What Makes One a Traditional Catholic?

I've recently been involved in a thread on FishEaters Forum entitled, Are we too concerned with Liturgy? It was begun with this post,

I do not mean to say that liturgy is not important, but it seems to have become the hallmark of whether or not one is a traditional Catholic. For my part, I don't think it is the essential question since I know lots of people who prefer the TLM but whom I would definitely not call Traditional. I suppose, for me, being a Traditional Catholic involves shedding any pretenses that come with Enlightenment and Post-Enlightenment thought, it means viewing the world and life around it through a sacramental lense, it means deeply questioning and often objecting to modern political dogma (i.e.: democracy is good, voting is good, you must vote), and it means believing in things like patriarchy as the natural and good ordering of society since it most properly mirrors the ordering of the Heavens.

My question, then, is: is Liturgy a sufficient guideline when determining whether or not a person is a Traditional Catholic and, if not, why has it become the go-to marker for both traditionalists and non-trads alike?

This got me to musing on the question posed. Vox Clamantis of FishEaters has a page on her absolutely wonderful website called simply, Traditional Catholicism 101: A Brief Primer, in which she discusses what it means to her to be a Traditionalist. But I'm about to explain what being a Traditionalist means to me.

First, to answer the questions posed in the OP of the thread, I would say, no the Liturgy is not a sufficient guideline when determining whether or not a person is a Traditional Catholic, and the reason it has 'become the go-to marker for both traditionalists and non-trads alike?', is simply because it is the most visible sign, even if one who appreciates the Traditional Mass has no concept of the Catholic Faith.

Love for the Old Mass can be a purely aesthetic choice with no faith content. As an example, I had a friend years ago, a practicing Wiccan, who loved the Old Mass and would often attend the Midnight Mass of Christmas in a Tridentine Parish. She did not receive Holy Communion, of course, since she knew and respected the Catholic theology of the Holy Eucharist. But, despite her love for the Tridentine Rite, she was no more a Traditionalist or a Catholic than is Francis.

So what constitutes being a Traditionalist? For me it is one who believes the Divine and Catholic Faith as handed down through the centuries. One who can, with interior and exterior assent, recite the Four Creeds of the Church, Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian, and the Creed of the Council of Trent, who gives interior and exterior assent to the condemned propositions of the Syllabus of Errors of Blessed Pius IX, and to the condemned propositions of the Syllabus Against the Modernists, and can swear, with a good conscience, the Oath Against Modernism of St Pius X.

In other words one who rejects totally the innovations and heresies introduced by the Second Œcumenical Council of the Vatican, and the further distortions of the Faith and practice of the Church caused by the so-called 'Spirit of Vatican II'.

It means one, who whilst accepting that the new Code of Canon Law is the law today, tries to follow the disciplines on fasting and abstinence in the form they existed before being 'eased' (out of existence in reality) after the Council, the midnight, or at least three hour fast before Holy Communion, abstaining on all Fridays of the year and on the Vigils of Feasts as appointed in the old Code.

It means one, who to the best of his ability, follows the pious practices of the old way, the devotions, Holy Hours of Adoration, wearing the Scapular, reciting the Rosary, joining confraternities.

If one does all this, one is a Traditionalist, no matter what form of the Mass one attends. If one is able to attend the Traditional Latin Mass regularly, one is a very lucky Traditionalist!