Traditionalist Catholicism

Traditionalist Catholics reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that was held in the early 1960s, including Nostra Aetate, the papal document which declared that modern Jews bear no guilt for the death of Christ. The Vatican has also rejected the idea of supersessionism, or the dogma that with the coming of Jesus and the New Testament the Jews’ covenant with God was broken—but traditionalist Catholics continue to support this doctrine and believe that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic church. Partly as a result, some Traditionalist Catholic circles have continued to incorporate explicit antisemitism into their theology, and a number of them may be characterized by a paranoid belief in Jewish conspiracies to undermine the church and Western civilization, as well as other conspiracy theories that are prominent in right-wing extremist subcultures.

For decades after its founding in 1970, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which is the foremost global Traditionalist Catholic organization, continued to preach that contemporary Jews are responsible for deicide, endorsed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and claimed that there was a factual basis for the medieval blood libel. One of its bishops, Richard Williamson, is a well-known Holocaust denier. In recent years SSPX has moderated its position to some extent, and expelled Bishop Williamson. However, the Traditionalist Catholic movement continues to wrestle with antisemitism and a tendency towards extremism.

One prominent Traditionalist Catholic is filmmaker and antisemite Mel Gibson, whose film, The Passion of the Christ, attracted controversy over its graphic depiction of Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus.