'Zip it!’ Trad Inc’s Shameful Silence

Michael Matt and Taylor Marshall want to play nice with the Conciliar Church.

Taylor Marshall’s interview with Michael Matt last week will go down in infamy.

Around the 30 minute mark, Matt essentially admitted to what we at Kokx News have theorized all along, namely that Cardinal Burke has been telling Trads in the US to tone it down in order to curry favor with Leo. His words:

"If [Leo] sees that we're willing to meet him a little bit on something like the Latin Mass, well great. Cardinal Burke was just talking to him last week, probably about the Latin Mass.

If Cardinal Burke turns around and he sees the Traditional Catholic movement like night of the living dead — ‘Leo is a heretic!’ — well that’s just silly. It doesn’t accomplish anything.

Even in terms of trying to get some advantages like the Latin Mass restored, it makes sense to kind of zip it a little bit and see what happens with men like Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Muller and Cardinal Sarah, who are pushing in a favorable direction.”

There is a lot to unpack here.

In Burke We Trust?

Matt’s remarks suggest that Burke has been in touch with him, either directly or indirectly. Of itself, this isn’t an earth-shattering development; clergy and laity strategize all the time these days. Moreover, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to assume that Burke (who never did issue that “formal correction” of Francis) probably brought up the Latin Mass during his recent audience with Leo.

What is revelatory is that Matt clearly seems to be speaking with authority, as if he knows something is in the works behind the scenes.

Everyone is aware that Matt has had deep ties with high-ranking clergy for decades. Given those connections, it doesn’t seem like he would tell the rest of us to shut up and let Burke handle things if he wasn’t clued in on something.

You can call this baseless speculation, gossip, or a “conspiracy theory” all you want, but only an ignoramus is incapable of reading between the lines here. Louie Verrechio of akaCatholic.com has made light of the situation by publishing the following meme. 😂

Trad Truth-Tellers Are Over The Target

The mere fact that Marshall and Matt are reacting this intensely suggests they are worried. As far as we can tell, they haven’t been this “united” before. So what gives?

It is worth noting that this sort of response is rather odd given that Kokx News only has 2,200 followers. Also, Chris Jackson has around 4,000 subscribers. The Catholic Esquire’s YouTube channel has just over 9,000.

Compare these relatively small numbers to Marshall’s massive 1 million YouTube audience. Matt, meanwhile, has 60,500 X followers. It doesn’t make sense for them to “punch down” on us unless we were saying something pretty darn close to the truth.

Exposing Leo’s Modernism Is To Defend the Honor of God

During their conversation, Matt told Marshall that it “doesn’t accomplish anything” for Traditionalists to call out Leo’s heresies. For a man who likes to remind his viewers that he was confirmed by Archbishop Lefebvre, this is a remarkable admission, one that Lefebvre himself would never had made.

Matt’s comments are grossly un-Catholic as they show that he is more interested in playing politics with the faith than with telling the truth. As 2 Timothy 4:2 states: “Preach the word in season and out of season.”

For a more accurate appraisal of the Leo regime, watch the following video of Fr. William Jenkins of the Society of St. Pius V. Father draws attention to the dangerous impact Leo is having as he “synthesizes” the radical leftist policies of Francis with the more “conservative” outward appearances of Benedict XVI:

Catholic Esquire has also commented on Leo’s true effect. In a recent X post, he wrote the following:

Leo’s Errors Have No Right to Be Spread

I myself have made several comments explaining why Catholics need to expose Leo’s Modernist remarks. Below is the full text of one of my X posts. It obliterates Matt’s ridiculous claim that correcting Leo’s wayward comments “doesn’t accomplish anything.”

Error has no rights. Heresy is a grave offense to Almighty God. Modernism, being a heresy, is evil. Those who adhere to Modernism (whether knowingly or through ignorance) are not only in error objectively but greatly offend God when they teach it in the name of the Church.

This is why we cannot remain silent as Leo continues to misrepresent the doctrines of the Catholic religion. Our duty is not so much to 'expose' him but to defend the honor of God and the true teachings of the Catholic faith.

Those who claim to see what is taking place yet in the name of 'prudence' or a 'let's wait and see' attitude are essentially declaring that they do not care that God's honor is attacked and that it is better to not defend the Catholic faith as it is being ravaged to death.

This is akin to looking the other way while a murder you might be able to stop is taking place. But in this case, it is far worse as it is the murder of souls with heresy. Can anything be more scandalous or dishonorable?

As St. Pius X once said: "Silence or indolence on our part, as unfortunately is not unfrequently the case among the good, would incriminate us too." This is why we do what we are doing.

I reiterated this point during a podcast with The Catholic Esquire last week. Fast forward to the 31:25-minute mark to watch my comments from the start:

Take a stand against semi-Trads going silent on Leo’s errors, upgrade to a paid subscription.

Calling Out a Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing Is An Act of Charity

Stephen Heiner and Bishop Donald Sanborn, rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Pennsylvania, have done the Church a great service with their “Leo Watch” series.

Below is their third episode, which aired this past week. This is the sort of work Trad Inc. used to do but has since avoided. Kudos to His Excellency and Stephen Heiner for reminding Catholics of the many un-Catholic comments Leo has been making these past few months while Trad Inc. tells everyone to “wait and see.” May God reward them for their efforts.

Reclaiming the Traditional Catholic Movement

This week an X user told me to calm down and remember that the real problem is in the Vatican. “Easy amigo. Trads are being split up into factions to tear each other apart while the disco party rages in Rome,” he said.

True enough. But here is the problem: Marshall and Matt are the ones who decided to split the Trad movement into factions. They and others are the ones who changed their tune after the conclave. Myself, Chris Jackson, The Catholic Esquire, Fr. David Nix, and others are simply doing what Trads had been doing the past 12 years. I responded with the following comment:

Catholic Esquire published a Substack article explaining why we are not at fault for the “division” among Trads. He also noted that the most prominent voices in the movement are to blame:

Nothing will change until Vatican II is exposed for the heretical, diabolical revolution that it was. Not just its spirit, but the documents…When those who claim to be on your team are not willing to even broach the subject, then the fight must shift to a new battleground. It appears the fight for Tradition is at that stage now. A new operation to rescue the Church must begin, and sadly, it may need to leave a few buddies behind.

Neo-Trads Are Using John XXIII Talking Points

In a previous blog post, I recalled that Eric Sammons, Kennedy Hall, and others are borrowing arguments first made by John XXIII. The same can now be said of Matt and Marshall. Who knew liberalism would ever seep into the minds of the leading figures of the Traditional movement!

Trad Inc. Will Not Stop Us: We Are Going To Win

Other voices are starting to speak out. Anthony Stine published the following post on X this week. He is to be applauded for his remarks 👏

John-Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews is also using his voice to defend the truth. One hopes his and Anthony’s comments will entice others to break their silence.

Trads Are Not Going to ‘Zip It’

We have said on multiple occasions that we do not see ourselves as anything more than the “stones” Our Lord spoke about in the Gospel of Luke when he said, “if these remain silent the stones will cry out.”

We continue to pray that those who have a far greater influence than us will speak up and defend the truth as they did during the Francis regime come what may. In the meantime, we will not remain silent. We pray that God will use us to glorify Him in these confusing times.