Since 1936, Most Rev'd Dom. Carlos Duarte Costa has formed priests according to the immemorial teachings of the Catholic Church. By offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the traditional Latin rite and administering the sacraments according to the traditional rites in vigour in 1962 (before the Second Vatican Council 1962-5), the Society’s priests perpetuate what the Church has done throughout its history. By the exercise of the teaching office of its priests, the Society fights against the errors that presently afflict the Church; our struggle was clearly enunciated by our founder, Patriarch Dom. Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez, in 2004:
This article presents the major issues and summarises the positions of RCCEW which are those of the perennial teachings of the Church.
The Mass;
The most visible and, in some ways, the most important achievement of the Roman Catholic Church of England & Wales - Latin Rite has been the maintenance and safeguarding of the traditional Latin Mass. Had this Latin Rite Catholic Church not formed priests to celebrate this Mass throughout the world, it would be difficult to imagine other religious and priestly communities being given permission to do so. We now rejoice that this Mass, which has its roots in apostolic times, which sanctified saints across the centuries and which was codified by Pope St. Pius V after the Council of Trent, is now being celebrated by more priests and more often than at any time since the introduction of the new rite of Mass in 1969 (the New Mass).
Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum confirmed that the old rite was never abrogated and accords permission for its use, but it does so on the understanding that one’s attachment to it is merely aesthetical. There is no acknowledgement of its obvious doctrinal superiority and its spiritual fecundity relative to the New Mass. Lex orandi, lex credendi: the law of prayer is the law of belief. The old rite is born of, supports and fosters the old doctrine. The new rite is born of, supports and fosters a new doctrine. Because of this, RCCEW has always opposed the New Mass, not primarily because of the abuses it so easily allows, or because of the vernacular in which it is usually celebrated, but because of the new theology that its prayers enunciate.
Religious Liberty.
The doctrinal reservations that the Church maintains concerning many of the documents of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent documents from Rome (including the new Catechism of the Catholic Church), is what distinguishes this Catholic Church from other groups that offer the traditional Latin Mass.
At the Second Vatican Council, many novel ideas were introduced in an attempt to "update" certain Catholic principles to the “realities” of the modern world. One of the most heated debates took place in the discussions on Dignitatis Humanae, the Council document on religious liberty. Since the period called the Enlightenment (18th century) until the Second Vatican Council, the Church condemned the notion that man has an inalienable right to practise a false religion in public if it was the religion of his conscience. The Catholic Church always maintained until the Second Vatican Council that no man has a right to publicly practise a false religion, but that a false religion may be tolerated in those states where to ban it would upset the public peace. If a man is considered to have a fundamental right to publicly practise a false religion, then one must defend his right to lead souls from the truth, to lead souls away from Jesus Christ.
Ecumenism:
Until the Second Vatican Council, the position of the Church regarding other religions was clear: the Catholic Faith is the only true religion, and outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. The goal of apostolic activity, therefore, was to bring lost sheep back to the fold so that our Lord's desire "that they all be one" might be fulfilled. Since the Second Vatican Council, however, the emphasis has been on rejoicing about what we have in common with our separated brethren while remaining silent on what divides us. Of course, when trying to win souls for Christ, it is important to know what doctrines non-Catholics share with Catholics, but, as we all saw at Assisi in 1986, if one does not do whatever is possible to convert these lost souls, one can very easily offend against the law of charity, to say nothing of neglecting our duty as Catholics to proclaim the truth.
The decline in conversions to the Church in any particular country is in inverse proportion to the rise in "interfaith dialogue,” shared religious ceremonies, and emphasis on "shared values."
The crisis in the Church:
