Jesus condemned and mocked both the Sadducees and the Pharisees, for they were man-made cults of hypocrisy and abuse. Today’s Sadducees are the progressives, a la Mike Lewis and in general Bergoglioism. Today’s Pharisees are the traditionalists, a la, Kennedy Hall and Peter Kwasniewski, as well as the so-called conservatives, a la, Eric Sammons. These represent the superficially opposing but deeply similar counterfeits of authentic magisterial Catholicism whose trademark is ideological idiocy: lgbtq advocacy and hell is not eternal, on the one hand, and men are superior than women and the Novus ordo is evil, on the other. The evil spirit in both is one of disobedience, pride, and elitist supremacy.
Catholic traditionalism is now (perhaps it had a more redeeming purpose in the past) nothing but the sociological and online emergence of an elite inner circle cult, a self-justifying arbitrary fake aristocracy. Its purpose is nothing other than the completely unjustified assertion of and complacence in spiritual superiority. It’s the product of neurotic, scrupulous, narcissistic, insecure souls—fueled by pride—and it is nothing else than neo-Phariseeism. Jesus harshly condemned it when He was on Earth, and He does so today from Heaven. Listen up Kennedy Hall and Tim Gordon, Peter Kwasniewski, and other trad losers. I am not judging or condemning anyone personally here, except the cult leaders who know better and are self-serving asses.
There is just the magisterium, pre and post 1965, just the Church, just the dogmatic teachings, and just the approved liturgies. Preferences are permitted among what is optional, so preferring the TLM does not make one a trad cultist, and preferring the Novus Ordo does not make one a bergoglion heretic. But rejecting the magisterium after 1962, and refusing to be in communion with those who don’t, like, say, Theo Howard and the SSPX, and rejecting the magisterium before 1962 and refusing to be in communion with those who don’t, like say, Mike Lewis, does make one a heretic and schismatic and thus outside the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
And it’s not just outright magisterial rejection that makes one a schismatic and a cultist. It’s also suspicion of the magisterium and its official judgments and decisions. One will only accept it if it meets with one’s approval. This is not religious submission of intellect and will. And then there is the magisterium that both trads and progressives invent in their sick minds and sub cultures. It’s a sin to go to the Novus ordo. It’s a sin not to have four or more children. It’s a sin to treat your wife as an equal instead as an inferior human being. It’s a sin for a mother to ever work for money and contribute to the household. It’s a sin to say the Divine Mercy chaplet. Ad nauseum and infernum. For the Bergoglions, it’s a sin to condemn sodomy.
While your typical mainstream Novus Ordo parish liturgy and culture evinces irreverence, emasculating music, and no sense of the supernatural, feeling less like a ritual sacrifice than a celebration of the community, with hardly any talk of sin (unless it be wokish ones) and the possibility of damnation, and with the “presider” acting like a gay clown and entertainer; your typical TLM-only parish is gloomy, guilt ridden, scrupulous, Calvinist, misogynistic, inner circle, cultish, 4 plus children or be ashamed, reactionary, fear-based, coercive, schismatic, uncharitable, snobby, joyless, judgy, dour, and sad. Priests are impersonal, neurotic, and arrogant, superior to you and needing to be treated that way, with confessions that are abusive, and homilies that are either shaming and guilt-inducing, or just scapegoating cheers for the in-crowd.
Of course, there are parishes, priests, and lay people, both NO and TLM, that evince none of these ideological toxins, but they are the exception. Catholic discourse and subcultures, both “left” and “right”, are becoming more and more ideological. A typical “Trad” now means a neurotic and prideful ideological Pharisee who thinks having 4 or more children (which he makes sure to tell everyone every other day) and treating his wife like a a child-slave makes him superior and gives him a ticket to heaven, and who despises the Novus Ordo and thereby commits the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But the anti-trad discourse and subcultures are just as rotten, making a worldly and godless woke mockery of the Faith. Where are the normal Catholics?
