Sophia,
Church teaching is that we have an obligation to attend Mass on Sundays, and that the NO is a valid Mass; therefore it is wrong to say that we are not obliged to attend an NO Mass without stipulating that that is a personal conclusion
It is the personal conclusion of the majority of traditional Catholics. This is a traditional Catholic forum, so I am very free to express my opinion on this matter.
A personal conclusion of the majority of traditional Catholics? Or just of a handful of integrists? Sophia, personal opinion has no room to be expressed freely regarding a commandment (precept) made by the Church. That will be anarchy. Besides, impugning the known truth (already given by the Church that it is a grave obligation to attend Mass) is a sin against the Holy Ghost.
You won't last long here if you insist upon calling us integrists. Read the rules of this forum, the definition of people who are welcome here under the name "trad" and watch your step. No one has to make excuses to you for believing that the NO should be avoided at all costs. Not here.
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So it pains us to be called integrists. Integrist, a word coined by the Abbé de Nantes to described those extreme traditionalists. I was labeled "integrist" too, but it does not bother me because it's not true. There is not one saint raised to the altar that could have even been described as "extreme Catholic." Extreme Catholicism is not dogma and it's not healthy for the soul. My post was only that one must keep private opinion to oneself; to tell another "don't go here or don't go there" is a heavy responsiblility because if one's opinion is in error, one is responsible for leading another astray, a caveat by Our Lord; i.e., leading one to sin by bad example.
Dismiss me if you want to, if that's the policy.
I believe so strongly that I must avoid the NO that instead of going to the church two miles away from my house, I drive 90 miles to and from the TLM every week, and have done so for years. I am not rich, and yes it constitutes a very big sacrifice. I shudder to think of my judgement day, if I were to capitulate and expose my children to the Novus Ordo.
I drive 45 minutes one way to go to Mass. I used to drive one hour and half one way.
There have been a few times when we have gone to the local NO parish for confession to a retired priest. My children are no dummies- they know very little of this controversy that we are discussing, yet they knew that there was something very different about this Church. My son said, "mama, I didn't know you could go to confession in a Protestant Church?" I had to reassure the others that it was okay to genuflect and bless themselves. Out of the mouths of babes. Of such are the kingdom of God. Doing the right thing is very simple when you look at it through the eyes of a child.
There are times when brush fires and landslides close down highways and we're prevented to go to the TLM. We're not homealoners.
There are thousands of Catholics who have no access to the TLM. Are they all poor wretched, deprived Catholics, and we who have the TLM are the chosen of God's people?
This does not follow from what I said, and I never intimated that it did.
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It does not. I'm merely stating that we cannot exculpate those who attend the NO as if they were not as good Catholics as us.
