What is boils down to is that no Neo-Trad could explain what constitutes a Traditional Catholic. They were so afraid to limit their own beliefs they barely admitted that it would, at minimum, entail a preference for the TLM.
It's very sad that Neo-Trads think that the only thing that makes you a Traditional Catholic is preference for the TLM. I could show you a video on Youtube of some NYU students who "prefer" the TLM, yet some of them knew strikingly little about Traditional Catholicism.
You'll see these types constantly attacking "50's" Catholicism or their idea of it, which in their eyes was rigid and shallow.
These people clearly know nothing. 1950's Catholicism was shallow, but it was not rigid. It was lax, compartmentalized, liberal(JFK anyone?), pluralistic, watered down, and done primarily on Sunday. Bishop Williamson has a good piece on this. Yet it is primarily the Neo-Trads who are who in love with this mindset of "fiftiesism" which is not just a nostalgia for the 1950's, but for an "in the world and of it" Traditional Catholicism.
These people are the worst corrupters of Tradition. Though they would never admit it, they are liberal wolves in Traditional trappings. They love to talk the talk and wear the name, bash the Neo-Caths and the libs out of a sense of superiority. But they save their worst ire for true Traditionalists. You then hear the same tired old cries you hear from liberals.
Some individuals on the Monarchy forum (A site I lurk on) put it well, what divides Traditional Catholicism is Americanism/pluralism. In other words some so-called Trads lack a counter-revolutionary mentality.
You are judging! Who are you to judge? Tradition is not cookie cutter, Tradition is diverse! There are many ways of being Traditional. You are too into appearances, Tradition is what is on the "inside".
These same people are still debating and trying to figure out if in our day and age, hair down to your waist is feminine or masculine, if men or women are supposed to wear pants, if listening to death metal is uncatholic, etc. They are simply lost, lost, lost.
The whole "the external doesn't matter" is Protestant. While the internal may matter primarily, the externals show us the internals, even St Thomas says this. That's why virtues are
external. Also, I wonder if these folks think that the Inquisition was too "judgmental."
They are Neo-Catholics and liberals who like the TLM, but who want to separate themselves from Neo-Caths and liberals. You'll see them complaining about JPII in one breath and then venomously attacking true Traditional Catholics if they actually try to point out where he preached error. As all liberals, they are walking contradictions. Their reticence to condemn error forcefully comes from their own guilty consciences. To condemn error would be to condemn themselves because they've bought error and are addicted to error.
Excellent point!
They truly represent liberalism, dressed up with incense and a Roman chausible. In this sense they are worse and more diabolic than the Neo-Caths because the Neo-Caths are easily identifiable. These types are a Trojan Horse in the Traditional movement. A 5th column looking to destroy it from within. They should be called out and counteracted at every turn. I salute Matthew for attempting to do that with this site.
I agree, either the Neo-Trads come over more so to tradition or dare I say it, we tell them to get lost since they tend to be a source of scandal.
The Neo-Trads, like the liberals, will spew every sort of calumny, hypocrisy, and venom they can at us to silence us. They will ban us from their forums, malign our character, call us names. But do not be disheartened as these things are a badge of honor. Know that this is the best sort of endorsement as to your orthodoxy, to be irrationally attacked by a Neo-Trad. It shows you have pricked their conscience. And with that, and prayer, comes hope of their conversion.
I have noticed that Neo-trads can't argue their points well. They resort to emotionalism and Ad hominen attacks because they can't handle intellectual refutations of their points, especially on modesty, music, tv, issues pertaining to modernism, etc.
The strange thing overall Stevus, it's as if
Archbishop Lefebvre knew that the Neo-Trads were coming:
"For I think that many Traditional Catholics enjoy the traditions; they like the old Mass, they like the old sacraments, they like the old teaching of the Church, but they do not really believe in Jesus Christ as the one and only Saviour, God and Creator. That is the bad influence of all the modern errors coming through television and the media - they are so bad, so pagan, so opposed to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Faith that few people remain true Catholics wholly faithful to Jesus Christ."-
An Address to Seminarians, March 30 and April 18, 1986.