How Traditional Catholics Differ From Novus Ordo Catholics Essay

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ethnography of the local Traditional Catholic community which practices at a nearby church. This group is very dissimilar in appearance and behavior from the surrounding neighborhood, even from the surrounding mainstream Catholic or "novus ordo" Catholic community, as the Traditional Catholic community calls it. This difference is rooted in the belief system that the community holds, which informs their practices, behaviors and modes of dress. Their main concern is with being "traditional" in all things. Thus, their appearance has a very dated look to it (a kind of 1950s style of dress among the men and women) and their worship is very Old World in terms of being in Latin and having lots of statuary in the church. However, they are easy to talk to and they seemed to have a sincere interest in converting me, which was flattering in a way. This paper discusses these people, their culture and how it is different from others and mine own.

Ethnographic Paper: Examining the Traditional Catholic Culture

In my part of town there is a small Traditional Catholic community, which consists of a group of individuals and families who describe themselves as Traditional Catholics. By this they mean that they do not take part in the Mass services or worship ceremonies of the other Catholic churches in the area. These churches, according to them, follow a post-Vatican II rubric in which changes to the rite of the Mass have made the service more Protestant and less Catholic. By Vatican II, they are referring to the Second Vatican Council that took place in Rome from 1962 to 1965. All the world's bishops in the Catholic Church attended and it was a major media event of its time, with many commentators and journalists and even non-Catholics attending so as to cover and take part in the discussions among the Church leaders as to how the Church might "reform" itself and make itself more appealing to modern man. It is this exact "reform" that the Traditional Catholics of this community reject. Thus, they participate in a rite of Mass that is still said in Latin (while most Catholic churches say Mass in the language of the community -- in this case in English), and worship in churches where the altar is erected in the old manner, that is, that pre-Vatican II manner, where the priest faces the altar rather than the people in the congregation (as is now done in what the Traditional Catholics call "the New Mass" or the "novus ordo missae" -- Latin for "new order of the Mass"). The new order of the Mass is indeed a major sticking point with Traditional Catholics and defines a portion of their rejection of the post-Vatican II Church, which they call "the Novus Ordo" plain and simple.

This paper discusses the observations I made from attending services in this Traditional Catholic community and relate the experiences and conversations I had when I engaged these persons in dialogue. The plan of this paper is to explain the field work, the setting, and the cultural description of this ethnographic group and show how they truly are different from the other neighboring Catholic communities in just about every way imaginable. Indeed, this minority group is very different from the surrounding communities as a whole -- they are almost more akin to Mormons to some extent, as the manner of their dress is very out of date (the women of this community wear button up blouses almost uniformly, expose very little flesh, with sleeves covering most of the arms and shirts buttoned up to the neckline; the men dress far more formally than other men in the community, wearing long pants, blazers and ties, typically; whereas in more modern Catholic churches those in attendance dress much more casually).

I selected this culture because of this discernible difference in the dress and appearance and manner of the people. Driving by their community, I often observed a much more staid appearance and questioned why, if this group was "Catholic" they appeared so much different than the other "Catholic" groups in the area. I wanted to find out why this was so. I collected my data simply by going to the church at the scheduled time for the Mass and then talking to attendees in the basement of the church where coffee and donuts were served following the Mass. People there were friendly and welcoming and asked me if this was my "first time," and I told them my main reason for being there.

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Several persons were interested in talking to me about their religion and their culture and there was no feeling of hostility conveyed towards me and my curiosity. On the contrary, I felt that many persons were interested in "converting" me and having me join in their parish as an actual member. I felt that this was very friendly on their part, even as some of them came off as formidable in their approach, hinting that if I did not convert my present path would lead me to Hell. I was not put off by this, as I accepted this as part of their culture and belief system and I found it to stem more from concern on their part for my well-being than from animosity or a desire on their part to actually see me condemned to Hell (as some sort of validation or justification for their beliefs). Thus the main informants were numerous and diverse, ranging from older men and women to younger men and women. Most, however, were older than I, and young persons of a teenaged-age, while mainly polite, seemed most reticent to talk.

The setting of the community church is very Old World in terms of design and decoration. It is an old stone church that is more than 100 years old and inside are many statues of saints with stained-glass windows depicting scenes in which saints are standing and holding some object that describes their life or martyrdom. The walls are adorned with items called "stations of the cross" and there are more than a dozen of them up and down the walls of the church, each one large and describing a scene in the life of Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary. There are candles on the altar during Mass and the priest wears colorful robes and there are many servers who are in white and black robes. In the back of the church there is a big choir loft with an old pipe organ. Someone plays the organ during Mass and men and women sing in the choir. The hymns are all sung in Latin. The major theme of this setting is piety and respect for the service.

In this Traditional Catholic church, the women cover their heads with what is called a veil, which is like a piece of decorated lace, which simply lays or is pinned to the top of the head and draped down to the shoulders. However, some women wear very small veils, which are more like doilies which they pin in place; these do not even cover the top of the head. When I asked about this, why some women wear very small "veils" and others wear long, draping ones, different persons had different answers: some people rolled their eyes and suggested that the individuals who wore the small doily-like veils should actually be wearing longer veils as that is more the custom of the Traditional Church. Others responded with a more accepting attitude saying that is only a custom that women should cover their heads in church and some women prefer smaller head coverings than others. I gathered that there was both a symbolic and a practical significance to the head coverings, as a couple individuals said that the main reason for the veil in the first place was to cover the woman's hair so that it is not a distraction for others from what is going on in the Mass.

What is going on in the Mass according to these Traditional Catholics, is the non-bloody renewal of the sacrifice at Calvary at which their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on a cross on what today is memorialized at Good Friday. These Traditional Catholics believe that the bread and wine that the priest consumes at the altar and that the faithful consume when they go up to the "altar rail" which divides the congregation from the "sanctuary," (where they kneel down to receive on their tongue) is the actual Body and Blood of their Lord and Savior Jesus. This remarkable belief is not even commonly found among the neighboring Catholic parishes which follow the rubric established in the more modern post-Vatican II Church. When I compared beliefs as a follow-up, I found that modern Catholics, in what appeared to me to be a half-and-half proportion, described their Mass simply as a memorial service and did not view the bread and wine as being really the Body and Blood of….....

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