Expert: Griff Ruby - 11/6/2004

Question
I have heard the Traditional Catholic Church teaches that "Novus Ordo" Catholics will all go to hell. Is that true? If a person is brought up in the Roman Catholic faith from pre-Vatican II, and faithfully continues through the Council's changes, icluding the new Mass, how can it be a sin? How can he (or anyone else) know that heresy has taken over the Roman establishment, while the real Roman Catholic Church lurks in the shadows? Isn't knowledge a prerequisite for committing a sin?

Answer
First of all, those born and raised in the Novus Ordo are in exactly the same position as those born and raised in any other Protestant sect.  In most cases (there are exceptions, both for Novus Ordo believers and for Protestants) they are validly baptized, and as such subject not only to the Natural Law written by God on our hearts as everyone is, but also subject to the laws of the Church.
I do not doubt that a good many such, being ignorant of the fullness of the Truth, may well be "in good faith," doing their best to live as God directs to what extent they do know, and as such "united to the soul of the Church."  But they are hampered by the lack of true sacraments and power they have to confer true holiness and godliness.  They are "being good" in their own human strength, and success, difficult enough for those who do have the fullness of the Faith and the true sacraments, can only be all the harder.
I know from my own experience as both Protestant (first Evangelical, then Pentecostal), and as a Novus Ordo believer (my original decision was to "be a Catholic" whatever that is, but I knew nothing of the authentic traditions of the Church, only a (thankfully) archconservative Novus Ordo "parish" where something of that once Catholic atmosphere still survived), in good faith all along, that I struggled with certain grave sins in my life, and that struggle only became consistantly victorious after all of that and I became a traditional Catholic.  Though my sins feel as serious as they ever did, objectively I know that it has been quite some time since any of them were the sort to prevent one from receiving communion at the Mass where before those happened much more frequently.
As for those born and raised "before the changes," there are of course those who "went along" with the changes - that is they were born and raised in the Church, and somehow failed to realize what was happening.  While I distinguish such persons from those who fully realized the seriousness of what was happening and took the necessary action (thus continuing the Church as "the Traditional Catholic Movement), I also distinguish those who "went along" in simple mistaken obedience to lesser authorities from those same "lesser authorities" who perpetrated Vatican II and its religion.
Those perpetrators, or should I say "perpe-traitors" committed a truly heinous crime, and even should any of them repented, the Purgatory they would have to endure would be truly unthinkable, even by the standards of Purgatory in general.
But as for those who merely "went along," God no doubt has much mercy for them, though they have in fact been led right out of the Church, even and exactly as those in England after the Declaration of Royal Supremecy were similarly led out of the Church by merely continuing in their same once-Catholic "parishes."  I trust that He knows and understands that they not only have a soul to save but a family to feed.  Many even now know nothing of the continued existence of the Church of their youth, and if Providence fails to bring the Good News of such to them, they could hardly be blamed for that.
But in this information age where such facts are more and more easily obtained, where even poor and starving third- and fourth-worlders can now get on a computer and on the internet, and even the busiest somehow find time to watch television or read the newspaper, all really do have access, and Providence increasingly provides.
To know of the existence of traditional Catholicism and yet refuse to look into it, to reject it, now THAT is a far more serious matter.  That kind of willful ignorance is a serious sin.
So, do Novus Ordo believers go to Hell?  One would really have to go by a case-by-case basis.  And the same goes for Catholics as well, as any could be in a state of personal mortal sin despite their public adherence to the fullness of the Truth, and even their hierarchical membership in the Church today.
The question of "Who is going to Heaven or Hell?" is the wrong question.  Far more immediate and pertinent is "Am I going to heaven or Hell?"  But for the rest, the question is rather "Who is teaching and practicing what God teaches and directs?"
You ask, "How can he (or anyone else) know that heresy has taken over the Roman establishment, while the real Roman Catholic Church lurks in the shadows?"  If they paid attention during their Catechism classes offered to them by the Church in their youth instead of whatever other distractions so easily ensnare youth, they would have learned about what the Eucharist is and why one must be reverent, and one would have learned why one is obliged to be a Catholic, and that no other religion can be a source of Grace.  Those who did pay attention were not fooled, and they did whatever they could, as befits the initiative and disposition of their soul.  Some were passive and went along only until they learned of tradition and then promptly returned to the Church.  Others more active worked to continue the priesthood and the episcopacy and to learn as much as possible of the Church so as to be able to pass it on to another generation.  Still others of a more feisty disposition actively opposed the nonsense and resisted, either with vocal rejection of the nonsense or with a final withdraw from it, where they remained until learning of the living traditional Church.  Hot or cold, at least they were not lukewarm.  But those who didn't pay attention and didn't really care about their souls (didn't really take any of it seriously) just "went along to get along," and easily went to the new religion.
Do you know that before Vatican II, you never had people saying "I'm a Catholic, and the pope is wrong."  The whole "cafeteria Catholic" thing was born when Vatican II explicitly taught that other religions are also means of Grace:  Sources of "Truth and Sanctification" the Council spoke of them as.  Well, if the Anglican Church (which permits contraception) is as much a source of God's Grace as the Catholic Church (which forbids it), well then obviously the forbidding of contraception is not necessary and I am therefore free to disagree with the Pope on that question.  Or any other.  Don't you see that implicit in such an outlook is a different understanding of what "the Pope" is or what "the hierarchy" is.  Society at large really DID know that authority was lost by the Vatican, and in that found their license.
But of course, we real Catholics know that no such "license" could ever be validly given (let alone accepted), and our traditional bishops, to a man, all uphold the fullness of the Catholic teaching and practices, and we most certainly do deny that other religions can be sources of Truth and Sanctification (God' grace), so that logical problem does not develop among us.
Everyone knew what the Church must, by definition, always stand for, and though they might mistakenly assume that the present Vatican stands for that (some things they do, others they don't, as is true with all non-Catholic sects), and therefore still attempt to live as a Catholic and remain still in "union with the soul of the Church," if they so choose.  But doing so increasingly alienates us from the Vatican II-ites who know and care nothing of all of that but see (and follow) the present Vatican institution as it really is, and as such just like any Protestant.  We can try to put on our rose-colored glasses and see the Novus Ordo in as Catholic of terms as possible, but sooner or later the true nature of the present Vatican institution will come smashing through those rose-colored glasses, and when that happens, who is there to pick up the pieces?  The real Church, which (at heart) such ones never really left.