A Note to the Tenderhearted In general, my audience knows my writing to be measured, and it is often described as charitable. This is something I work hard at, because it isn’t always easy to stay cool as a cucumber when you do what I do. There are legions of people who would like to see my downfall, and, lets be honest, it isn’t an easy thing to defend Catholic Tradition, and especially the SSPX. At times my motives have been questioned — the Trad Inc. stuff, etc. — and I have been accused of every sin under the Sun. I do what I do for basically two reasons, which are really one reason; and neither of those reasons are financial, because defending the SSPX is not what I would call a good business decision! My family certainly won’t miss any meals, but you would be out of your mind if you thought someone like me could achieve the professional success of a mainstream Catholic commentator by doing what I do. Those men, and I don’t blame them, will get hefty speaking fees to show up and speak at massive conferences, and so on. I, on the otherhand, will hop in my car and drive to Timbuckto to give talks for a bit of money and trust that the Lord will encourage people to be generous with donations. I am grateful for all of it, and I do not lament or regret doing it, because it isn’t about the money. If I could do it for free, I would. In any event, my reasons. First, I want to defend the Catholic Church, because it is the most important thing that I believe I can do with my time as a professional. I didn’t seek out this path, but it sort of fell on my lap, and I took it as a sign from Providence that I should continue down the path laid in front of me. Initially, I merely wanted to do something like being a run of the mill apologist at a place like Catholic Answers. Then, I found Catholic Tradition, and the rest, as they say, is history. Second, I do what I do, with regard to defending Tradition and the SSPX, because I am convinced, as God is my witness, that a Revolution has taken place in the Church, and therefore we must defend against the Revolution for the sake of the Church. My path brought me to the SSPX, which I was not raised in, and did not seek of my own accord. It is my belief that the SSPX is the only priestly organization within the Church that has both the theological formation, and the administrative reality sufficient to offer a comprehensive resistance to the disease of Modernism. Of course, there are other great priests outside the SSPX, and I count many of them as my friends, but as far as things go, the SSPX does not have to give a hat-tip to Modernism in any way, even implicitly or by silence, and I think that is indispensable. Whether you attend the SSPX or not, you benefit from their fight, because their fight is for you and your soul, even if you have never met them. Now, I always defend my own. I will defend my family, I will defend my friends and my community, I will defend my country, and I will defend my priests. In addition, I will always defend Archbishop Lefebvre because I believe he was, is, a great saint, and that history will show us as the years and centuries go by, that he truly was an Athanasius of our time. In any event, when someone attacks my own, I do take it personally, because I am a human being, and I am not a sociopath, so I have emotions and affection for persons that I love very much. I love the SSPX, because I love Archbishop Lefebvre like a father, even though I never met him. I love my priests because they love my wife and children enough — along with the other faithful they serve — to choose a life of being an outcast and hated by the Church they serve as valiantly as anyone for nothing other than love of Our Blessed Lord and his Bride. When men like Tim Flanders go down the path of creating new cockamamie ways to try and prove the SSPX is in schism, they don’t just do bad theology, but they hurt people. Real people. And I see that with my own eyes. For instance. Families that found the SSPX and have adult children who don’t think it is the right thing to do, which makes things hard. The parents work extra hard to keep the family together, and they finally find a good place where they can at least co-exist and attend each other’s weddings and baptisms. But then, men like Tim come along and throw pseudo-theological spaghetti at the wall with a lot of fancy words and references to this and that esoteric idea that sounds smart, and all of a sudden these families take a hit. “Look, even this place and this guy who you told me was pro-SSPX and that you aren’t in schism has changed his mind! You think you are smarter than this guy who writes long essays in a major traditional publication?” The kids who were on the fence think their parents have joined a cult or some evil group of uncharitable elitists who are basically creating their own religion, and all of a sudden the family is broken again. This doesn’t need to happen. Men like Tim Flanders could just keep their pseudo-theological musings to themselves, but something compels them to drop nuclear bombs into people’s lives. Maybe they don’t see because they live in a world where speculative theological banter is like a sport, or professional wrestling, where there are no true victims. But there are victims, and there are tears, and there is sorrow. It is evil, and it has to stop. There is enough stuff out there against the SSPX, and men like Tim Flanders don’t have to go on creating new ways to try and prove the SSPX is schismatic with their own personal opinions in ways that the authorities in Rome haven’t even done. These men will tell you about obedience, and then they hold people to standards they have created in their own intellectual prison and exclude others from a Church they have made in their own mind. It is evil, and it really hurts people, and the damage caused is not irrelevant. The late Bishop Tissier once came to give Confirmations at our priory, and I heard him preach. He spoke of the need for Catholics to defend the Church, as is the theme in Confirmation, and he let us know that defending the Church sometimes includes attacking, the way that defending one’s country includes attacking when war has been declared. I will attack when necessary, and I will do it with a clean conscience, because it is right and just to defend the innocents who are hurt by men like Tim Flanders when they publicly pontificate about imaginary modes of schism and heresy in the public forum, and by doing so they deceive unwitting readers who do not have the time or the theological acumen to realize that they have been sold a worthless bag of beans. One more thing before we continue. Those who have followed my work for a long time may recall that I was — I think — the first Catholic writer and podcaster to come out against Michael Lofton. If you don’t know who he is, don’t waste your time, but if you know, you know. He had been friendly to Tradition, and even had me on his show many times, as well as other SSPX priests. One day he decided to go after the SSPX and then Tradition as such. Now, the man has almost left the Faith entirely. At the time I called him an “Enemy of the Church” because I could see it. I could see that the way he was doing things was going to result in what eventually happened — a full-blown Modernist attack on Tradition. Tim Flanders is not Michael Lofton, but they are not as dissimilar as you might think. Both men have converted to different religions, or denominations, or streams within the Catholic Church about a half-dozen times in a short period of time. Both men have this habit of waffling back and forth, never being able to sink their teeth into a solid way of thinking and stay there. Both are also easily influenced by media (Tim admits this) and influential Catholic voices who get their hooks in them. Now, Tim is not Michael Lofton because Tim demonstrates way more virtue and his temperament is different. Nevertheless, mark my words, this will not be the last time Tim Flanders waffles and has to do a public reinvention of himself in the public forum. He has done it a number of times, and he will do it again. He is a good man, but he is unstable and cannot commit to being a certain way permanently, and we are watching that cycle play out at the expense of others who have supported him in the past. I called Michael Lofton an Enemy of the Church, because he was and is. I will call Tim Flanders an Enemy of the Church, because anyone who gains people’s trust and then waffles back and forth, only to cause them to be confused and disheartened, has troubled consciences and souls. The Church exists in souls. Funnily, I remember Matt Fradd texted me when I went after Lofton, and he said I was being uncharitable and misrepresenting Lofton. I wonder what he was say now… The crisis in the Church is hard enough for people, and we don’t need men who should know better adding fuel to the flames that will burn Catholics who are just trying to save their souls. We don’t get to decide when war breaks out, and sometimes that war is a civil war, so former confreres become enemy combatants. All the same, if the bullets are flying and they are in my direction or the direction of those I love, then if you are in my crosshairs, I will pull the trigger and sleep easy. Deus Vult. Mere Tradition with Kennedy Hall is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I. The Mad Man On the fifteenth of September, the editor of OnePeterFive published a piece announcing that he had been wrong about the Society of St Pius X. It is the second part of what he calls an editorial process, and it appeared alongside a much longer retraction on his Substack. The Substack is where the footnotes are, but very few people read his Substack, and OnePeterFive is where the readers are. I intend to answer bot
