Rather than simply complaining, traditional Catholics should be putting their efforts into a truly effective response: praying and fasting for Pope Leo’s conversion.
by Joseph Bevan
The accession of Pope Leo XIV to the papal throne has resulted in a victory lap around St Peter’s Square by the modernists. They have won hands down and they know it. The prospect of at least 20 years of Pope Leo is sufficient to knock the stuffing out of any conservative backlash or counter revolution.
Far from magnanimity in victory, the message from Rome to the conservatives is now based on revenge. Their harsh treatment of the Society of St Pius X, following the episcopal consecrations on the 1 st July, demonstrates their ruthlessness in showing no mercy to the vanquished. The attempted crushing of the Society is part of the self-confidence implicit in the ‘winner-takes-all’ approach which we are witnessing.
The point being that Rome simply doesn’t care about traditional Catholics anymore, and why should they? With the almost unanimous support of the clergy and the faithful, which by all accounts is a shrinking number, the Church authorities intend to frog-march their institution kicking and screaming into the new world of secular
humanism. The cuckoos have invaded the nest.
The Consecrations: a tipping point
The episcopal consecrations last July in Switzerland was a landmark event with a ‘before’ and ‘after’ period. The ‘’before’ period was a time when Catholic commentators were able to avail themselves of the ambiguous status of the Society of St Pius X and were frequently in praise of it.
Assisted by the friendly gestures of Pope Francis, it almost looked as if the Society was part of the official Church and, as such, many people gravitated towards their chapels, especially during the COVID epidemic.
The situation was loosening up to such an extent that people saw no problem in switching back and forth between their approved diocesan Tridentine Masses and those of the Society. For the vast majority of commentators, the issue at stake was simply the availability of the Tridentine Mass, there being no difference between the Masses of the Society and those of the diocese, the Latin Mass Society, the Fraternity of St Peter and the Institute of Christ the King.
The papal pronouncement Traditiones Custodes enraged these good people who felt marginalised and persecuted by Rome. After all, they were loyal and obedient Catholics who wouldn’t dream of criticising Vatican II or the New Mass (in fact lots of them did, but privately).
The episcopal consecrations, leading to the ‘after’ period, constituted a massive reality check and wake-up call to all the conservative leaning commentators and those who attended ‘approved’ Tridentine Masses.
The excommunications reminded them that there can be no halfway house and they must get with the revolution or go into “schism”. It won’t be very long before Rome declares openly that attendance at a Tridentine Mass is ipso facto a schismatic act. It seems that Rome and the Society of St Pius X are in full agreement on one main issue: that we now have a new religion of secular humanism where there is no place for the Old Mass. If you like Latin, though, you can always find a Latin Novus Ordo and go there.
Sedevecantism, Trad Inc-ism or reality?
So how should Catholics react to all this? I’m afraid that to dismiss the whole crisis by denying that we have a valid pope doesn’t really cut the mustard. For all I know they may be right because their arguments are certainly logical and persuasive. But that is all they are – arguments and, as such, are a trap for the unwary.
Sedevacantist theories, all of them, are not part of the Catholic Faith and I know that God will not punish us for sticking to the Holy Father, however ghastly he may be and however contradictory it may sound.
The main message here is a request to the Catholic commentators to stop moaning! The consecrations have left most of them behind and we are now in the new world where the choice is between Vatican II, “schism” or lapsation.
Who cares what Cardinal so-and-so gets up to?
Who cares about synodality, gay blessings and communion in the hand for divorcees?
What is the point of holding conferences with guest speakers who fail to face up to the fact that the conservatives in the Catholic Church have lost?
All they can do now is to wring their hands in despair as they witness the Holy Father publicly calling for the Church to make the world a better place without the burden of its timeless teaching. The time for talking is over.
If one thinks about it, the entire body of Catholic teaching is more or less offensive to the ears of the modern world, and this is normal. Indeed, the teachings about her relations with other religions could even be described nowadays as ‘hate speech.’
This is the point which most commentators miss: conversion to Holy Tradition will turn the Holy Father into a martyr.
The solution: the conversion of the Pope
How can he possibly convert, then? The answer is through our prayers, fasting and sacrifices. There can be no other solution to the current crisis because the Church is a monarchy and the faith has to be imposed from the top. It is not enough that it is fashionable to be a traditional Catholic: fashions change and people may soon tire of Latin Masses.
As Christ’s vicar on earth, Pope Leo is perfectly placed to lead the recovery. Only the Pope can sort out the crisis in the Church and God will make him do it when He, and not the faithful, decides the right moment.
The moment of the triumph of the Church may not be in our lifetimes, but it is to be prayed for devoutly. This is a time for sackcloth and ashes and not sneering at the Holy Father. We have to pray with all our might that Pope Leo, in spite of himself, receives the graces of his office and undergoes a sudden and Pauline conversion to the Catholic Faith.
God can easily snap his fingers and strike Pope Leo off his horse with a blinding light, but he has judged that now is not the time.
It is now obvious to most knowledgeable Catholics that the Papacy has departed from the faith, what more must Pope Leo do or say to prove this fact? As he was trained in a Novus Ordo seminary it is unlikely that he ever knew the faith. In spite of this appalling state of affairs, we cannot and must not despair by either leaving the Church or denying the Pope’s title. Both of these actions, tempting as they may be, lead nowhere.
We must have hope, that is all we have left. People convert miraculously to the true faith every day and why should the Holy Father be any different? When this conversion comes then the real persecution will begin and, to borrow the words of Our Lady at Akita, ‘the living will envy the dead.’
Joseph Bevan has published: Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council (Os Justi Press, 2024), and Traddy Daddy (Os Justi Press October 2025) both are available from the publisher or from Amazon.
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