Here’s a prime example of trad ideology: fertility Calvinism. Trophy wives is evil. But trophy # of children is much worse. Nothing wrong with having many children, if it is a decision made with full, non-manipulating consent of wife and husband, and based upon Prudence. It’s not ok if the ideology behind the decision is “God demands that we have as many children as we can and as fast as possible!!” That’s neurotic and fanatical Pharisee trad ideology. Or even worse if the motivation is to be part of the “cool club.” Or fertility Calvinism: “Look, we have 4+ children! (4 in the magic number). We are part of the elect!”
Do you think you are a better Catholic because you have more children? Do you look down on, say, a family of “only” 5 and think—“mid” Catholic? Do you cite the number in your bio as if it were a resume builder? Do you mention it at least once a day so people know you’re a real Catholic? Always the last line on the bio—“John Supercatholic is the father of 8.” Why do we need to know this? Why not just “John is a father and husband”? Father of three? Not so much. That’s shameful in these circles. Best not to mention it. Chesterton Academies, which are authentically classical and robustly Catholic and thus doing great work for God and neighbor, are, nevertheless, notorious for having staff bios that always culminate in the 4+ number of children brag. If it’s less than that, and they mention the number, it’s only because the couple is very young. It’s as if you can’t work there unless you have four or more children, or are a young couple aiming for the magic 4+.
Any excuse to announce their # of children on X: “Man, tough flu this season, All SIX of my children got it.” Not “All of my children got it”—never that. You’ll notice that Catholics in these circles or who aspire to be in them with “only” three children hardly ever announce their # because of shame, it’s just mid. It shows that you’re secular and don’t really love children for their own sake and use NFP and don’t trust in Providence or whatever.
“Good afternoon candidate. You’re here to interview for the editor position of Trad Magazine. I have some questions for you. I’ll ask the most important one first: How many children do you have?”
“Gee, only three. But I’m a good Catholic and I know my stuff and I’m published and….”
“Well you’re 40 years old and you should at least have four children by now—three is just not gonna cut it. We have competition you know. The editor of John Paul II the Heretic has 10 children and he’s only 30. Now that’s a Catholic. Next!”
Seldom discussed, however, is the utter depravity of many of these big Catholic families, with neglected and abused children, many of whom act out later in life and lose the faith, or become neurotic cultists, and tortured, mentally ill mothers. But the externals look holy! The children become aware that they are valued more as trophies or resume builders or as tokens of a neurotic Calvinist compulsion to insist that one is of the elect or better than “those Catholics.” Devastating. No one deserves hell more than those who use our Holy Religion to serve their will to power.
And you can’t challenge anyone on this. They just hate you for exposing it, or they think you’re just jealous because you’re not in the fertility elite. It is precisely the Phariseeism that enraged Our Lord. And it leads to hell. In short, anyone constantly tells you in person or in print the number of children he has (if four or more, of course) is an obnoxious and insecure and holier-than-thou Trad ideologue neo-Pharisee. “Look, I’m a real Catholic, a member of the fertility elite.” No, you’re a bizarre Catholic Calvinist replacing fertility with worldly prosperity. Good for you for having a large family, if that’s indeed what God wanted for you and your wife. But knowing many dysfunctional large Catholic families with abused wives and neglected, thoroughly neurotic children, perhaps some NFP was in God’s plan. “But no, NFP is Vatican II! And I wouldn’t get to be in the elite 4+ children club!”
Erudite (and not so erudite) ideologues use their redoubtable rhetorical skills and high IQs to manipulate the audience into thinking just as they do, not to help us realize the truth for ourselves. This is propaganda. Catholicism is turning into an ideology. It’s not an ideology, of course, but the Saving Truth, but these toxic personal and online subcultures cloak and counterfeit Catholic Reality. Where are the authentically Catholic communities?
I would just like to be Catholic. Where are my people? Where is my home?
This article was originally published on Children Beware of Idols.
