Pensées on Catholic Traditionalism

Rather than attempt a systematic legal critique primarily from canon law and all the various proclamations of the Church regarding schism and authority, and so forth, rather, I have sought to analyze the premises, presuppositions, logical and ecclesiological bottom lines and (in a word), the spirit of a false and divisive traditionalism practiced and held by a distinctive sociological sub-group of Catholics. One might regard such an enterprise as logically and conceptually prior to a formal critique (whether theological or philosophical) of the modes of thought involved. As Pascal sought to examine and expose the underlying assumptions of the unbeliever and the skeptic of his time (similar to Socrates' own modus operandi), so I am trying to arrive at the foundational assumptions or mindset of the self-proclaimed traditionalist, under the further assumption that ideas do not develop in a vacuum, and have a history, and a pedigree.