Red Pills, Viral Letters and Social Media Idiocy

Heaven forbid any of us get bored.

Background

I am the See of Caer-Glow’s Bishop of Florida, and the youngest one of our jurisdiction in my early 50’s. We have brick and mortar churches and seminary, but we are not a large organization. We have a long history, which I will include in a future post. But in the current situation we find ourselves in, I used to describe it as being similar to The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), because it was an easy, if not complete, description. By that, I mean we have valid orders, but from the viewpoint of the mainstream Roman Catholic Church, there's a juridic irregularity. For those not familiar, that means we have priests that offer valid sacraments but do so outside the regular Church administration. Enemies call us schismatic; we say we aren’t, but that is a topic for another post.  We can all agree that there’s a canonical dispute between us and Rome and that the issue is alleged schism and not validity.

Personally, I was formed novus ordo in a regular RC seminary with the benefit of solid Traditional priests’ mentorship in the evenings and Red Pilled to Tradition in 2014.

If I were asked to describe our jurisdiction (See) in three words, I’d answer:

Catholicism without communism.

But that’s a simplistic and intentionally provocative answer.

Pre-Pachhamama, we desired union with Rome if we would be allowed to retain the Old Rites.  Post-Pachamama we see the institution as aligning with globalist tyranny and substituting the false god of Teilhard for the God understood by St. Athanasius and the other old saints.

No, I’m not saying every member of the novus ordo is Teilhardian.  I am speaking of Foundation and Telos which I will expand on in another post if there is interest.

The Red Pill vs The Blue Pill

The concept of the red pill and blue pill comes from the 1999 film The Matrix. In the film, the main character Neo is offered a choice by Morpheus to take either a red pill or a blue pill. The red pill represents an uncomfortable truth and awareness, while the blue pill represents comforting delusion and ignorance.

This metaphor can be applied to many aspects of life and faith. Often, we are faced with difficult realities that challenge our worldview. The red pill represents accepting these realities, even though it may be psychologically difficult or destroy our sense of comfort. In contrast, the blue pill represents preferring pleasant delusions over hard truths in order to maintain our sense of peace.

Postmodern Christianity’s Dirty Secret

Modern Christianity finds itself in an identity crisis. While maintaining the outward trappings of traditional faith, much of contemporary Christianity has abandoned the substantive beliefs and doctrines that defined the religion for centuries. This amounts to a "dirty secret". Though postmodern churches speak the language of historic Christianity, in reality they promote a secular progressive worldview barely distinguishable from the surrounding culture.  Pre and Post 1960’s Foundation and Telos are substantially different, hence the renewed interest in Tradition.

We can see the growing rot in the way many churches have aligned with organizations like the UN and WEF that promote globalism, relativism, Digital IDs and progressive politics having little connection to the Gospel. Likewise, traditional doctrines around the normative Christian God, sin and salvation have been deemphasized or discarded. In their place is a faith that provides comfort through community and ritual but does not challenge the modern self with calls to conversion.

For those trying to live an authentic Christian life this poses a crisis. The faith they practice increasingly rings hollow. This is because modern Christianity uses the terms and symbols of the past but has lost any coherent theology or philosophy underpinning it. It retains vestiges of ritual and tradition but has broken with the intellectual foundations on which these were built. In reality, it is a new religion wearing historic dress.

The Viral Letter that Hit Some Nerves

Most of my priest friends are novus ordo and any of you with such friends know that behind rectory doors the conversations can be much more candid than public statements allow. Bound by promises of obedience and livelihood, their public words understandably measure against the prevailing winds. As one less constrained, I can give voice to truths they cannot.

And so I wrote a pastoral letter for my small flock, and shared it with one other chapel. Though addressed locally, it quickly spread on Twitter, reaching over 100,000 views.

The letter appears here:

Support and Criticism

I have received support from Catholics who love the Old Faith and who have been observing injustices like the excommunication of Fr Treco, or the persecution of Bp Strickland.  I’m reminded of the now-retired Bp Baker of Alabama’s public query at a USCCB meeting: “Can we fit Our Lord Jesus in here somewhere?”

At no point have I represented myself as a Roman Catholic bishop, I am Old Roman Catholic of the See of Caer-Glow. I am an ally of anyone who loves and believes in Catholic Tradition.  No matter if they are novus ordo or something else. I DO NOT WANT to be associated with Bergoglians (those who place Francis before a Traditional catechism) or Leftists pretending to be Christian (seamless garden or synodal types). I do share the core Faith of novus ordo Catholics who honor the Faith of their ancestors.

The local mainstream diocese is led by a bishop who by all accounts is a holy man and I have no quarrel with him, but I also do not belong to him.  I hope we are co-workers vs adversaries. After this media storm, I guess we will see.

All of the criticism of that letter that I have seen is not based on objection to the Truth of the letter but on the flaws of the messenger, both real and imagined.

The fact they use personal attack instead of answering the points tells any man or woman of God all they need to know.

Red Pill vs Blue Pill Christianity

Among the Catholic Christians, you either think the path of Francis is of the Holy Spirit or surrender to the world (or worse, Vichy with the Luciferian agenda), or you embrace the Old Faith of Tradition. To try to gold to both is a circle which will not square.

Every Catholic parish in the world contains these two groups side by side, just as Abp Fulton Sheen in 1946 predicted.

We each have to decide in this age: Do we want a disturbing Truth, or a comforting lie. The Red Pill or the Blue? This separates those who will stand for our King from those who place their trust in crayon synods and simulated Catholicism. The break is not here yet, but without God's intervention, there will be a formal schism. How can there not be? There are two different religions occupying the same space. How long is that circle going to square?

Conclusion

I learned this morning that I was the subject of an attack by a whining member of Catholic Inc.  A layman who speaks above his paygrade.  I can only suggest that his time might be better spent looking for the Deposit of Faith that the nuncio says is missing.

In the meantime, those of you who (no matter what your diocese, community, or jurisdiction) join with me in the love of Our Lord Jesus, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Divine Person, with Divine and human natures, who reject the false deistic syncretism, Abrahamic Temples and pachamamas of postmodernity, pray for the restoration of the Papacy, the Faith for the 20 Doctrinal Councils, the restoration of Christendom, and the Social Kingship of Christ the King.

May God bless and protect you this day. It’s His Church, and He will fix it but likely in a way that will horrify my detractors.