The prevailing argument of the religious experts for why the young candidates for priesthood and religious life are increasingly more conservative and even traditional has been to psychologize it and place it under the rubric of revolution: that the young tend to rebel against the status quo. For the following ten (eleven)reasons I reject this as the essential explanation for the present phenomenon.
1. Truth versus error. The liberal movement was heretical: openness to and tolerance of every form of doctrinal error as seen in the general disregard for the ordinary magisterium of the Church and culminating in rebellion against such essential Catholic realities as the all male priesthood, the male nature of Christ and the Fatherhood of God. We just happen to believe everything taught by the Church.
2. The true liberty of obedience versus licentiousness and disobedience. The liberal movement prided itself on disobedience to the Church and to the law of God culminating in rampant homosexuality and every form of licentiousness among the clergy and the ravishing of the youth. We base ourselves on the infallible nature of the Church's moral teachings which have their origin in the immutable law of God.
3. Superior worth, superior culture and beauty. Better a few diamonds than much coal. Precious, superior art. In architecture and music and language and furnishings and vessels and apparels the Tradition upholds those forms and styles that are deemed the humanly best by the Church: made of the finest materials and with the highest art forms born of Christian culture: e.g. gold rather than clay, natural fiber, gold, silver, silk, linen rather than polyester, marble and wood rather than plastic. When young men begin to give their fiancees a bag of cement instead of precious diamond rings only then will we be justified in not giving the best quality materials for the service of the Lord. What we found in the attic happens to be materially more valuable than the whole house and everything in it! "...No man after drinking old wine immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'" Lk. 5:39
Gregorian chant and polyphony are as grand an artistic and cultural achievement in the Church and the world as are the Gothic cathedrals and paintings of the masters. Cf. Sacrosactum Concilium, 50 "Gregorian chang, as proper to the Roman liturgy, should be given pride of place, other things being equal. Its melodies, contained in the 'typical' editions, should be used, to the extent that this is possible." I do not know of any cathedral or diocesan seminary in the world in which this norm of the Second Vatican Council has yet been implemented. OUR REACTION IS MERE LOYALTY TO THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL! Seemingly, the only secular bishop in the world who knows or cares happens to be Pope Benedict XVI and thank God that there is an army of young people throughout the world who are heeding his call!
4. Tradition: Honor thy fathers. It is the heirloom idea: it is disrespectful to destroy or discard the things most cherished by our fathers, and foolish, given their materially precious nature.
5. Intellectual superiority: classics. To love and to learn and to teach and to use and promote the classics in the classical languages (Greek and Latin), the founts of Western thought, as most excellently appropriated by the Church, is intelligent. e.g. Septuaginta, Vulgata, Summa Theologiae, Missale Romanum (1962). Even the 1983 Code of Canon Law requires that every candidate for the priesthood have a very good knowledge of Latin (Can. 249), which norm is roundly ignored even today by most of our seminaries and the bishops who sponsor them. If they require the seminarians to take a token number of credits they never encourage the use of Latin liturgically or otherwise.
6. The true versus corrupt rennaissance. Just as the Italian Rennaissance produced good and bad fruit so the corruption of the Vatican II aftermath (as noted above) needs to be purified. Conversion is essential to the Gospel and to every true disciple. We all must confess to almighty God that we have sinned and repeatedly strive to conform ourselves to Christ as presented to us by His Church. The liberal has psychologized away and is proud of his errors and sins or denies that they are even sins. The believer humbly confesses his sins and the universal need for conversion.
7. Primacy of God. Ad orientem, ancient language (known to the Son of God while on earth), the language of the Fathers. Traditional Catholicism accents the primacy of God: e.g. the liturgy ad orientem faces Christ the Rising Sun. The ancient languages (in all of the ancient rites) used in the liturgy, the traditional apparel (Roman vestments, Cassock, biretta, etc.) are more supernatural syles because they transcend our local and temporal fashions.
8. Linguistic superiority. If you know well and frequently use the language at the origin of your mother tongue, you will become a better master of your one tongue, a better orator!
9. Priesthood. By it's very nature the Catholic priesthood elicits Tradition: the all male priesthood, discipline of celibacy, hierarchical obedience, the solemn duty of private and public prayer all incorporate most of the points mentioned above. If you want to be a priest and are not traditional you have an erroneous idea of the priesthood and therefore are clearly not yet a fit candidate. The liberals use "tolerance" and kindness as the litmus test for priestly candidates whereas the true test is orthodoxy and fidelity, piety and, yes, morality.
10. Mission. Only those who know what it means to be Catholic and what it means to be a priest can be convicted enough to sense the urgency to save souls! The salvation of souls is the purpose of it all. The liberals ceased to believe in salvation and in souls because they have embraced a materialistic distortion of the Gospel which leaves little room for God and the supernatural. Is it any wonder that those enthusiastic about the Gospel actually believe in God, that God is real and that heaven and hell are real and that you need to "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling!" Phil. 2:12
At least for these reasons it is objectively a scandal (not a reactionary dilusion) that an order like the Benedictines should continue to reject and deny that they are rejecting thier great Catholic and monastic patrimony in not embracing the Reform of the Reform. Ecclesia Semper Reformanda, but not simply for the sake of change; conversion, rather, for the sake of holiness, that all may believe and that the orders might attract young and Catholically healthy new members. It is no accident that those orders which have lost their Catholic traditional identity are dying out and the vigorous orders are those that love the Church!
One more concluding point.
11. Love versus hatred. The liberals are "self-hating Catholics", they hate the Church, we love Her as she always is: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Welcome to the true new age of Benedict!...XVI!
The difference between the waco seventies reformers and the new breed of priests and religious is that between Martin Luther's revolt and the reformation of Saint Charles Borromeo! It is the same difference as that between a Hans Kung and a Joseph Ratzinger! Deo gratias!
