Ethnography of a Traditional Catholic Community

Introduction and Research Context

In a nearby part of town there is a small Traditional Catholic community — a group of individuals and families who describe themselves as Traditional Catholics. By this they mean that they do not participate in the Mass services or worship ceremonies of the other Catholic churches in the area. Those 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, journalists, and even non-Catholics present to cover and participate in discussions among Church leaders about how the Church might "reform" itself and become more appealing to modern man.

It is precisely this "reform" that the Traditional Catholics of this community reject. They participate in a rite of Mass that is still celebrated in Latin, while most Catholic churches say Mass in the language of the local community — in this case, English. They worship in churches where the altar is erected in the pre-Vatican II manner, meaning the priest faces the altar rather than the congregation. This stands in contrast to what 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 a major sticking point with Traditional Catholics and defines a significant portion of their rejection of the post-Vatican II Church, which they refer to simply as "the Novus Ordo."

This paper discusses observations made from attending services in this Traditional Catholic community and relates the experiences and conversations had during dialogue with its members. The aim is to explain the fieldwork, the setting, and the cultural description of this ethnographic group, and to show how they differ from neighboring Catholic communities in nearly every observable way. This minority group is also strikingly different from the surrounding community as a whole. In some respects, they are more akin to Mormons — their manner of dress is markedly out of step with contemporary norms. The women of this community wear button-up blouses almost uniformly, exposing very little skin, with sleeves covering most of the arms and shirts buttoned to the neckline. The men dress far more formally than men in other local communities, typically wearing long pants, blazers, and ties. By contrast, attendees at more modern Catholic churches dress much more casually.

This community was selected as the subject of study precisely because of this discernible difference in dress, appearance, and manner. Driving past their church, one can observe a noticeably more staid appearance among the members, which raised the question: if this group is "Catholic," why do they appear so different from other "Catholic" communities in the area? Data were collected by attending the church at the scheduled time for Mass and then speaking with attendees in the basement, where coffee and donuts were served following the service. People there were friendly and welcoming, asking if this was a "first time" visit, and the purpose of the visit was explained openly. Several individuals were eager to discuss their religion and culture, and there was no hostility conveyed toward the observer's curiosity.

On the contrary, many persons appeared interested in converting the researcher and having them join the parish as an actual member — a response that felt genuinely friendly, even if some came across as forthright in suggesting that the present path would lead to Hell. This was accepted as part of their culture and belief system, and it seemed to stem more from concern for another's well-being than from animosity. The main informants were numerous and diverse, ranging from older men and women to younger adults. Most were older than the researcher; teenage attendees, while mainly polite, were the most reticent to engage in conversation.

The Setting and Worship Environment

The community church is very Old World in terms of design and decoration. It is an old stone church, more than 100 years old, and inside are many statues of saints accompanied by stained-glass windows depicting scenes in which saints stand holding objects that symbolize their lives or martyrdoms. The walls are adorned with items called "stations of the cross" — more than a dozen of them, each large and depicting a scene from the life of Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary. Candles are lit on the altar during Mass, the priest wears colorful liturgical robes, and numerous servers dressed in white and black robes assist him.

At the back of the church there is a large choir loft with an old pipe organ. Someone plays the organ during Mass while men and women sing in the choir. All hymns are sung in Latin. The dominant theme of this setting is piety and reverence for the service. Every architectural and decorative element communicates a sense of the sacred, reinforcing the community's emphasis on maintaining the forms of worship they believe were established long before the reforms of the 1960s.

Dress, Veiling, and Modesty Practices

In this Traditional Catholic church, women cover their heads with a veil — a piece of decorative lace that either lays flat or is pinned to the top of the head and draped down to the shoulders. Some women, however, wear very small veils that are more like doilies pinned in place, which do not even fully cover the top of the head. When asked about this variation — why some women wear small veils while others wear long, draping ones — different people gave different answers.

Some rolled their eyes and suggested that the individuals wearing the small doily-like veils should in fact be wearing longer ones, as that is more in keeping with the custom of the Traditional Church. Others responded with a more accepting attitude, saying that head covering is merely a custom and that some women simply prefer smaller coverings. The researcher gathered that there was both a symbolic and a practical significance to the head coverings: a couple of individuals noted that the original purpose of the veil was to cover a woman's hair so that it would not be a distraction to others during Mass. This detail illustrates that even within a tightly defined traditional community, there is room for internal debate over the degree of observance.

Conclusion: Cultural Comparison and Researcher Positionality

This unique group of people is defined by their adherence in thought, behavior, dress, and practice to an Old World style of worship that emphasizes the "traditional" way of doing things. The women dress in a way that they describe as "modest" — they use that word — and the men dress in a way that reflects their respect for what they call the House of God. In terms of how this group's culture differs from the researcher's own, the contrast is striking: the researcher participates in a "punk" community whose members believe in anarchy and are anti-establishment, some wearing studded leather jackets, others sporting dyed hair and Mohawks.

Ironically, the Traditional Catholics and the researcher actually shared some common ground regarding skepticism toward the "Establishment" in politics and economics. Yet the researcher is also reminded that entering the field as a researcher inevitably disrupts the very environment one wishes to observe objectively. As ethnographic method recognizes, the researcher becomes "a new person" in that field (Schensul & Schensul, 2013, p. 3) — a person of interest to those who are themselves the object of study. This may help explain the warmth of the community's reception and their eagerness to find common ground. The Traditional Catholics, in meeting a curious outsider, responded not with hostility but with the desire to share — and perhaps to extend — their community.

References

Schensul, S., & Schensul, J. (2013). Initiating Ethnographic Research: A Mixed Methods Approach. UK: AltaMira Press.