Conservative Catholic beliefs are under the spotlight due to

hey attend Mass in Latin, using a liturgy Rome abolished. They abstain from meat on Fridays and women cover their heads in church. For more than three decades, a small group of American Roman Catholics has been quietly worshipping in ways the Vatican told them to abandon.

Now their ultraconservative beliefs are under scrutiny as the man they count as their most famous adherent, actor-director Mel Gibson, prepares to release a movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that's already stirring controversy.

The movement, known as traditionalist Catholicism, grew worldwide from opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, a series of meetings held from 1962-65 that dramatically changed the church.

The council altered Catholic practices and teachings in myriad ways to make it more relevant to the wider world, such as having Mass said in local languages after centuries in which it was recited in Latin, having the priest celebrate Mass facing parishioners and distributing communion in the hand instead of the mouth.

The council decreed that Christians other than Catholics can be saved. It also declared that Jews were not collectively responsible for Christ's death: The notion of Jewish guilt had fueled anti-Semitism for centuries.

But traditionalists reject what the council decided.

Traditionalists believe that only Catholicism is the true path to salvation -- and that by adhering to church teaching as it was before the council they are the only true Catholics, according to William Dinges, an expert on traditionalists and a professor at Catholic University of America.

"They are the Roman Catholic analog to Protestant fundamentalism," Dinges said.

But the movement, if it even exists in Southeast Missouri, is so quiet it's barely been noticed. There are no approved Latin Mass services in the region, according to area church officials.

The only Latin Mass that has been said here recently was Nov. 23 at Old St. Vincent's Church and was part of the community's Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebrations.

The closest place to hear a Latin Mass would be in St. Louis, said the Rev. Scott Sunnenberg, associate priest at St. Mary's Cathedral.

The traditionalist movement is as diverse as the many splinter groups it has generated, from moderates who maintain some contact with the Vatican to the more militant who rejected outright the authority of the late Pope John XXIII -- who convened the council -- and every pope elected thereafter.

Nothing Gibson has said in media interviews indicates he belongs to the far-right fringe; in fact he refuses to describe his exact religious affiliation. But there are no such ambiguities surrounding the affiliation of the actor's father, Hutton Gibson, who told The New York Times Magazine for a March article that the council was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews."

But it is unclear what beliefs, if any, the father and son share.

The actor's personal beliefs are a central issue with critics of his upcoming movie, "The Passion of the Christ," who worry that its depiction of the role of Jewish leaders in Jesus' final hours will revive the idea that all Jews are to blame for his death. The film is set to open on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25.

Gibson has repeatedly denied that his film maligns Jews. Several of his friends who are Jewish have said they see no prejudice in the movie, which has won praise from many prominent Christians including evangelist Billy Graham. An aide to Pope John Paul II said the pontiff felt the film accurately "shows how it was" as Jesus went through anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion on Golgotha.

Opponents of the film, seeking to find proof of prejudice in his traditionalist ties, will be frustrated.

Dinges has been tracking Gibson's comments and believes the actor is not allied with a specific branch of the movement. Traditionalists are so loosely organized that independent chapels are built around the country with no formal connection to each other.

"I suspect that's the nature of the operation there. He isn't affiliated with a society or any group like that, but he has someone willing to say Mass (in Latin) at the chapel," Dinges said.

The exact number of traditionalists in the United States is unknown. Some experts estimate about 50,000 Americans consider themselves part of the movement, compared to the 64 million U.S. Catholics within the official church.

Features editor Laura Johnston contributed to this report.