I try really hard to ignore Catholic Church politics. I know there are conservatives, liberals, moderates who find ignoring church politics very natural, extremists on all ends of the spectrum, and radical activists. Of those, I consider myself a generic Catholic Conservative. I truly despise modern music, especially guitars, at Mass. I would LOVE it if we got rid of the "Sign of Peace", or at least moved it to the start of Mass. I think re-installing kneelers for receiving Communion would help restore lay Catholic understanding that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Likewise, I think church architecture should be less "cool hangout" and instead resemble a kingly court because our King is in the Tabernacle. Yet at the same time, I'll wear jeans to Mass, women without veils don't bother me as much as St. Paul and "the angels", and I think Novus Ordo is just as legitimate as the Latin Mass; although I think we lost quite a bit of important tradition and culture when the change happened. I fast from meat on every Friday that doesn't fall on a Friday I forgot was a Friday and eat meat before I realize my mistake.

I'm probably more conservative than most Catholics who attend Mass every Sunday, but probably more moderate than true traditionalists would find acceptable. Regardless, I still have a ton of respect for those traditionalists.

If you listen to Pope Francis, these traditionalist conservatives seem like a pretty big problem. In 2021, the Pope decimated the liturgical legacy of Pope Benedict XVI by putting extreme limitations of the extraordinary form of the Mass (the Latin Mass). The reason was because some Bishops began reporting that traditionalists in their diocese were increasingly viewing the Novus Ordo as illegitimate; which I fully admit is totally unacceptable. However, eliminating the extraordinary form from Parish Churches seems like a rather harsh rebuke for what should have been a pretty basic teaching moment about the different forms of Liturgy throughout the different Rites in the one Church.

Instead, Pope Francis seemingly made an attempt to ban their preferred Mass and left them feeling directly attacked. These attacks from the Pope have continued, going so far as to tell a group of Portuguese Jesuits that "there is a very strong reactionary attitude," in the United States. "It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally." He also said, "Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war." The headlines reading "Pope Francis Blasts "Backwards" Conservatives, "reactionary attitude" in the U.S. Church" from the leftist media trying to antagonize the conservatives didn't help. Still, for a Pope that loves dialogue and openness so much, he seems unfortunately uninterested in hearing from and listening to those who have "reactionary attitudes," because both sides might be surprised.

Conservative Catholics

Since the sexual revolution and everything that followed seemingly predicted in Humanae vitae, faithful Catholics have been under increasingly more and more pressure from the culture around them. What started as just eye rolling at our "crazy conspiracy theories about the devaluation of human life" has turned into us being spat as we pray outside abortion clinics, becoming victims of illegal anti-Catholic hiring practices that require undercover video to be punished, seeing private Catholic schools punished for Pro-Life healthcare plans, being targeted by the FBI and DOJ for bigotry, having homes raided by armed federal agents in SWAT gear, seeing our churches vandalized and burned, and seeing atheists and Satanists who openly mock the Church celebrated by the society we live in while those who defend faithful Catholics are banned from media. Willingly identifying as a Catholic instantly gets you labeled as a bigot; and our children are taking on even more of this burden because of how much more involved they are with social media, where everything is scrutinized to an unholy level. The faithful conservative Catholics have not isolated themselves, they've been beaten into a corner by the culture we live in. However, we at least had assurances from our Bishops and the Popes that we were valliantly holding onto the faith... at least until 2014.

But starting in 2014, Pope Francis began promoting the idea of an all inclusive church that was radically welcoming. This isn't meant to ridicule him. There's merit in the attitude of "Let's get them in the door, they can repent later." The problem Conservative Catholics have is that nobody is saying, "they can repent later." There is no call to repentance, just radical acceptance.

We've seen this tried before. The Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, and many others have all tried welcoming homosexuals into their churches. Invariably, it always results in Schism over same-sex marriage. I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty confident that God wants us UNITED in ONE CHURCH, not in schism!

Conservative Catholics now are in a position where they are still cornered by the culture they live in, but the support from our Bishops has been tempered and the Vatican itself seems to have turned against them. That's a harsh statement, but it's difficult not to draw that conclusion when the outspoken conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland is the subject of an Apostolic Visitation sent to find any dirt they can and recommending his removal over generic problems with "governance, finance, and basic prudence" in the diocese easily meeting financial goals and with vastly more seminarians-per-Catholic1:2619) than normal (21 Seminarians to 55,000 Catholics, about one for every 2,619 Catholics... or 1 in every 1,310 Catholic men). Meanwhile in Germany, priests are blessing same sex relationships and some German Bishops are calling for a reinvention of the Church's sexual morality" with seemingly no serious repercussions from the Vatican.

Conservative American Catholics can't help but see this and feel alarmed at the similarities between what's happened in the United States starting about 25 years ago and what's happening in the Catholic Church today. It started with acceptance and inclusion in the late 1990s, and little by little, it turned into a depraved anti-Christian society. The culture suffered a death by a thousand papercuts. And, unsurprisingly, the Conservative Catholic is extremely troubled, alarmed, and frightened because after seeing this and being ostracized from society for standing up for the Church's teachings, the Church now too seems poised to abandon them after they've abandoned the world for her and Christ.

