Thoughts on the Persecution of Traditionalists

A poster on FishEaters Forum has some thoughts on Francis's War on Tradition:

I'm frankly sick of the gaslighting "traditional Catholics" have been getting due to the vociferous vitriol of a very small portion of them in social-media-o-sphere.

What on earth did traditional Catholics in Savannah or Chicago do to deserve the treatment they have received from their bishops all the way up to the pope? What did they do, specifically, to warrant the modern equivalent of a sacramental interdict? (Yes by the way, some of us trads have qualms of conscience being forced to go to a Novus Ordo liturgy where our families may be exposed to who knows what. And don't tell me there aren't some serious abuses going on in the archdiocese of Chicago.)

Most of us just wanted to be left alone to raise our families in peace and quiet. We pray for the pope multiple times every day; we attend Masses that name the pope and bishop every day. We put money in the collections for our dioceses (those of us who attend FSSP, ICR, diocesan, etc). We put countless hours of volunteer work in our communities and schools. We stood in front of abortion clinics. We showed up at the marches. We invited people. We led study groups. We hosted potlucks and games and dances. We organized pilgrimages. Hell, even the SSPX youth group near me has 1) gone regularly to serve the homeless, 2) visited elderly/retirement homes to sing songs and have conversations, 3) held rosary gatherings in public spaces, 4) and even adopted a stretch of highway to keep it clean, which they do several times a year. Don't tell me the guilt of a few angry nuts bitching online is therefore equally imputed to the whole.

95% of the traditional Catholics I've ever known—in person mind you—have been helpful, kind, patient, supporting, thoughtful, and every other virtue you want to list. Have I had some nasty experiences with trad Catholics? Yes, including experiences that led to arrests and legal action (me being the victim of assault and property damage). So I know ugly "toxic" tradism. I've seen cold stares, inhospitality, etc. as well. But if there are some of you reading this who have the misfortune of regularly mistaking what you read online by "rad trads" with your run-of-the-mill trad in real life, I highly suggest you get off the computer and go be a human, doing human things with other humans. You know, Josef Pieper leisure stuff. Eutrapelia. Go to a church picnic, a catechism class, a Bible study, a men's (or women's) group meeting, homeschool meeting, etc. Stick around after Mass if there's coffee and donuts and make an attempt to socialize and learn just how considerate, intelligent, and hard-working real traditional Catholics are. Get your children to meet their children. Actually find out that, hey, they turn out to be very normal people who try to take their faith seriously. Who'da-thunk?

What I'm tired of is coming online to even moderately pro-Trad places like Fish Eaters and finding a not insignificant number of posts suggesting that the above, real people I mentioned somehow actually, visibly, obviously, obstinately ("pertinaciously" if you will) did something wrong to warrant the singlehandedly largest and most focused persecution of any group within the Church in living memory. And for what? Because someone, somewhere said something mean about Francis? Go cry me a river.

But let the heterodox Catholics continue to get away with the most blasphemous, sacrilegious, and inflammatory things with no repercussions, because, you know, they stand for luv. Nancy Pelosi gets better treatment from the pope than traditionalists. Cupich is elevated to the CDW. People who deserve serious consequences are monsters like McCarrick and those who enable sexual abuse. Are trad Catholics "infamous" for sodomizing altar boys on the scale we've seen? Voris might have you believe so, but—and you may be surprised to find out—it isn't anywhere close to the degree found in the mainstream church. But we weren't talking about that. When there's complaints about the "vitriol", it's because the trad Catholics said mean things that they probably shouldn't have said. I thought that's what confession was for. By the way, where are the confession lines consistently full? Oh yeah, in communities where those angry, mean, conspiracy theory, traditional loonies are to be found.

And yes, reading posts that do such gaslighting anger me. And I suggest it would be weird if one weren't angered at the constant gaslighting. It's like, someone keeps hitting you, and when you finally block them, they say, "See? You're such a jerk. That's why you deserve more hits."

Just stop, please.