Anyone who tries to phone me knows that my device is in “airplane mode” about ¾ of the day and then in “moon mode” the other ¼ of the day. This isn’t to be rude, but because a traditional priest has several hours of prayer a day. Due to this (and not having a community with whom to share various duties) my only time for “reading” is while washing dishes or cleaning my hermitage or running to the hospital for extreme unction. Thus, I listen to pre-downloaded audio-books or podcasts or Rosaries on airplane-mode much of the day while not in prayer or writing. My goal is to then turn my phone back on during the evening to respond to many texts, maybe one phone call.
Yesterday, I listened to two very different podcasts that dovetail in this article. Although I always listen on Apple podcasts, I’ll link the videos below for the ease of the reader.
The first was Tucker Carlson who spoke in Alberta, Canada this month. Just before minute nine, Tucker discusses how the Canadian government is making it easy for children to obtain Fentanyl. Just after minute nine, Tucker discusses how most Canadians are too polite to resist this, but then adds: “You should talk about it. But more than anything, you should internalize the message of that, which is: They [government officials] hate me. They hate me to the point they’re willing to kill me…which they are. And the third thing is: Notice the erosion of your most basic civil liberties—not the ones granted to you by the Crown—but the ones granted to you by God. And those would include the freedom of speech which is inalienable. It cannot be taken from you, not matter who is in Ottawa.”
This was astonishing, even for Tucker. We’ll come back to this.
The other podcast to which I tuned-in yesterday was Dr. Anthony Stine’s Return to Tradition. Stine discusses some traditional Spanish-speaking priests with a YouTube channel who recently got in trouble with their bishop. (I know some of these priests.) Stine’s intro sets the stage for his show: “If you’ve ever wondered why Catholic priests will often not talk about the crisis in the Church, or even ones you know are aware and share generally our feelings about things or have maybe more radical feelings than some of us do, that they don’t publicly share them, they don’t use their teaching authority to really dive into these problems. If you want to know why that is, I have a great story for you today…” The video is here. It is titled Traditional Priests Publicly Targeted By Modernists For Destruction.
Without going into why Tucker was in Canada, or what happened to those traditional Spanish-speaking priests, I want to consider why so many conservative and traditional priests are afraid to defend their private traditional beliefs in the public forum. It actually dovetails with the two above quotes.
Firstly, a certain tyrant with a self-styled way of “mercy” has hundreds of bishops living in fear of him, and thousands of priests living in fear of their bishops. (Communism always claims to be “for the people,” but it’s always “the people” who live in terror of exercising their free-speech.) So it is under Catholic Church leadership today.
Secondly, this goes back to Vatican II. Dignitatis Humanæ declares: “This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.”—Dignitatis Humanæ #2.
The error in the above paragraph from Dignitatis Humanæ is that it insists religious liberty is granted to not only people of Catholicism, but people of all religions. Now, some leftists might jump on my last sentence, thinking I am promoting forced-conversions to Catholicism. No, the Catholic Magisterium has never promoted forced-conversions. In fact, I am not even aware of such activity at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Rather, the error in Dignitatis Humanae is that it insists man can give other men rights to follow a false-religion. This is the glaring error in the above document. The truth is: Only God can grant rights, and God can never grant a right to a man or woman to follow a false-religion (even if God tolerates it—as has the Catholic hierarchy of every age of the Church tolerated peaceful infidels in her midst.)
Thirdly, let’s look at the podcasts above. Everyone in the traditional Catholic world knows that Tucker Carlson is not a Catholic. Due to this (and other reasons) I usually think of Tucker Carlson as a conservative, not a traditionalist. Conservatives usually talk about “First Amendment rights” as if the State gave us the right to speak-up as courageous conservatives. But what is so fascinating about Tucker’s recent talk in Canada is that he asserts that the conservatives of Canada have a right to stand up against the tyrant Justin Trudeau not because of some constitutional document giving rights to men (from men) but because God has given full rights to those who speak the truth. Again, Tucker said: “Notice the erosion of your most basic civil liberties—not the ones granted to you by the Crown—but the ones granted to you by God. And those would include the freedom of speech which is inalienable.”
Notwithstanding the fact we traditional Catholics do not believe in “freedom of speech” as most conservative Americans currently mean it, we can (more or less) say that the same plight can be found in the hierarchy today. As Anthony Stine said above, “[Traditional] Catholic priests… don’t use their teaching authority to really dive into these problems.” Why? Because most good Catholic priests today erroneously believe their right to proclaim true Catholicism comes from their bishop. This is false. While it is true that a bishop may validly retract the teaching authority of his priest, this is only if the priest speak heresy or commit a moral delict. A priest can never be validly punished under canon law for teaching true Catholicism. Why? Because an unjust law (or execution of such) is no law at all.
If there any priests out there who are wondering who gave you the right to defend the traditional Catholic faith—the only Catholic Faith—the answer is this: It is God Himself who gave you that right, not Dignitatis Humanæ‘s man-based rights. You will answer to Jesus Christ for your teaching-talent, whether you use it… or whether you squirrel it away in fear of losing your traditional sacraments.