Pope Francis

With that said, I don't think Pope Francis is being malicious. A lot of what the Holy Father says is distorted by the leftist news media taking individual words out of context and pasting them in quotation marks in what ever sentences they want. Then, to make matters worse, the radical right-wing activists and extremists take these misleading headlines, paste them in their own conservative media outlets, and reaffirm the left-wing media's narrative of a leftist Pope. It's a vicious cycle.

Like most Presidents before Trump, most Popes before Francis trusted very skilled, knowledgeable wordsmiths to craft every word he would say so that he could not be taken out of context, misunderstood, or easily mistranslated. Pope Saint John Paul the Great was among these Popes. While he was very scripted, he also managed to make very personal connections with those he met. Pope Francis, I think, has wanted his Papacy to feel more authentic and organic. There's nothing inherently evil about that, in fact, it's probably a good thing. However, this has led to several devastating gaffes where Pope Francis was (probably) misquoted as saying that Jesus was not God. The Vatican responded:

"As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful account of what was actually said but represent a personal and free interpretation of what he heard, as appears completely evident from what is written today regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ."

The regardless of what Pope Francis actually said, his desire for authenticity has left even those he has spoken with directly to be confused about the most essential, basic teachings of Christianity held by the Church for nearly two millennia. A lot of the animosity directed by Conservatives at Pope Francis has more to do with his confusing words than his intent. Conservative Catholics would do well to be radically forgiving of everyone, but especially Pope Francis. If there is true hostility from Pope Francis towards American conservative Catholics, it's because he's been on the receiving end of their endless criticism (again, based on the leftist media's presentation of him) and he's had enough of it. It's difficult to fault him for that, except, you know, he's the Pope.

Regarding the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis has said that its purpose will not be to change Catholic doctrine, but only to listen to one another and find ways to communicate with each other. That doesn't get mentioned in the leftist-media in the United States, however. What does get mentioned is that several Bishops who Pope Francis invited have said repeatedly that they hope to change Catholic teaching on the ordination of women deacons and gay marriage at the Synod.

Realistically, as good Christians, we absolutely SHOULD be calling those with same sex attraction into a relationship with Christ and into the Catholic Church, where they can repent of their sins. There has to be a dialogue and it cannot begin with "REPENT, SINNER!" However, it eventually needs to get to the repentance. I think Pope Francis is trying to get us there, but the left have an ideology of relativism that's impossible to crack and conservatives have been left feeling hurt and betrayed by the Church. The Synod on Synodology would be a tremendous success for the Holy Spirit if that rift could be healed.

Generational Divide with the Latin Mass

This is off topic a bit, but the Latin Mass is a reason why a lot of Traditionalists feel hurt and betrayed and has been Pope Francis' way of striking back against US Conservative Catholics. So let's talk about this for a couple of minutes. If you go to a traditional Latin Mass, you'll see a lot of young men and their families there. The liturgy is extraordinarily beautiful and, if you approach it right, truly transcendent. It's not hard to understand why a young man would prefer the traditional Latin Mass when they grew up in a church singing really bad 1970s-esque folk music with a cantor who thinks she's auditioning for lead soprano in an international Opera, and likely almost or did reject the Church before coming back to Christ and finding this.

However, you'll notice a lot of older people prefer the Novus Ordo. For a while, I thought it was just pride in their Frankenstein-like invention of liturgy. It was their generation that gave us this seemingly irreverent Mass we have today. However, I'm not sure that's fair or accurate.

Priests and those supporting him who do the Latin Mass now do it because they are extremely passionate about it. That passion helps make the Mass beautiful. This wasn't the Latin Mass people from Pope Francis' generation grew up with. The Latin Mass then was likely said with the same reverence and passion as a typical Novus Ordo Mass is said today. The only difference is that we're at least called to participate more in the Novus Ordo, so we're less likely to fall asleep after waking up early on a Sunday morning to do Confession right before Mass with the entire family. This is why I say neither the Latin Mass nor the Novus Ordo is superior to the other. Both transport you to the foot of the cross and bring you into communion with Christ and His Church.

Years ago, I was talking about the reforms of the church with my local priest. He said something that forever changed my thinking on this. It was years ago and I never wrote it down until now, but here's the gist of it.

There is a pendulum that swings left and right very slowly throughout the history of the Church. Even if we're lucky and live long lives, none of us are likely to see it swing all the way back and forward in our lifetime, it's something for Church historians to look at. But ignore the momentum of the pendulum swinging at the bottom and look up at the point it swings from. That point doesn't move left or right, but imagine that it moves forward. That steady point is God leading His church and the pendulum swinging is us kicking and screaming and fighting amongst ourselves.

The Catholic Church has survived truly awful Popes, heresies a plenty, corruption, and threats of every kind from global super powers to lone wolf terrorists. The faith is still alive. It's going to be okay.

God has a plan for His Church, so trust in Him, pray for those that have the monstrous task of protecting and proliferating the deposit of faith, and pray that those who want to be in the Church can at least come together and listen to one another.