Tridentine
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The adjective Tridentine means "pertaining to the city of Trent", which in Latin is called Tridentum.
It is applied in particular to the nineteenth of the twenty-one ecumenical councils recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, which was held in that city (the Council of Trent), and to its teaching, dogmas and legislation.
The adjective "Tridentine" is also applied to conservative Catholics who either reject the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, most notably the consequent revision of the Roman Missal, or who, without denying the authority of the Second Vatican Council and of the Popes to make these changes, show a strong theological or aesthetic preference for the pre-revision liturgy. In his 1988 letter Ecclesia Dei adflicta, Pope John Paul II prescribed: "Respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962."
Many such "Tridentine Catholics" follow breakaway groups such as the Society of St. Pius X, or the True Catholic Church. Others remain in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope, attaching themselves to associations within the Church, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. They all place particular stress on the form (with its later pre-1970 modifications) given to the Roman rite of the Eucharist after the Council of Trent, a form that they therefore call the "Tridentine Mass".
Some "Tridentine Catholics" organize sedevacantist movements and elect their own "popes". The "True Catholic Church", based in Montana in the United States of America, did so in 1998, electing Capuchin Father Earl Lucian Pulvermacher to its papacy, which it claimed had been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, and proclaiming him "Pope Pius XIII".
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