Crush Idols: Why Latin Mass Superiority Must Burn

Sons of the Burning Ground

DISCLAIMER: READ THIS FIRST

I know what I’m walking into here by writing about the Latin Mass.

It’s a lightning rod. The fact that it’s become this contentious is a problem in itself but that’s not even the point.

Lets start with clarity: I write for men, specifically, Catholic husbands and fathers.

If that’s not your vocation, this might not be your piece. But if it is and you find yourself clinging to the Latin Mass for reasons rooted in pride, disobedience, or identity politics then this field manual is going to piss you off. Good.

While we’re at it also kill the gaslighting up front:

First, I grew up going to TLM and to the NO where Latin was blended significantly into the mass in NYC. What the Tridentine community has become now is STARKLY different than the 90s. So miss me with the “Do YoU EvEn Go?”

Not anymore I don’t because they are largely rife with rot.

And to be clear, I have beef with the Novus Ordo too. It’s performative, sanitized, bloated with corporate messaging, celebrity priests, political agendas, you name it. That’s rot too.

But what’s festering in the TLM community is a different kind of poison. These are deeply anti-Catholic ideologies dressed up as sacred tradition. And if we don’t confront them now, they’ll accelerate the Church’s collapse, fast.

Second, Whenever someone critiques the Latin Mass culture, the defense is always the same “Oh, well that’s just the internet.”

Wrong.

The internet is a real place now and it’s where ideologies metastasize. Have you been on X lately? If even one major “Catholic influencer” with a six-figure or more following is pushing clearly divisive trad propaganda, then we have a rot problem, not just a bloat problem.

And guess what? The men who live to defend the Latin Mass online are never the first to rebuke these traitors in their midst. Ever. That silence speaks volumes.

Now to the women. I get that this issue fires you up too and I sympathize because I’ve seen what happens when husbands abdicate. I suffered through this myself and it took me years to rebuild. I’m still working at it daily.

A lot of the women clinging to the Latin Mass aren’t doing it for the rubrics or the aesthetics but rather because they’re starving for leadership while their husbands are absent, passive, weak, and/or just not formed. Some of it isn’t their fault, a lot of it is.

Here’s the truth: the Latin Mass won’t fix leadership issues

Your husband needs to be here, training, learning governance, and bleeding into his vocation If that’s your situation, this piece might sting, but I invite you to stay anyways. Because at the end of the day, this entire platform of mine is about sacramental formation and training, not personal preference. This is about cleansing the rot in our ranks before the fissures become permanent and about confronting the very thing Cardinal Ratzinger foresaw:

A smaller, poorer, purer Church because the bloated one we’ve inherited is breaking apart.

So read on.

You might not like it, but you might learn something and if you’re serious about saving your family and rebuilding this Church from the inside out, then stay in the fight.

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THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: TRADITION OR EUROCENTRISM?

Let’s name what everyone’s too scared to say or unaware of their inherent bias.

A lot of the men fighting for the Latin Mass are defending a European aesthetic that has zero to do with defending the faith.

Its quite easy to confuse this.

To them, Catholicism only feels Catholic if it comes in the form of Gregorian chant, Roman lace, Renaissance paintings, Gothic cathedrals, and Latin rubrics. They’ve confused cultural beauty with divine truth.

I appreciate all of that, deeply. I’ve also used many of those images in my work in the past before I decided I’m going to be the only kind of Catholic and man I know how to be. My work reflects that with the imagery I curate.

I train beauty/cultural formation in Phase 4 of my formation system. Beauty is real, it is important, it is inherent and it orients us toward the divine.

But let’s be very clear:

• The Catholic faith is not Euro-coded.

• It isn’t defined by Italian marble, French monasteries, or German vestments.

• It didn’t begin in Rome. It began in the desert, in the caves, in the heat. It was shaped by men who bled on stone before singing in cloisters.

Everything I do is rooted in this. Everyone signals to Rome but they forgot about Carthage.

Carthage came first, North Africa came first, The Desert Fathers came first and the very foundations of monasticism, real asceticism (not architectural cosplay), came from the soil of Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Ethiopia.

I’m Catholic. I’m Black. And I’m done pretending that I can’t say this without it seeming like i’m about to put my fist in the air.

I’m not, thats not my style.

But I’m also done with sanitized, Euro-centric aestheticism as the whole picture of the Church. And I’m done with people being so unaware of themselves that they don’t realize that when they attack me about my views on TLM that its a blatant defense of the bias, discrimination and yes, racism that exists in many of these circles.

So show me the desert icons. Show me the burned frescoes of Scetis. Show me St. Moses with a scarred back and a blood-washed robe.

Is that not Catholic enough for you? If not then bow out here, go to confession and may God bless you abundantly.

If the only vision of tradition you’re willing to defend is powdered white and baroque-gilded, then what you love isn’t tradition, it’s actually nostalgia with a thurible. What does that have to do with the faith? What does that have to do with your training? Your formation?

