There is a belief (often among traditionalists, but not limited to them) that within the Catholic Church, the traditionalists are the “hardcore” Catholics. People see our zeal and assume that says something about every other aspect of the faith. Often this is even a powerful recruiting tool in a Church full of mediocrity. I tend to avoid promoting this idea because I think it gives false advertising to people, I want in the movement. Traditionalists are like everyone else, only more so.
What I mean by that is the average traditionalist community has, at the same time, some of the greatest saints, and some real sinners. I’ve experienced great kindness and empathy, but also coldness and bitterness. I’ve also experienced this in the average Novus Ordo Community, Eastern Catholic Community, any community I’ve been a part of in the secular world, etc. Being a traditionalist is not a cure for concupiscence, no matter how much we might try to present it as such. I bring this up because a traditionalist “Catholic influencer” recently said something stupid on social media. As people inevitably argued this stupid position (which I have no desire to get into, its not relevant), a traditionalist, one who meant well, said that he wishes the individual would shut up, because all he was doing was giving Rome an excuse to crack down on traditionalists. Given I think said influencer was an idiot, the individual surmised I would agree with him. He found it quite surprising when I dissented. As a bit of a warning, I’m going to get into trad inside baseball here. I ask you to stick along for the next 1,000ish words, because I think even the non-traditionalist can learn something. If you can’t, I understand, we will resume regularly scheduled programming next column.
There are a lot of traditionalists (especially among the more educated types) who find a traditionalist saying something stupid and will instantly think “they’re going to ruin it for everyone else.” If only these unwashed masses had the pure traditionalism (which always seems to be what they, the highly educated trad are thinking!), then it would be all sunshine and unicorns in Rome. For indeed, trads are their own worst enemy. I don’t buy that for a second. Trads could be perfect, and everything that happened to them would still happen. Here is a bitter pill for a lot of my friends to swallow, but I’m here to force you to take your medicine: Many individuals in high positions in the Catholic Church, the Pope included, don’t want traditionalists to be better Catholics. They want traditionalists to leave the faith, and their governance is with that in mind. If you cannot understand that you will set yourself up for consistent disappointment.
Is this a pass to act stupid? Of course not! Am I saying that those who say something stupid shouldn’t be criticized? While I understand some of my newer readers might wonder that, anyone who has followed me in the past two decades of writing knows this isn’t true of me. I believe in zealously fighting bad ideas within traditionalism. Yet I do not do it out of some vain desire that if you dance enough, Rome will be impressed. They never have been, and they never will be. I believe in zealously fighting errors because it’s the right thing to do. Gaining the acquiescence of Rome and helping them acknowledge reality isn’t the end goal, but the beginning. Even if the Latin Mass were the only Mass in the Roman Rite tomorrow, there would still be bad ideas that have to be opposed. If a new Pope were somehow able to infallibly declare the Latin Mass is protected from suppression, the cause would not be over. The goal of the traditionalist isn’t to have the Latin Mass accepted. The goal of the traditionalist is to honor God and serve His Church and tell His Church some uncomfortable things they need to hear.
Because of this, I reject in the strongest terms possible the idea of your local traditionalist parish as a country club for Latin nerds or the super saved. The Latin Mass is the heritage of all Catholics in the Roman Rite, and that means sinners. That means idiots. That means the personification of both, the Catholic influencer. I don’t want them to leave. I want them to come as they are, but not leave as they were. Only way to do that is by challenging their bad ideas. When you do that, you must ask yourself a question, and I think its something people are uncomfortable asking: when you speak against an idea, are you more interested in exposing error, or showing the world you think this is bad?
To those who say such things as “you’ll ruin it for the rest of us”, I view that as little better than the Pharisee in scripture, proud he is not like the tax collector. The Pharisee does everything right. More importantly, he wants everyone to know he does everything right, unlike that awful tax collector/Catholic influencer. When you voice displeasure about something they said, who is your audience? I’ll be honest, if that influencer is right in his message, the effects of telling the truth are near the bottom of the list. Our first obligation is not to the Latin Mass or our community, but to God and the truth. The willingness of the traditionalist to speak the truth, even when its uncomfortable, is an asset, not a problem. I want those people to continue with that mindset, even if they are wrong. I think this also has greater appeal to the traditionalist, since for many, the unpopularity of traditionalism with senior hierarchy is a feature, not a bug of the movement. Better to focus on the truths that make us unpopular, rather than the silly positions that are both wrong and unpopular.
To the individual who responds that this is not realistic, that Rome nonetheless will yank away our heritage due to bad behavior of others, I would strongly dispute this. Summorum Pontificum did not come about because trads suddenly became angels. Compared to 2024, trads in 2005 were far rougher around the edges and far more outside the mainstream. What brought about Summorum Pontificum wasn’t good behavior, it was the realization that the Church had put herself in an impossible situation, and worse still, was going to continue breeding future resentment. We had to get out of the mindset of the Indult, which was of both collective punishment (where the many suffer for the misdeeds of the few) and of hanging a perpetual sword of Damocles over the head of every traditionalist. This isn’t just bad for traditionalists: it encourages the Church to behave like that towards everyone, to their own destruction. (Francis venting out his rage and anger on traditionalists dovetails closely with him losing control of the rest of the Church as well.) Good behavior won’t restore anything, as important as it is. Only a full reckoning by the entire Church of the unsustainable situation will. It was that reckoning that was behind such a tepid response from the bishops to Traditionis custodes. It will likely be behind any response to future restrictions, as Rome realizes that the restrictions will only work with a generation of constant pressure, when time is the last thing, they have.
Embrace the call to holiness. Don’t believe and promote stupid ideas. Fight them at every corner. Yet your personal ego has no place in that fight and will do just as much damage as the dumbest of influencers. In many ways, you become just like them: where traditionalism becomes a vanity project.
The response along the lines of "If people behave better, we wouldn't need to do this..." is the classic approach of an abuser, which is effectively what the church has become. In common parlance, I believe it is now referred to as "gaslighting." Opus Dei tried that approach of submission, it backfired on them.
As you say, trads are no different to any other Catholics in the sense that people are good and bad. But eastern rite Catholics and the Ordinariate, to name but two, are not subjected to the purity police in the same way that trads are. This is a persecution for ideological reasons. Time is running out for them so they crackdown harder. But it won't work.
"Compared to 2024, trads in 2005 were far rougher around the edges and far more outside the mainstream."
Which anyone who was around in an American trad community in 2005 would know, full well!
But the ideologues behind this crackdown on Rome do not care; and their online papaloter apologists haven't been exposed to anything but what they've seen in social media the last several years.