Since the publication of our new editorial stance last year, we have attempted to contextualize the modern movement of Traditionalism within the Catholic Counter-Revolutionary movement of 19th century Europe. In one sense “Trads” of today are simply ordinary Catholics as they lived the faith in the “modern period” since 1773.[1] The Catholic counter-revolutionaries in Europe, supported by every pope but especially Pius VI, Pius VII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII, were doing what ordinary Catholics were doing in Europe.

Then suddenly with the revolution before, during and after Vatican II, the neo-Modernists gained the advantage over the Vatican bureaucracy, and successfully branded these ordinary Catholics – who had been faithful to the papacy, Magisterium and Tradition since 1773 – as unfaithful, rigid, schismatic, and disobedient to the pope. They used the “false spirit of Vatican I” as a weapon against the faith, wherein the hyperüberultramontanists said “The sole rule of salvation is to be with the living Pope” as they did under Leo XIII.

But besides this ecclesial aspect, there is a geopolitical and cultural aspect to this revolution.

A critical player in this revolution was a European-born group of states that had always insisted that they were not European: the United States of America. Cardinal Ratzinger specifically credits “the American revolution” for shifting the mindset of Churchmen to create Vatican II, and Mr. Wemhoff shows how CIA psychological warfare was intimately involved in the revolution within the Church in the 1960s.

Moreover, it was a European Thomist – Jacques Maritain – who came to these United States and looked at them with a unique French perspective, causing him to underestimate the power of the enemies of Christ among the United States. As he wrote in 1956: “It will be necessary for the European spirit and the American spirit to meet and cooperate in common good will.”[2]

It was Maritain above all, with his intellectual and Thomistic rigour, which convinced many unsuspecting churchmen like Montini, Wojtyła, and Ratzinger, to make this dramatic shift against the Catholic counter-revolutionary legacy of our fathers since 1773. Montini (later Paul VI) was mentored by Maritain, who, despite many redeeming qualities (and his final book which denounced the revolution), had an alarming affinity for the Chicagoan Marxist, Saul Alinskey.

In short, we can see that the depth of our problems in Church and Society have a great deal to do with the interplay between Catholicism in these United States and the fatherland: Europe.

It is for this reason that along with Our Lady of Fatima, we have placed our organization under the patronage of Blessed Emperor Karl. There is a third patron which will be announced in due time.

But our read of the situation of Traditionalism has caused us to desire a true “common spirit” between Europeans and the States. Not the common spirit envisioned by Maritain but a common spirit of counter-revolution.

On our editorial board, we are honoured to have Dr. Joseph Shaw, the current president of Una Voce, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, who also teaches at Oxford University. We also have Mr. Charles A. Coulombe, a French Canadian at heart yet citizen of the United States, European by fatherland, and writer at The European Conservative. We are also very happy to have Mr. Kennedy Hall, French speaking Anglo-Canadian by citizenship, Italian by fatherland, avowed Lefevrist, as well as Spanish-speaking devotee of the Empress of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe. The other editorial board members are lay leaders in the United States: the Thomist liturgical expert and philosopher, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, the Thomist lay theologian Dr. Michael Sirilla, and the great “dad of Catholic twitter” himself, Mr. Eric Sammons, author and editor at Crisis, our sister organization with Crisis Publications.

We are also honoured to have Fr. John Zuhlsdorf with us, who provides us with the soul of our movement in our participation in the Holy Sacrifice and the life of divine grace.

Today we add another Englishman to this staff of Catholic lay leaders to help round out our efforts on both sides of the Atlantic: Mr. Theo Howard.

Mr. Howard brings to this organization a penetrating study of European culture and aesthetics, a critical analysis of the current machinations of the Marxists and other enemies inside and outside the Church, and the fighting spirit of St. George of merry England – a spirit worthy of the Counter-revolutionary legacy of our forefathers in Europe. This is the crusading spirit of all our fathers, especially those in the modern Traditional movement.

To introduce readers to Mr. Howard, we present this podcast where we talk about all these things, especially the movement of Catholic counter-revolution:

To introduce readers to Mr. Howard’s work, please find this catalogue of his writings thus far and stay tuned for more to come from OnePeterFive very soon (find more on the members of our editorial board here).

La tradition, c’est moi
England and Wales Respond to the Motu Proprio
Angles at Play
The Beauty of the Virgin Mary and the History of Art
Byzantine Thomism and the True Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue: “Breathing with Both Lungs”
Integralism: a European Perspective

 

T. S. Flanders
Editor
Feria Sexta inf. Hebd. II post Pascha.
 

[1] We can reasonably date Modernity in terms of a “time of troubles” for the Church beginning with the Masonic conspiracy of the Vatican in 1773, which suppressed the Classical Jesuits. See T. S. Flanders, City of God vs. City of Man, 275-283.

[2] Jacques Maritain, Reflections on America (1956).

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