In the past few years, US Catholic conservative cancel culture has cancelled or suspended Simcha Fisher, Mark Shea, Rebecca Bratten Weiss, Stephen Lewis, and now Gloria Purvis. Numerous others have been targeted with cancelation threats of different degrees as well. This is real.
The reasons are complex in some ways and the specifics of each are slightly different, but the ideological picture this paints is the post-Trump reality we are living in and we must see it on those basic terms to understand and oppose it.
There is the media apparatus of Church Militant and Lifesite in open war and then the complicit cooperatives of EWTN and other mainstream entities, then there are the start up wackos like Marshall and Gordon, and the undecided false neutrality of Fradd and other podcasters.
The whole "I am just a Catholic, I don't takes sides" thing means you will be sucked by default into a side. Some bishops and clergy can avoid this through their religious communities but others flaunt it. I do not think Barron and Word on Fire can stay nuetral for much longer.
There are inner turmoils and infighting, too, but the basic moral register is clarifying itself everyday it seems. More radically, it os shaping the practice and behavior of Catholic identity every bit as effectively as pop culture and other elements.
In the journals and periodicals First Things has finally emerged next to Acton and others as players for Trumpism. Reno's covid hysterics sealed that.
Partisanship is divisive, I get it, and the Body of Christ should seek unity, but not at the cost of its moral and spiritual integrity. Some of us have felt this for a long time through many experiences and of course the legacy of this critique is not recent at all.
They cannot win the arguments, they have ceded the higher ground of rigorist orthodoxy, they are in the muck. We do not need to respond with cancelation or suspensions or alternatives, we can win with reasons and the truth and reality and call them to repent come back home.
But we cannot pretend like this is not happening or that the spirtual and devotional status quo can simply float past these partisan divisions. We also cannot exagerate or misproportion things into reactionary harms. If anything this is a time for moralism.
In the age when virtue signaling and moral awakening become inverted and jeered it is time to oppose vice signals and moral slumber all the more forcefully.
We also need to remember that there are a lot of good faithful Carholics working inside the larger entities which are not easy monoliths. Let us not forget that Purvis also works for EWTN just as Mother Angelica hated racism and sough racial reconciliation.
It conveivable that many Catholic diocese and organizations are experienced this realignment and in need of support along with fraternal correction and critique. We must leave no one behind in this.
We cannot ignore the vacuous influence of the Matthew Kelly idea of Catholic marketing which the bishops far too easily adopted in cheap paperback bulk.
Dreher may not be a Roman Catholic but his sloppy same-book-over-and-over tirades are a part of this. He also shows how one can hold a Shapiro-like anti-Trump position and nonetheless play for the same ideological side.
There is no easy line in the sand though. It is not traditional liturgy. It is not Francis. It is not *only* Trump. It is not the end of Regnum Christi and other scandalous trash fires. It is not one thing but the many combine into a powerful yet fluid whole.
The Society of Biblical Literature has very little good to say of Hahn, for instance, but his popular evangelism gave everyone pause to oppose. Now he has swayed tremendously and seem to publish under ghost writers and increasingly vague terms.
The rise and fall of Jordan Peterson, that agnostic savour of the Christian West, was a good test of people’s will and let me say that I post he’d work all over the place on Peterson and no one, not right or left, but CNA would take it. Everyone was intimidated by his rise.
I don’t need to mention Pavone nor Abby, it goes without saying. The Black Sheep Dog affair disappeared without a cautionary tale left in sight it seems. I could go on and on and on. We have seen it with our own eyes. There is no more time to just keep getting surprised.
Add to this the conspiracy theories from denial of GERMS (yes, germs) and antivaxxer nonsense to, well, the same things out in the open with COVID-19 denials. The issue at this stage verges on going from ideological to madness and insanity.
At my 2005 commencement at Franciscan university of Steubenville, the gossip was that Ratizinger who had just been elected Pope had been our selected commencement speaker. We ended up with Raymond Arroyo who was literally waving his Mother Angelica book around and marketing it.
It seemed clear to me even then, especially after Weigel came through with his JPII book and got triggered by a simple question of capital punishment, that things were on the verge of unraveling. But I never could have predicted this.
When I took over for Scalia at Patheos she was under fire from know-nothings like Austin Ruse (who has blocked me). A few good folks recommended me to edit. Rosman was my asst and we build the infamous Patheos from there. It wasn’t enough to swing the needle but it was something.
Before that the rag tag Vox Nova folks with @tonyannett and company were in open blogging war with American Catholic, Darwin Catholic, and, yes, Mark Shea who called us “debate club at Auschwitz.”
All of this to say, the record is clear. I’ve more receipts in my file, from the anecdotal to offical record, than I can presently account. As we approach the US elections, and enter the week after the GRN suspension of Purvis you better get a clue if you don’t have one already.
All of this brought to you from a guy who has the blessing of having no reason to fear these US Catholic conservative cancel culture bullies and snowflakes (aka: tenure). Not only no institutional fear but also zero fear of their silly gotcha facts and logic-chopping games.
I will add one more thing. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of this history and intuitions and so on is at least partially explained in terms of racial and international dynamics. PARTIALLY. When you survey the field, there are always exceptions but it does supply real significance.
Which bring us full circle to this: 
Lest I be justly said to have left this out. Anti-Black white supremacy is a huge issue today and anti-semitism is one too. They are both evil and vile and often, but not always, to be found in close company.
I was not nor presently am a cosmopolitan person. I am still quite provincial in many limiting ways. Learning about Roman Catholics who retain a Jewish cultural identity has been a learning experience. Seeing them targeted for it has been enraging.
So how do I end now that I ruined (for good reason) my ending? Maybe some memes...
DA BENNY OPTION
Sponsored by my snowflake collection:
This tweet by @steeephforpeace still makes me giggle.
Bros
PARA TOCAR EN EL “SAM ROCHA TRIO” TIENES QUE SER UN
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Pray for US.
St. Juan Diego, Pray for US.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Pray for US.
Servant of God Helder Cámara, Pray for US.
Servant of God Julius Nyerere, Pray for US.
All holy men and women of God, Pray for US.
AMÉN.
St. Juan Diego, Pray for US.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Pray for US.
Servant of God Helder Cámara, Pray for US.
Servant of God Julius Nyerere, Pray for US.
All holy men and women of God, Pray for US.
AMÉN.
