On Tradition

Captivated by these questions forming in my conscience, I kept reading Mystici Corporis and came across the following section: But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. . . . Since He was all-wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. . . . That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same (par. 40). Of course, I said to myself; the Roman Pontiff and Jesus Christ form but one head of the Catholic Church. The word “tradition,” which I recalled from so many homilies in SSPX chapels, comes from the Latin verb tradere, which means “to hand down.” Ultimately, I reasoned, there must be a source from which Tradition was first passed down, and that source is Jesus Christ. In the end I realized that Tradition is a Person — the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who incarnated Himself in the womb of an immaculately conceived Virgin. As Christ and His vicar constitute but one Head of the Church, then the voice of Tradition must speak through St. Peter and his lawful successors in the Roman Primacy. Therefore, I had to make a choice to follow Catholic Tradition and embrace the Rock upon whom Christ founded His Mystical Body here and now. Citaat uit: My Journey out of the Lefebvre Schism, All Tradition Leads to Rome. By Pete Vere, JCL/M (Canon Law)