole Newdeal going on, a Newfad for Newman in this New-age.

Or, should I say "Newage?"  Sounds like sewage Newage.  

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In conversations, I say, I am Roman Catholic, then I add, where the True Precious Blood of Christ is.  

I will copy this answer next time they ask.  :smile:

I agree with the OP about the term Traditional Catholic. I also do not like it. I always respond "Catholic". Furthermore, the correct term should be Christians since we are the only Church Christ Lord instituted and thus, the only true soldiers of Christ.