Tag Archives: False Shepherds

To Boldly Go Where Catholics Have Gone Before!

Join Captain Jean Luc LeFevre and the crew of the Starship Trenterprise as they “boldly go where Catholics have gone before!”

Episode 1: “Planet of the Novies.” Trenterprise receives a distress beacon from the mysterious planet Vatican III.

See our entire series of videos (some of them humorous; some of them just tedious) at the Catholic Cyber-Militia YouTube Channel. If you like what you see, subscribe!

Novus Ordo: The Unique Expression!

Traditional Catholics! This video will help you appreciate the importance of the Motu Proprio. After viewing, you will understand why your traditional Latin Mass must be eliminated. If not, then you are ordered to watch the video again. We want you to return to the New Church. The Novus Ordo Church. It’s the spirit of Vatican II. All are welcome. You must return, or else. Set this video on continual repeat and watch it as many times as necessary until you are fully indoctrinated. Our Red Chinese Patriotic Church bishops recommend that you watch this video after 48 to 72 hours of sleep deprivation. This will increase the efficacy of your re-education session. We look forward to seeing you at the Novus Ordo Mass!

What’s It Gonna Be?

The war of extermination against Traditional Catholicism is relentless. At some point, everyone’s going to be forced to choose a side. Will you side with the heterodox extremists who have captured the hierarchy and are now openly flirting with apostasy, or will you side with those teachings and beliefs which have always been the Church’s true heritage since the times of the Apostles?

Hank Igitur is off wandering in the woods as he ponders this. Not only does he wander, but his thoughts do as well. We hope a nice ranger finds him and leads him back to his RV before he gets eaten by a raccoon or something…

Belated Year’s End Musings

Yeah, 2021’s on the books now as one of the worst years ever for Catholics, and we can pretty much bet on the fact that 2022 won’t much better. The attacks on 2,000 years of Tradition just keep on coming. Hank Igitur, the Traditional Roamin’ Catholics, offers these observations. They’re not profound, but at least they’re tedious…

Waging War on Traditional Catholics

Peter Kwasniewski has written a book titled From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’ War: Catholics Respond to the Motu Proprio TRADITIONES CUSTODES on the Latin Mass. It’s a compilation of essays and articles from a number of authors.

If you are a traditional Catholic, it’s must reading.

If you’re not a traditional Catholic, but have heard there’s some sort of trouble brewing between Pope Francis and traditional Catholics, the book From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’ War gives you some eye-opening insight on just how dangerous Francis’ actions are to the Faith of our Fathers.

You can order the book from Angelico Press, or from a variety of other online sources.

Excerpts from Kwasniewski’s book…

Traditional Catholics: Welcome to your New Parish!

You Traditional Catholics must be reindoctrinated. Your Latin Mass is illegal and divisive, therefore it will be eliminated. As an alternative to sending you forced re-education camps, this kinder/gentler approach allows you to be reindoctrinated in an entertaining online course. You are on the honor system; no certificates are required! Simply contact your Diocesan Office and inform them as you complete each training session.

COURSE TITLE: TRADITIONES CUSTODES 101 (TC-101)

LESSON 1: WELCOME TO YOUR NEW PARISH! LESSON

OVERVIEW: Father Timmy introduces a group of newly orphaned Trads to their new Novus Ordo parish, St. Sillies. This lesson emphasizes the importance of having fun at Mass and opening yourself up to the “Spirit of Vatican II” through the magic of liturgical dance!

Time to get re-educated! Don’t worry, Traditional Catholics. Soon you will learn to LOVE the New Mass. Or else…

What do you do when they kick you out of your own parish?

There is no getting around the fact that the Pope intended Traditionis Custodes to bring about the immediate suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), and it doesn’t take much guesswork to conclude that his long term goal is the complete elimination of the TLM from the face of the earth. This pontificate has made masterful use of evasive and vague wording on almost every controversial statement or decision, so much so that the new phrase “weaponized ambiguity” has come into common use.

There is nothing, however, about Traditionis Custodes which is the least bit ambiguous. He wants us gone, and the sooner the better.

In diocese after diocese across the world, faithful (and yes, loyal) Catholics are being told to get the hell out and to take their accursed Latin Mass with them. Pastors of diocesan parishes which offer a TLM in addition to their standard Novus Ordo fare have been put on notice: “Kick ’em out. Now! And if we ever catch you sneaking around to say a pre-Vatican II mass, we’ll kick you out as well.”

