Recently, I was asked why “we trads” use the term “Soldier of Christ.” The implication was that war-like language and imagery are endemic to the “trad movement.” The reality? It is intrinsic to the religion that fought the Crusades. 

The questioner later implied that what we were all taught in our catechism classes is no longer valid—that we are the Church Militant, who, along with the Church Triumphant and the Church Penitent, are engaged in spiritual warfare against those forces seeking the ruin of souls. Granted, this verbiage is not as common today as it once was. Your average Catholic rarely hears the Church described this way. However, this notion that the three states of the Church were invented by people in Dimes Square to “larp” the faith is nonsense. Balderdash even! It is a mischaracterization that is as insulting as it is reductive. 

Considerable criticism has been leveled against the movement above, most of which tends to be very unfair. Are there mean trads? Rad trads? Mad trads? Certainly. There are also semi-trads, Glad trads, Neo-trads, Pro-Vat 2 trads, etc. They are Latino, African, Asian—the works! Nominalism ad absurdum! 

The point is that the movement is significant and not going anywhere, despite how certain prelates may feel. “Oh, but the internet” is no excuse to withhold charity and accompaniment. Would that we could all just get along on Twitter/X. Bottom line: You cannot have Christianity without fellowship.   

Moreover, who can speak to the intentions of someone showing interest or self-identifying with a movement that aligns with their core values? Yes, everyone should do their homework, but how are those “larpers” any more or less genuine than fallen-away Catholics or atheists? These same naysayers afford broad latitudes to those who barely know anything about the Catholic faith yet desire to change it. 

Why not traditionally-minded Catholics? Why not larpers? Is it not a reasonable inference to think this general lack of mercy is because these naysayers feel more comfortable in the company of wolves than with their fellow sheep? Mercy for thee but not for me.

I am proud to call myself a Soldier of Christ. When I was a young man, the world was much larger. It turned slower. Today, the world is much smaller. Faster. It may be reasonable to argue that the Church needs to shift its place in the modern world to keep up. The ultimate irony of Vatican II is how much of the surrounding milieu believed the council itself to be a force of reclamation, a return to tradition.

This argument holds that the Church should focus more on the seven heavenly virtues, less on the seven deadly sins, less on the “no,” and more on the “both-and.” For most trads, the difficulty comes not from the shift itself; sin AND virtue should be emphasized. In a modern world that generally refuses to acknowledge the reality of evil, sin, or morality, the issue is more a matter of degree. 

Trads today are upset about how the Church seems to have lost her way. That the Church, like most of our institutions at present, appears at times to be led by morons (or self-hating Catholics). That the pious are punished, while atheists and non-Catholics get a voice via a synod on synods. How, in the 1960s, priceless altars and statues were destroyed. No one was consulted or ran anything up the ladder—certainly not with the parish communities that paid for them. It was done with reckless abandon. 

Yet, today, priests wait seven years (their ersatz tenure) to replace a baptismal bowl with a proper font, lest some church-Karen or aging hippie go right to the Bishop because it does not suit their beige tastes. 

That some rando at a party who says something weird or rude gets to derail millions of genuine people—new priests, artsy-types, wannabes, and yes, larpers—from asking the most crucial question: Why can I only see the face of Jesus in the Catholic Church? 

The answer is simple: because it is true. 

These kinds of internecine problems are often talked about harshly as if they will lead to schism. To me, the schism is already here. Some people want the Church to be something else; others want it to look and act more like the Church of the past. Yes, a past they never knew. But a past unknown holds the same promise of an uncertain future. To act and think otherwise is just silly.

Let us recall what Saint Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12:

“For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”

As faithful Catholics and brothers and sisters in Christ, we must remember what we want: a Church filled not with corruption and duplicitousness but with unity in the love of Christ. That is why we are Soldiers for Christ. 

Although the Church Militant may have some terrible generals and commanders, we can respect the Church Penitent and strive to join the vaunted ranks of the Church Triumphant. Likewise, we cannot pearl clutch and balk at the terse language or attitudes expressed by those who feel hurt by the Church. This is why it is so important to love our enemies and pray they see the face of Jesus. The real enemy is the creation of seething resentment, which wounds us and not our enemies. So, let us pray for unity (and clarity) in the Church, strive for fellowship and sanctity, and act more charitably as a family. Well, at the very least, distant cousins.