Traddies are Nuts: College Edition

This little testimony/exposé of a look into trad craziness comes from a reader and rather new friend of mine.

Now, I bet my readers could find tons of egregious examples like this from forums they might participate in or blog comment sections or whatever. I don't want to make this blog all about pointing out how insane some of these people are every time an example occurs (I'd be much too busy!) but this case was particularly ridiculous and contains so many hilarious examples.

The testimony, with the crazy traddie stuff quoted:

"I'm on a Catholic monarchist email list, because somewhere deep in my heart, I want some form of Christendom to come back. But I swear, these people are so, so crazy. Someone just asked for recommendations for a traditionalist Catholic university (ha, as if you could get enough for more than a dinky college), which accepts only traditionalist Catholics.

Now, I have to say, I have no idea how can you can make sure you keep all the liberal modernist Catholics out. But let that pass.

Unsurprisingly, people favoured an SSPX school I've never heard of 'although it's unfortunately unaccredited.'

Now, check out this response after all that:

Before ending this thread, I feel the need to offer an extra word of warning to Mr. M*****. Frankly, I think that places like Thomas Aquinas that '[have] the Trid every day' are possibly *more* dangerous to young souls than 'mainstream' universities which are obvious in the evil they are promoting. Look at it this way: poison is easier to avoid when it's clearly a box of poison sitting on the table, but when just a drop has been mixed into that delicious soup, one may not think the soup poisoned but die all the same.

Such places give the young Catholic the very false notion that 'hey, I have the Classical/Extraordinary Rite (or whatever the "in full communion" people call it these days) every day, it's all good' whilst breathing-in the vile anti-Catholic atmosphere that features oecumenism, women's liberation, and the rejection of the Kingship of Christ. For example, going back to Dr. Carroll, his oecumenism presents itself subtly, when in his lectures he insists that Whittaker Chambers (an anti-Communist but a Protestant) is in heaven, that the Orthodox priests who died in the Russian Revolution are 'martyrs,' and that General Karl Gustav Mannerheim is THE great 'Christian hero' of the 20th century. The fact that Dr. Carroll rightly calls the 20th century 'the accursed century' diverts one's attention from the blatant oecumenism and relativism he is promoting (i.e. one need not be Catholic to go to heaven).

In short, such places produce liberal Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass. It's not impossible to go there without being thus infected, but I'd argue more difficult than even a 'mainstream' university because of the faux traditionalist surroundings which are seductive ('See,' Satan says 'you can have your cake and eat it too ... you can be a trad Catholic and get your "Trid" everyday without worrying about any of that old doctrine that will make people think you're a weirdo ...').

Another reason that daily Mass according to the 1962 books does not a good/safe university make: 'Certainly the question of the liturgy and the sacraments is important, but it is not the most important. The most important question is the question of the Faith.' (Abp. Lefebvre address to his priests given in Econe, Switzerland on September 6, 1990)

And this one:

I concur with Mr. W******. Having attended St. Mary's College for two years, and looking into all the other usual suspects (Christendom, Thomas Aquinas, Ave Maria, Magdalene, Thomas More) as well as having attended secular schools, it is my opinion that one either find an unambiguously Traditionalist college (St. Mary's, in Kansas, or the Institut St. Pie X in Paris) or choose a secular school which will provide one with useful degrees and certifications (aka, a 'work permit' in our modern world) without the pretense of being 'traditional' in any way, shape, or form. I went to a state school for a year, loathed it, and attended St. Mary's for my liberal arts education -'education for the sake of being an educated man,' if you will. After this, I went to another state school to learn a trade, and chose a school which would teach me that trade well, while simultaneously being affordable and conveniently located near a Traditional chapel, so that I could nurture my spiritual life in the wasteland I was obliged to attend.

I don't know a single Traditional Catholic who attended Christendom for 4 years, and ended up as a staunch Traditionalist at the end. They are very good at the 'soft sell' approach: 'We're a small school, and community is important, won't you just say the Rosary with us?' 'Well, if you say the Rosary, why not stay for Benediction? That's not so bad, is it?' 'You attend Benediction, with a Novus Ordo priest and a host consecrated at the NO, so why not come pray with us at the campus Mass?' (which happens to be Novus Ordo...) No indeed, the quite pleasant and traditional surroundings, fairly traditional lecture content compared to a modern school, and pretty girls who often wear skirts, mask a font of 'liberal traditionalism' which can do little good, and a very great deal of harm to the cause.

Probably, the best way for Traditional Catholics to get a college education, if they feel it necessary (think well on where or how you're going to practice your chosen career, for example, a professorship, as a Traditionalist, while supporting a family) is to attend a secular school, resolving not to take any dangerous classes (philosophy, biology classes which promote Evolutionary nonsense, lots of modern history and literature classes -in short, most of the humanities) while zealously pursuing the study of the faith, and these things from a Catholic point of view, outside of class. (e.g.: get a copy of the old Catholic Encyclopedia, read good history books at night, etc.) Get your degree as expeditiously as possible, and don't look back. Above all, don't live in the dormitory, and don't be tempted to participate in university social activities, clubs, activism, etc. Be purely a 'day student.' This is the best way to avoid contamination, I'd say. Seriously consider a field which is less oriented towards 'thinking' (the liberals have these very thoroughly propagandized) and more towards 'doing' (e.g., engineering, or a so-called "blue collar" trade, where one can often make as much or more money without being expected to become an academic and a communist in the process.)

. . . Seriously. That shit is messed up."

Indeed. And I think it speaks for itself, for the most part. "Liberal Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass"??? Yay us!! I'm glad to see they're being thoroughly paranoid in their dark spidery little enclaves by our modernist infiltration into Trad Cuckoo Land.

Seriously, though...wow. I don't know which would be scarier: if they really meant this stuff, or if they were just perpetually play-acting. Honestly, I really can't tell most of the time.

Now, in some ways, I think I know what they mean, of course. When they say "liberal traditionalist" they seem to mean what I'd call "neoconservative" Catholic, and the neocons can be crazy and annoying too. I don't know which of the two I dislike more.

Ridiculous stuff, though. "Contamination"??? Seriously??? Don't live in a dorm?! Don't join university clubs?? Yeah, there's a lot of immoral stuff going on at universities maybe, but...I really doubt these are the sorts of people who are going to be roped in. And what of the evangelism aspect? I attended a big State university, lived in a neocon Catholic dorm, and had "the Trid" every morning, while socializing with (in addition to the "renegade trad" guys with whom I served Mass) assorted Bohemians, gays, and [gasp] musicians! Where does that put me?

I'll admit, I'd probably find it hard to attend one of those small new Neocon Catholic colleges too. But it's not because I fear being being tricked into relativism, but just because the neocons can be super-annoying. Especially for trads, and especially for renegade trads.

And any conservative Catholic school, trad or neocon, can be, I think, extremely creepy, suffocating and paternalistic towards the students, from what I can tell. Some of those small neocon schools are just as crazy.

But "Infected"??? They really are insane.