Thankfully, not every bishop has rolled over. Although many are complying with the diktat from Rome, there are bishops who are showing some form of resistance to this vindictive set of orders. Some are invoking Canon 87 and refusing to change a thing, while others–perhaps because they’re 100% on board with the Papal Pogrom or because they’re simply scared–are executing the plan as ordered. Masses are being suppressed, Traditional Catholics are being told to hit the road.

There are some bishops who fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Although they’re intent on carrying out Papal orders, they do have a sense of obligation to their flocks who have become the objects of the Vatican’s ire. These are the bishops who are attempting to ease the “transition” in some fashion. Oh, they are forcing the TLM out of the parishes, sure enough, but they’re doing so in a way to assist with some sort of “soft landing” for the hapless Traddies who will now be searching for some alternate venue where they can still attend the Mass of the Ages.

In my particular situation, I am a member of the local FSSP parish which has (as of late August 2021, anyway), not yet been actively targeted for elimination. I also help out at a Novus Ordo parish which has been offering the TLM for many years. Traditionis Custodes has clobbered that parish pretty hard, as you might imagine. The good news is that our local Ordinary has been helpful in facilitating our search for a new home. For that we are truly grateful, while at the same time being more than a little disappointed that he didn’t invoke Canon 87.

Trying to set up a new venue for a renegade TLM in short order is not an easy thing. There are challenges aplenty, as this video describes…

Here’s your handy guide for setting up your very own TLM “Community.” Finding a 21st Century Catacomb in six easy steps! (or not…)

Of Toxic Traddies and Sinking Ships…

The repercussions of  Traditionis Custodes continue to resonate throughout the Catholic world.

Thankfully, not all of the bishops have responded with swift draconian enthusiasm to this new diktat. Many prelates are taking a cautious wait & see approach, while others have openly assured worried Catholics in their dioceses that nothing will change. One bishop in particular has gone so far as telling his priests in effect “if you want to start saying the TLM, drop me an email and I’ll run it up the chain of command.” More shepherds like him, please!

Here at this tiny internet backwater called Catholic Cyber-Militia, activity has picked up. One video published on my YouTube channel has exploded (and by “exploded” I mean that it’s received over 1500 views in the last 48 hours. Most Catholic YouTubers can get that many views in the first five minutes after posting, but for our rinky-dink outfit, 1.5k views in a year would be above-average!). In the finest click bait tradition, the video was titled “Why I No Longer Attend My Latin Mass Parish Weekly.” Instead of revealing something profound and shocking, the punch line is that so many new people are attending our FSSP parish each week that I decided to give up my seat for others, opting instead to attend a wonderful TLM offered by a diocesan parish church. And, being a former Navy man, I had to obtusely couch the whole thing in terms of a famous incident in WW2 where a chaplain on a sinking cruiser gave his lifejacket to a sailor, telling him “Take it lad. You need it more than I do.” There’s a link to said video below.

Given the events of the last week, I suppose the search engines were working overtime to scrape up anything relating to the Traditional Latin Mass, so this video from Jan 2020 must have bubbled to the top of some peoples’ searches. We’ve been getting an uptick of views along with some very interesting comments.

One of the comments was a thoughtful post written by a viewer who pointed out some very real problem areas when it comes not to the TLM per se, but rather those who attend it. Among his comments, “The TLM appears to be on a theological, liturgical and, all too often, political war footing. They not only prefer not to participate in the NO, but condemn it, sometimes in the harshest terms.”

He has a point, and it’s a point worth considering. The YouTube comments section isn’t the best place to compose a lengthy essay, but because I’m inherently lazy, I decided to cut & paste my reply and include it here:

We’ve all experienced the “Toxic Traddie,” whether on line or in person.  Being overly-pugilistic is not helpful to our cause.  I’m no psychobabbler, but I think that some of the over-aggressiveness comes from having had to assume a defensive posture for so many decades.  They were actively trying to suppress the TLM in the ’70’s and early 80’s, and the efforts of local bishops to force everyone adhering to the Mass of the Ages underground were, in retrospect, perceived as the first wave of prosecution.  We’ve been treated as 2nd class citizens for so very long.

Much of our criticisms of the new Mass is the seemingly never-ending stream of “innovations” that we see getting applied at the parish & diocesan levels. It seems more like experimentation than innovation, and in the first few years of Novus Ordo mass attendance following my conversion from Evangelical Protestantism, it seemed as if most of the experiments were failing.  In no particular order, the felt banners, cheezy hootenanny music, liturgical dancing, balloons, slide shows, the increasingly Protestant-looking interior architecture…all of this led me to wonder why we were trying so hard–and failing–to be like a polyglot mixture of a dozen non-Catholic churches. 

