Navigating The Catholic Culture War

 There are two things I appreciate about our informal Catholic men's group we formed a few years ago: it developed organically and is not an Official Parish Program (TM) or tied to a particular parish; we meet In Real Life for prayer, service, and fellowship, and have no real online component except for an email listserv. 

Because the men (ranging in age from early thirties to mid-forties) run the spectrum--from slightly more progressively-minded to more conservative, and from charismatic to traditionalist--we have a healthy mix of perspectives and viewpoints. Some of us attend the Latin Mass, while others do not. Some of the guys are on Facebook, others are not. But the meat and potatoes of our existence is in person. We get together for a weekly early morning Lectio Divina, have lent muscle to the local Little Sisters of the Poor in clearing downed trees, and during this Holy Week, met at a church for midnight prayer on Good Friday.

The more I contrast this with my past experience on social media, the more appreciative I am that we are not tied or bound by such a medium. We are able to exist together, in part, because we don't cancel or attack each other, even if there are things we may not agree on. There's a healthy respect, kind of the way you don't get too deep into anything with your next door neighbor, because if it goes south...well, you still have to live next to them. 

When I contrast this with the tunnel-vision one acquires online, where one can cut ties with little sense of loss, it's that these IRL relationships are more forgiving, with some 'bend' so as not to break; kind of the way an expansion tank on your hot water heater serves to absorb and release some of the pressure so the main tank doesn't blow up. I've found myself interacting and becoming close friends with guys who didn't vote for Trump, who may be more COVID-cautious, who aren't traditionally-minded when it comes to liturgy, and who may be more sympathetic to Pope Francis than I am. And they are all good, solid guys. It feels...I don't know...healthy to have the opportunity to have this kind of cross-section of Catholicism, as long as we can agree on the fundamentals. All of us "belong" in this group in the sense that we are men, and we are Catholic.

Though our family attends the Traditional Latin Mass exclusively, I would not consider myself a traditionalist. Maybe trad-sympathetic is more fitting, if we are doing labels. I will generally avoid going to the Ordinary Form unless I have no other option, but I would not necessarily walk out in protest if it was in fact my only option. I don't think Vatican II led to the kind of renewal it envisioned, but I don't write it off as an invalid council either. I don't really listen to much of what Pope Francis has to say in the news, but I try very hard not to disparage either out of respect for the Chair. Honestly, I don't know what the technical qualifications would be to be considered a traditionalist in the formal sense, and I'm probably not one anyway because I haven't cared enough to find out.

Somewhere along the line, the whole COVID anti-masking thing became conflated with traditionalism, and the social media conjecturing became for some a parrot of leftist virtue signaling (posting photos in masks, photos of one getting the vaccine, etc). Which gets a little confusing I imagine if your in that Venn-intersection of points. Most of the traditionalists I know are also staunchly against masking as a matter of principal. It would be strange, really, at least in my sphere, if someone was adamantly pro-mask and a traditional Catholic, kind of like a non-sequitur. This may tie in with the idea of a globalist New World Order in which mandatory masking is part of the overall global agenda to vaccinate and depopulate, and that to participate in it makes one complicit in ultimately undermining liberty and personal autonomy.

Once again, I find myself just right of center on the issue: I reluctantly mask when I have to (though using it as a chin cup whenever I can) because I think they are disgusting and for the most part ineffective, and never really for extended periods of time thankfully. I hate that I can't see people's smiles or expressions. Am I willing to go to jail over it? Probably not. Call me unprincipled. 

But does it undermine my Catholicism? Not that I was ever in da club the first place, but does traditionalism extend beyond the liturgy into these peripheral spheres, I wonder. Does one gain something from a traditionalist's standpoint for not wearing a mask or choosing not to get vaccinated? Or if something the Pope does is given a sympathetic gesture, does it undermine their street-cred? Is traditionalism about traditional worship and living out the virtues, or the principled peripheral items that determine one's standing? How does one make these determinations for themselves, and what if they come to a conclusion that goes against these cultural norms? 

The people I know in real life, whether traditionalists or otherwise, bless me with a lot of grace and bend. One of the nice things about IRL is that we don't live by caricatures or quick denigration, but through respect, boundaries, and nuance. I can be of a different mind on a host of topics and still be able to have a comfortable drink together, and even some spirited debate when warranted. 

What I do have sympathies for, is new traditionally minded Catholics who may not want to or be prepared to navigate all these peripheral issues of masks and which-bishops-are-the-good-ones and politics. What they may simply want, is Jesus and the One True Faith. As in the Mystery of the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, all that matters in the moment is WE HAVE TO FIND JESUS. 

I had the privilege of witnessing a 26 year old young man come into the Church by way of the TLM last week. The relief and sense of gratitude for finding that lost coin upon returning to his pew after being confirmed took me back to that Beginner's Heart attitude that can get lost in this kind of stupid Catholic Culture war--who is or isn't trad enough, who is a heretic, who needs to be canceled or put in their place or enlightened with a barrage of articles and websites. One of the nice things now is that we can plug him into some community with our IRL men's group, hopefully, to walk with him in his faith and support him.

My wife and I will be hosting a large gathering at our home for every Catholic family of every stripe that we know next month. We wanted to give the opportunity to have these kind of things--cross-sections of otherwise disconnected local Catholic families across parishes to meet each other and have some good food and company to know they're not alone and completely on their own--whether their pro-mask or anti-mask, traditionalist of Novus Ordo, liberal or conservative. I'd ask for your prayers for good weather, since there will be almost a hundred people with kids and we'll be outside in our backyard. It should be a fun example of Venn Diagram Catholicism at it's finest!