Absolutely nothing.

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The Cult of Superiority

There’s a sickness spreading in the American Catholic Church. You see it in the smug faces of those who treat the Latin Mass as a badge of spiritual supremacy and you hear it in the whispers: “The old rite is the only real Mass. The rest is for the spiritually weak, the modernist, the outsider.”

Some don’t say it openly, but many do, and their contempt hangs in the air like incense choked with bitterness.

This is tradition? This is idolatry through and through.

It is the cult of superiority, dressed up in lace and Latin, weaponized to draw lines and create an anti-church inside the Church. The tragedy is that the ones most obsessed with being “the remnant” are the ones furthest from Christ, because they have turned the altar into a mirror. Is that you?

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Americanism: The Heresy Behind the Trad Cult

This rot goes much deeper than the 1960s or the Vatican II backlash. It’s the Americanism that Pope Leo XIII condemned over a century ago that’s now been weaponized through the Latin Mass movement, culture war grievance, and MAGA messianism.

This isn’t a Trump hit piece either. I voted Trump as he was “the lesser of two evils” but i’m not blind. The deification of Trump after the assassination attempt on stage and the obsession with VP Vance for clumsily citing Aquinas is odd and concerning. This is a unique element to Catholic in America, where the nature of our faith here is largely reactive.

Americanism is the idea that the Church should conform to American values: individualism, defiance of authority, national exceptionalism, and the right to “pick and choose” your doctrine. Oddly similar to the exact spirit of first settlers here, no? This culture is deeply embedded here, it didn’t simply spawn out of thin air.

The new trad cult is just the old American heresy in a cassock. It elevates personal preference over Church unity, “freedom” over obedience, and turns the Mass into a flag like an act of rebellion against Rome, the bishops, and anyone who threatens their empire.

Pope Francis knew this. That’s why he warned of Americanism and why he restricted the Latin Mass. I don’t presume intent, thats God’s job, but many of the Trads presume intent and claim this act was out of spite or desire to snuff out traditionalism. The reality is this act was meant to break up the cult of pride, grievance, and political idolatry that now infects so much of American Catholicism.

Americanism is a disease and it is killing the Church in the West. The cure is humility, obedience, and a return to the desert where Christ, not Caesar or Trump, is King.

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Tradition Is A Slow Death

The saints of the desert knew real tradition: humility, repentance, discipline, effort and welcome for the stranger.

St. Moses the Black bled in the desert while building a real brotherhood of ex-slaves, thieves, and outcasts. Don’t forget, he was a criminal himself before his extreme conversion. He didn’t ask if they knew their rubrics, he asked if they could suffer, repent, and love like Christ.

Do you think he would be invited and welcome into the community today? Be honest with yourself.

Look at the suburban “trad” scene today. It’s a gated community for cultural nostalgia and spiritual pride. Its almost always white, sanitized, and more interested in who doesn’t belong than who does. The Latin Mass becomes not a doorway to God, but a velvet rope to keep out the unwashed, the broken, and the brown.

What tradition is that exactly?

I’ll tell you: This is Phariseeism in a not so new and discriminatory tongue.

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Weaponized Liturgy: The New Americanism

Pope Francis saw the danger. When he restricted the old Mass it choked out the rot that grows when liturgy becomes a weapon against the Church.

Vatican documents warn: the liturgy is not an act of defiance, not a flag to be planted in a culture war. When the Latin Mass is used as an identity marker and when its adherents turn themselves into a counter-church you get division, pride, and the slow death of Catholic unity. Its already happening.

This isn’t speculation either.

The Church herself found this attitude breeds radicalism, conspiracy, and racism. For the “show me the studies crowd” because Magisterial documentation isnt enough, academic studies and even government reports (FBI, 2023) point to a hard core of TLM adherents who aren’t interested in the faith so much as finding a safe space for their own nostalgia and grievances. The bishops have condemned this “fake piety” and warned that any liturgy, ancient or modern, divorced from humility and charity, becomes a lie.

I want to be abundantly clear about something here. The presence of the FBI inside Catholic churches is egregious and it’s a violation of sanctity, period. And i’ve seen this tactic before, like when Bloomberg stationed NYPD in mosques after 9/11.

"We are not going to repeat the mistakes that we made after the 1993 bombing. We just cannot let our guard down again. We cannot slack in our vigilance. The threat was real. The threat is real. The threat is not going away." (Mayor Bloomberg, 2012)

His justification was an exercise in suspicion, not public safety. The state does not belong in sacred spaces, not ours or anyone else’s.

However two things can be true, and the FBI feeling compelled to violate a scared space like the Catholic Church to surveil tells you something significant is happening. The surge of white 20-something males pouring into the Church isn’t an accident, but an indicator. Correlation does not equal causation, but trends, especially around radicalism, exist for a reason and we would be fools to ignore this as fathers.

