A Traditionalist Roman Catholic is one who views the deposit of faith as transmitted through historical tradition rather than contemporary adaptation, prioritizing the Latin Rite and pre-conciliar spiritual disciplines. 

Traditionalist Catholics...

• Prefer or exclusively attend the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) using the 1962 or earlier Roman Missal wherein the: 

  • Priest celebrates ad orientem (towards the "east" facing the altar) rather than versus populum (towards the people), the former being essential for emphasizing the sacrificial nature of the Mass.

  • Faithful receive Holy Communion from the priest or deacon on the tongue kneeling.

• Maintain pre-Vatican II practices such as women wearing headcoverings (veils or mantillas) in church, use traditional prayer books, regularly recite the Rosary, and observe traditional abstinance and fasting rules. 

• Invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercession as Advocate, Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix. 

• Support the Minor Orders as apprenticeship for ordination.

• Believe that the Vatican II Council introduced unnecessary or damaging changes to liturgy and doctrine (Hermeneutic of Rupture), and seek a restoration of the Church's perennial tradition viewing modernist and postmodernist innovations, and liberal social agendas with skepticism.