This was well considered and fair to both sides. A lot more here than I could touch on in one brief comment, but a couple things readily come to mind.
The point about the family being the primary catechist cannot be stressed enough. I teach catechism myself - I like to think I know my stuff, I like to think I care about communicating as much of the faith as I can as accurately as I can - but even if every catechist were like me, that would not solve the problem of poorly formed laity. I only get an hour and a half each week with the kids, and I consider it a win if I can even get my eighth graders to remember what Pentecost is. Taking your kids to Sunday Mass and CCD is not enough; you need to be continuously living out the faith every day by saying the rosary as a family, reading the Bible together, going to Adoration, etc. No doubt trad types do this anyway. That's not to excuse bad formation and teachers who don't know doctrine themselves, but you shouldn't be relying on that kind of limited institutional exposure anyway.
It seems to me that the main complaint of the SSPX ultimately can be reduced down to irreverence in the liturgy. If that's the case, I find it hard to believe that there does not exist at least one reverent parish - perhaps even one TLM parish - in any given US diocese. Maybe I'm just a spoiled New Englander who doesn't appreciate driving times in the South and Great Plains, but if you feel you have to flee (and maybe you do), why not flee to a refuge within Mother Church instead of casting her aside altogether? Did "Traditionis Custodes" make things harder? Yes, but that doesn't mean you're completely out of options.
I say this, of course, at a time when things have already improved thanks to the Gen Z revival; I'll concede that some SSPX members may have jumped ship decades ago when it really felt like they'd run out of options.
Bravo! Thank you for reading, reflecting and taking the time to comment!
This is precisely why I included "if every serious Catholic leaves in order to protect his own family, who is left to fight for the families that remain, the uneducated, the poorly formed or those who were never properly taught the faith at all?"
I purposely use the word fight three times in the article. Once for the Father. Once for Jesus. And, once for the Holy Spirit.
The word fight has acquired a negative connotation, but that is itself a deception. Fighting is a virtue when employed properly. We should fight for our families, for our Church, for what is Right and Just.
The lukewarm fight for nothing. Evil, meanwhile, often avoids a fight at all costs. Choosing instead to wear you down, compromise by compromise, until resistance feels hopeless and surrender feels inevitable. Good men (and women) fight, they don't simply flee.
What I am encouraging is not easy, it is a hard and lonely path, especially when corruption appears to reign. But that is our Cross. To shrink it is to abandon the burden Christ has placed before us.
We should be very careful not to abandon it merely because another path appears safer.
This was well considered and fair to both sides. A lot more here than I could touch on in one brief comment, but a couple things readily come to mind.
The point about the family being the primary catechist cannot be stressed enough. I teach catechism myself - I like to think I know my stuff, I like to think I care about communicating as much of the faith as I can as accurately as I can - but even if every catechist were like me, that would not solve the problem of poorly formed laity. I only get an hour and a half each week with the kids, and I consider it a win if I can even get my eighth graders to remember what Pentecost is. Taking your kids to Sunday Mass and CCD is not enough; you need to be continuously living out the faith every day by saying the rosary as a family, reading the Bible together, going to Adoration, etc. No doubt trad types do this anyway. That's not to excuse bad formation and teachers who don't know doctrine themselves, but you shouldn't be relying on that kind of limited institutional exposure anyway.
It seems to me that the main complaint of the SSPX ultimately can be reduced down to irreverence in the liturgy. If that's the case, I find it hard to believe that there does not exist at least one reverent parish - perhaps even one TLM parish - in any given US diocese. Maybe I'm just a spoiled New Englander who doesn't appreciate driving times in the South and Great Plains, but if you feel you have to flee (and maybe you do), why not flee to a refuge within Mother Church instead of casting her aside altogether? Did "Traditionis Custodes" make things harder? Yes, but that doesn't mean you're completely out of options.
I say this, of course, at a time when things have already improved thanks to the Gen Z revival; I'll concede that some SSPX members may have jumped ship decades ago when it really felt like they'd run out of options.
Bravo! Thank you for reading, reflecting and taking the time to comment!
This is precisely why I included "if every serious Catholic leaves in order to protect his own family, who is left to fight for the families that remain, the uneducated, the poorly formed or those who were never properly taught the faith at all?"
I purposely use the word fight three times in the article. Once for the Father. Once for Jesus. And, once for the Holy Spirit.
The word fight has acquired a negative connotation, but that is itself a deception. Fighting is a virtue when employed properly. We should fight for our families, for our Church, for what is Right and Just.
The lukewarm fight for nothing. Evil, meanwhile, often avoids a fight at all costs. Choosing instead to wear you down, compromise by compromise, until resistance feels hopeless and surrender feels inevitable. Good men (and women) fight, they don't simply flee.
What I am encouraging is not easy, it is a hard and lonely path, especially when corruption appears to reign. But that is our Cross. To shrink it is to abandon the burden Christ has placed before us.
We should be very careful not to abandon it merely because another path appears safer.