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Traditionis Custodes Was A Rescue Mission

Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes as a protection order. He declared that the Mass of Paul VI is the standard expression of Catholic worship. Not optional, not inferior.

The standard.

He gave bishops exclusive authority to oversee Latin Mass use. Again, not in an attempt to restrict reverence, but to choke out division, restore obedience, and prevent the Mass from being hijacked by culture war fugitives.

This wasn’t hasty or reactive either, he acted after years of consultation, warning, and betrayal. Traditionis Custodes is the spiritual firewall against a false movement pretending to defend the sacred while sabotaging communion.

For those who might ask, “Where’s the theology?”

Remember, I’m a father and I write for fathers. We’re busy.

We don’t have time to sit around navel-gazing over verbose theology while our homes are in disarray and we neglect our formation. We need to suffer proficiently, not read masterfully.

But if you do have that kind of time, go read the motu proprio. Go read Traditionis Custodes.

Pope Francis issued a command rooted in unity and obedience, not a fluffy dissertation on Aquinas. It was actionable and direct which is exactly what men like us need.

I’m not writing anything he didn’t already say. I’m just writing it in the tone some of you finally need to read it in.

You want to honor tradition? Then obey the Church. Love her wounds. Receive her liturgy with humility and as a man training and in formation, not as a connoisseur, but as a son.

Everything else is noise.

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Training Protocol: Crush the Idol of Superiority

So if you’ve read this far and you agree with what I’m writing about, the question is “What do I do now?”

If you want to be formed and not just outraged, start here.

Perform a Daily Examen:

Ask yourself:

1. Where did I judge another Catholic?

2. Where did I fail to welcome?

3. Where did I serve my ego, not Christ?

4. What did I build discipline in today?

5. How did I Bleed into my vocation?

6. How did a strike a blow in the war of willingness?

Humble Yourself Quarterly:

Attend a Mass outside your comfort zone (form, language, or parish) at least once this quarter. Don’t go to critique. Go to pray for unity and recognize Christ in the unfamiliar. Yes this includes TLM. I never said they were all bad. I quite enjoy going to the monthly ones at NO parishes.

Practice Silence:

Every Friday, commit to one hour of silence or prayer for those outside your comfort zone. Think immigrants, the poor, the fallen-away, those you secretly despise.

This isn’t a virtue signaling activity, I’m suggesting you train this muscle to make sure you don’t start to develop bias and prejudice that starves your faith in ways you cant even see. I work at this too.

Exercise Authentic Inclusivity:

Teach your children that the Church is universal, not tribal.

Make Galatians 3:28 one of the staples in your household:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Again, we’re not doing some DEI progressive affirming exercise here. Our shared identity is in Christ and his sacraments, period. And we can acknowledge that there are corners of the Catholic community that are largely underrepresented and resourced. Black, Asian, Haitian, Fathers, Husbands you name it. These are all groups, like many others, that are largely overlooked.

Focus on the Sacraments:

Prioritize confession, Eucharistic adoration, and works of mercy.

Never let externals like lace, Latin, music, rubrics, and missals become badges of worth. The only worth is Christ and you prove this by remaining in a state of grace and building your capacity to suffer well.

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This field manual will make the rounds and get dragged. I do not care.

There are a ton of cowards on this platform. My message isn’t some raging tirade, this is my witness. I suffer, submit, and write with the clarity that only comes after allowing myself to be forged.

I’m not the problem. Im the correction, and you are too if you allow God to work in you.

Those who can’t handle this? It’s because we don’t fit their fantasy. We’re not cloaked in Latin affectation or Euro-aesthetic gatekeeping. We’re desert-rooted, ascetically trained, fully rited Catholic men with nothing to prove and everything to reclaim.

A lot of Catholics don’t want truth, they want pageantry, control, and insulation.

Well here I am with a mirror and a blade.

Let them seethe. Let them block. Let them cloak their cowardice in “charity.” You already know what this is.

I’m touching the idol, I’m exposing the lie. I stay while they run.

Nothing changes. I train on and pursue fiery holiness all the same. If you’re not training, you’re another Pharisee with a different flag and if you aren’t repenting, you’re not defending tradition you’re killing it.

To the fathers reading this who know exactly what I’m talking about, if you feel the heat and agree with the fire here’s what you do:

Keep showing up, receiving the sacraments, and training like your soul depends on it because it does.

And when you meet another man who’s lost, soft, or searching?

Point him here. Point him to this flame burning in the desert.

Let him know: you belong there and that’s where you go to train. That’s where you go to get formed.

To everybody else, be offended or come out of hiding because you know I’m telling the truth.

Start training. Choose your path.

⸻

Built in the Desert. Covered by Mary. Forged in Fire.

☩ Sans Peur

– Emmanuel