What We Believe
Immaculate Conception Church is dedicated to preserving, maintaining and forwarding the practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church as they were before the disastrous changes of the Second Vatican Council. (For a scholarly analysis of these changes and their implications, see A Statement of Principles in a Time of Crisis.) Consequently, the Masses are offered exclusively in the traditional Roman Rite as promulgated by Pope St. Pius V in 1570 and normative in the Western Church for nearly 400 years thereafter.
The decision to adhere to the pre-Vatican II Mass, frequently referred to as the Tridentine Rite, is done neither for nostalgia, nor in a spirit of disobedience, but out of the firm conviction that the "new mass" (the Novus Ordo Missæ of Paul VI) substantially represents a different belief system than that of the traditional rite and that the differences renders the reformed rite unacceptable for Catholics.
This conviction is consistent with the thought of the late Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani (RIP), who in the 1950s and '60s was, as head of the Holy Office, the watchdog of orthodoxy when the phrase "watchdog of orthodoxy" still meant something. In 1969 he wrote that the "new mass":
represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session 22 of the Council of Trent. The "canons" of the rite definitively fixed at that time erected an insurmountable barrier against any heresy which might attack the integrity of the Mystery. The Ottaviani Intervention: A Critical Study of the New Mass
This being the case, it is no wonder that upwards of 70 percent of churchgoers to the "reformed" rite no longer believe in the dogma of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament or that a similar number do not attend church regularly. The "insurmountable barrier against heresy" was effectively dismantled with the promulgation of the "new mass": it was crafted with the assistance of six Protestant "observers" and has been touted as an "ecumenical" service by its promoters. It is comprised of a crazy quilt of Jewish and Protestant prayers, along with ambiguities and smattering of modified leftovers from the Tridentine Mass.
Likewise,
other sacraments administered and
received at Immaculate Conception
conform to the pre-Vatican II
norms for similar reasons. Priests will not
tell those taking marriage instruction that the primary end of marriage is
the mutual aid of the spouses, instead of the procreation and education of
offspring, as the Church always taught prior to the Council. (Not
surprisingly, this false juxtaposing of primary and secondary ends in the Conciliar
Church has led to abortions, birth control and dwindling families). In the
confessional, Immaculate Conception priests won't tell a penitent to "use
your conscience" when asked about the morality of artificial contraception.
Sermons (not "homilies") preached from the pulpit are markedly different from what are heard in most of Novus Ordo churches. The priests at Immaculate Conception do not hesitate to admonish their congregation on the evil of mortal sin and to warn of the very real dangers of hell and purgatory—all concepts glossed over or downright rejected by so many of their counterparts in the post-Vatican II Church, where belief in even the dogmas of the Church are optional.
So, far from acting out of rebelliousness, it is out of their profound sense of obligation to the unalterable Traditions of the Roman Catholic Church that the priests, religious and laity of Immaculate Conception Church hold fast to that which has been passed down from generation to generation to generation. It is through their efforts and those of other traditional Catholics around the world that real Catholic practices and beliefs are being preserved until that day when the widespread apostasy will give way for the long hoped for restoration.
Teachings
of the Roman Catholic Church
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