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I like Chris Ferrara, I’ve met him and heard him speak - and frankly, I’m surprised that his article would have this tone.

My feeling is: stop calling names and “defining” Catholics, just welcome anybody who has finally woken up and had to admit that Francis is (not unintentionally) destroying the Catholic Church, and go on from there.

Personally, I don’t like the term “Traditionalist,” precisely because it has now become a church-politics definition. Also, in practice it means a tiny group of often hostile bow-tie wearing men and their hijab-wearing women who regard US Catholicism in 1952 as the apex of the Church. It wasn’t; I lived through it, and the Church would never have collapsed so quickly with VII if it hadn’t already been seriously undermined by the “Greatest Generation” (not Boomers, btw - we were the victims; even the 1968 riots were led by people about 15-20 years older).

I’d like to just go back to using the term Catholic. Let others scream their insults at Catholics who are orthodox - and even the “Neocons” that Ferrara mentions actually are orthodox, if somewhat timid about it - but we shouldn’t define ourselves right out of the box as a splinter group. Unfortunately, the person who cannot claim the title of Catholic happens to be the Pope. And that’s the problem.

We need to unite and get him out of there, and I think Lawler has finally been forced to admit this.

“I like Chris Ferrara, I’ve met him and heard him speak - and frankly, I’m surprised that his article would have this tone.”

I'm surprised Ferrara’s tone isn't more sarcastic, given how snidely many Catholics write and speak — I'm not implying you are among them — about Ferrara and others like him. I have attended only one Latin Mass in my life, so I would be classified a Traditionalist by no one; and I agree with you 100% about wanting all of us orthodox believers to be called simply “Catholics”. However, what Pope Francis is doing to the Church appalls me and the inability and unwillingness of most bishops to stop him from wrecking the Church astound me. I cannot help but wonder if Ferrara and his Traditionalist friends have indeed been right all along: something went terribly wrong with Vatican II and the Church is now breaking down on account of it.

Again, I agree that we orthodox believers should unite and all call ourselves simply “Catholic”. However, Ferrara does have a point: some Catholics are spending a great deal of energy to make sure no one gives Ferrara and Company credit for having suspected at the outset what has turned out to be the truth about Pope Francis: he doesn't seem to believe in Catholicism or to love the Church or to like Catholics very much.

Women did not wear hijabs. Or shorts or flip flops for that matter. They wore either hats (which every woman wore in those days) or pinned a hankie or “mantilla” on her head if visiting a church on a whim. It was simply out of respect for God and his son. I wish more people today, men and women, dressed appropriately in church. Like African Americans do!

Also, in practice it means a tiny group of often hostile bow-tie wearing men and their hijab-wearing women...

I find the above statement quite offensive and false.

Frankly, I'm surprised and disappointed to hear it coming from you.

Look up "hijab" befoe you attack your fellow Catholics.