You know very well that the traditional Catholic Church didn't begin 40 years agoYou know full well you are not the full Catholic Church, even you must admit that. You and the excommunicated Bishops you follow are the Society of St. Pius the X. That began 30 years ago. It cant even trace its lineage to the pre-Vatican II Church it claims to be, it didnt exist before the Council.
- the new, pale imitation of the Catholic Church that has discarded all the traditions that we still hold to began then and has continued in a downward spiral ever since.Hogwash. Many customs and disciplines have been abandoned, especially by the modernists in the West, but you blur the meaning of the word tradition from meaning something formally defined by the Church to something simply done for a long stretch (cant say all time because even the venerable Tridentine Rite doesnt go back to Christ or the Apostles).
St. Paul instructed us to "Domini nostri Iesu Christi; itaque fratres state et tenete traditiones quas didicistis sive per sermonem sive per epistulam nostram; ipse autem Dominus noster ... " And that's what we're doing.You sound like a Protestant, though the rare one who speaks Latin. Who is the arbiter of what those traditions are? You? Bishop Fellay? Bishop Williamson? (I sure hope not.)
patent +AMDG
Traditions are those practices which made the Roman Catholic Church immutable and unchangeable and unequivocal. No dancing in the aisles, no Communion in the hand, no guitars, no English Masses, no tables facing the congregation, no ripping out of kneelers, but instead, absolute quiet at Mass, real Confessionals, and the graceful ambience of stained glass windows, Holy Water fonts, the Blessed Sacrament displayed prominently - not hidden off in some corner of the Church, High and Low Mass accompanied by the Schola singing beautifully in Latin. And real sermons and homilies, no social-work clap-trap.
As you know, Popes in the past have forbid any changes to the Latin liturgy. What passes for a "mass" (lower case on purpose) in the Novus Ordo churches is a travesty. Just read what many of the folks here have said about it.