During my recent month hiatus from the Internet I've informally had a growing list of rants, including Zelensky's visit to the Oval Office, Hegseth's use of SIGNAL chats, Trump's tariff wars, Trump's attack on the Fed, and the Trump attack on Harvard. I'll be writing on these and other topics but it is impossible to ignore the current topic.
Let me point out to less familiar reader that I have been critical of Francis in past posts and tweets. I'm not going to retract those criticisms here (and I'll summarize shortly), but let me point out here I have never disputed his authentic leadership of the Church in faith and morals and admired his pious simplicity and his charismatic outreach to certain minority groups like gay Catholics and migrants. In terms of the former, he has avoided the trappings of privilege like living in the more luxurious papal apartments and wanted a modest casket and burial place.
But Francis is divisive. I believe I've posted this anecdote a while back. One of my adult nephews had posted on Facebook a puff piece on the pontiff. I had become annoyed by Francis' derivative strawman critiques of capitalism and wrote a critical comment. I didn't get notified with any reactions to my post so I went back to the original--only to discover my nephew had deleted my comment. I don't mind people disagreeing with me but I'm incensed at being censored. When confronted, he was unapologetic, not wanting my negativity raining on his parade; I did respond to his disrespect but we've since reconciled.
As I've mentioned before, I was one of the few altar boys to span the transition of the Mass from Latin to the local language in the 60's/early 70's, part of Vatican II reforms. I still recall proudly leading the procession as the cross-bearer probably around 8 years old. The Latin mass, literally centuries old, did not intimidate me. There was something awesome knowing the mass was the same in every parish on earth was celebrating in the same tongue. It was more than the language. sometimes sung masses. the pomp and circumstance, votive candles, holy water, crucibles and incense; the Church now had the priest turn around and face the people, and the Church relaxed certain disciplines, including dietary.[I remember Mom would prepare my beloved breakfast of hard-boiled egg sandwiches because I didn't eat before Mass at Catholic school to start the day.] I loved huge churches with stained-glass windows that seemed to hint of the presence of a powerful, mysterious God. The rituals, the beauty, Gregorian chants, the sense of community across time and culture: what I disliked, even at 8 years old, was not liturgical diversity, but the paternalism of forcing New Mass on us. It was similar to Coca Cola's disastrous decision to replace Coca Cola (Classic) with New Coke. I'm sure the Church knew a lot of faithful would stay with the existing liturgy if given a choice. While I've enjoyed the occasional guitar mass, I thought the Church's nature and extent of changes were too accommodative of a corrupt secular, sexually-obsessed culture. Still, a priest was a role model for a young Catholic boy, and my Mom created vestments from old beach towels so I could play saying mass. I should note not all conservative Catholics are traditional; my maternal uncle, a diocesan priest who had to speak and write seminary exams in Latin, had no such nostalgia for the old mass and customs. However, he did not want his bishop assigning him to a dying Franco-American parish because he also spoke perfect French
I remained an altar boy through high school, serving daily 6 am mass on base and heading the altar boys; in fact the chaplain gave me his 4 volume set of Aquinas' Summa Theologica as a graduation gift. I thought I had a vocation to the priesthood, a key reason I went to OLL and choose philosophy as a major. I actually had an initial interview with the Jesuits but they never followed up.
But my apparent vocation had cooled in part because I started dating; plus I was increasingly alienated by an increasingly socially conscious Church, where sin, prayer and repentance made seemingly passing reference in homilies. For me, the "jump the shark" moment was at a UT/Austin where the campus priest reflected how we should embrace being mellow like Olivia Newton John.. But it was a variety of other things. I remember how my Catholic home room around fifth grade had "adopted" a black DC family and we tried to fill their wish lists. One that particularly caught my attention was the dad had a preference for Pall Mall cigarettes. I didn't like reinforcing bad dependencies. My own Dad had smoked the same brand as a USAF airman but had given up the nasty habit for Mom and our family. There are other changes. For example, the OLL sisters/nuns didn't all live in the convent or wear black habits. They often wore blouses and skirts with a prominent crucifix pendant. That didn't particularly bother me; I just didn't identify with the need to blend in with others in terms of clothing.
I myself haven't been to a Latin mass since chilhood, but I wanted the option. What surprises me is how many other prominent Catholic libertarians (Tom Woods, Jeffery Tucker, Lew Rockwell, etc.) love the Latin mass.
We conservatives go beyond the liturgy, of course; for a good piece on the complicated issues between Pope Francis and the Catholic right, see here. One particularly notable example was Francis' morally ambiguous "who am I to judge [gays]?" None of us reject the idea of "loving the sinner; hating the sin", We didn't want any confusion over the concept of traditional, lifetime marriage and sexuality within the procreative context of marriage. Francis seemed motivated to accommodate leftist talking points as moral leader of the Church without the unpopular teaching to live a chaste lifestyle. Francis also distanced himself from US bishops' attempts to deny pro-choice Catholic politicians communion.
But Francis has heavily identified with conventional leftist politics and Statism, including climate change activism and had made a scapegoat of so-called social darwinism he identifies with libertarianism. This is a knowing polemic which distorts the work of Herbert Spencer and others. I have debunked this in past posts. Tom Woods has written a key book on the Church and the free market, and I've clipped some of his relevant episodes below
