Since Vatican II in the 1960s, Catholics have struggled with questions of identity as factions embraced the changes and others rejected them in favor of the Church’s traditional views, pre-council. In this volume, Griff Ruby enters this fray to offer an apologia for the traditionalist movement, asserting that what many consider the real Church didn’t disappear in the post-conciliar era but continues to exist within the network of chapels, clergy, and faithful. who have resisted doctrinal compromise.
Ruby grounds his treatise in the “Four Marks” of the Church: that the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. He argues that the conciliar establishment abdicated its authority through the phrasing of documents like Lumen gentium, which stated that the Church of Christ “subsists in” the Catholic Church rather than is the Catholic Church. Through this distinction, Ruby claims, the “Vatican organization” became detached from the Roman Catholic Church and came to house a secularized religion.
The author traces the history of traditionalist resistance, including chronicling the defense of the Tridentine Mass, the work of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), as well as Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer’s stand in Brazil (he refused to implement the post–Vatican II liturgical and doctrinal reforms).
There’s much to digest in this book, and Ruby helps with an accessible, conversational style that unpacks intricate sacramental theology and canon law with clarity. However, this casual tone sometimes veers into polemical colloquialisms and unvarnished jabs (such as referring to modern priests as “Father Bozo”) that undercut the seriousness of his scholarship. Additionally, the narrative contains typos, punctuation glitches, and occasional syntactical run-ons that detract from an otherwise ambitious text.
While progressive Catholics and conciliar loyalists will certainly contest Ruby’s premise, readers who share his traditionalist convictions will likely praise this work. Passionate and vigorously defended, Ruby’s book provides a largely compelling, in-depth look at the topic.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.