Those criticisms can be viewed as simply a matter of preference, and I get that.  What seems stunningly sublime to Joe can seem in hideously bad taste to Jill.  But when I considered how our Lord was treated in the many NO masses I attended, that got me concerned.  The casual approach to meeting God Himself in the Eucharist was widespread.  Being told not to kneel, having kneelers removed to enforce the no-kneeling policy, the hit-or-miss approach to confession, the insistence that the priest was no different than us; he just happened to be up on the podium.  All of the lay people traipsing up and down to perform this or that little function were just essential as Father’s activities.  I got the sense that the priest as “Alter Christus” was being deliberately abandoned.  If the “presider” is nothing more than a layman who happens to know more about theology than I do, then why did I quit being a Baptist?  Brother Quincy at my old Baptist church could run rings around the typical NO homily, the music was far more uplifting and theologically cogent, and the congregation wasn’t simply “phoning in;” they were hanging on every word being preached from the pulpit.

As I discovered more about the twenty centuries of Catholic theology and tradition to which I was now heir, the cognitive dissonance between what I was reading and what I was seeing every Sunday was more than troubling. 

I became a CCD teacher and was told that I was emphasizing the “old stuff” too much.  I joined the Parish Council in an attempt to influence the liturgical experimentation in our particular church, hoping to nudge it back a little towards a traditional stance.  I was verbally encouraged by the deacon to look for another parish.

Then I discovered the Latin Mass.  To those familiar with that Mass, no explanation regarding the incredible contrasts is required.  To those who have no idea how it is different or why so many of us see it as the future of the Church, well I ask you to go and see for yourself!

Although Rome has not yet made the Traditional Latin Mass outright illegal (at least, not as of late July 2021), they have taken dramatic steps to check its spread and begin rolling it back into a shrinking number of “Trad ghettoes.”  Go and see for yourself.  See how mean and toxic the Traddies are.  See how the clueless they appear because everything’s being said in some dead language.  See how divisive they are because the theology they adhere to can–at times–seem almost unrecognizable when compared to what you might experience in your home NO parish. 

Do I think the Novus Ordo Mass is invalid?  No, I do not.  Do I believe that Christ is truly present on the altar at the moment of consecration?  Yes, I do.  Do I think that Christ’s Real Presence is maintained in the tabernacle?  Absolutely!  It’s just that in many NO churches, the tabernacle has been removed from its due place of honor behind the high altar.  (“Jesus? Sure!  Down the hall to the left, right past the rest rooms.”)

Christ is truly present in the Novus Ordo, but His Presence is often obscured to some degree by many of the trappings, procedures, and rubrics which emphasize horizontality (people-centered) rather than verticality (lifting our eyes toward Heaven). 

Are there pockets in Traddiedom which believe that Vatican II was so completely off the rails that the NO is invalid?  Yes.  We have a spectrum of people in just the same way that Noviedom does.  I must remind myself not to judge what I know to be a faithful, orthodox Novus Ordo parish, painting it with the same brush as the crazy Novus Ordo parish down the street, resplendent with balloons, giant puppets, a praise band jazz combo, liturgical dancing girls and heterodox preaching.  I’ve experienced all those things first-hand (well, not those giant puppets), and even as I was cringing in my pew I should have reminded myself that this wasn’t the entire post-V2 Church.  I tried to remind myself of that, but perhaps too often I failed to take my own advice.

For anyone out there who has been flame-sprayed by a Toxic Traddie on line, I apologize…particularly if I was the guy holding the flame thrower.  In the spirit of Christian Brotherhood, I would ask my mainstream Novus Ordo friends to reconsider the small but growing community of Traditional Catholics and ask yourselves two questions: 

What is it that you actually know about us?

 Does it seem fair or just that we are being targeted for extinction by our own hierarchy?

The video that tied sinking ships and the TLM together in a rather round-about fashion…

Now, back to the tangential issue of “click bait.” This article’s very title is a tad bit guilty of this. Are “toxic traddies” making things worse or better? It’s a problem, and I urge my fellow Trads to dial down the rhetoric a bit. Let’s continue to make our case forcefully, but with more charity.

Is there a “sinking ship” in all this? Yes, I think there’s a ship that is taking on water and needs to right itself before capsizing, but it might not be the ship you think…

See below for more on the hotbutton “Toxic Traddie” issue..

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