What is Trad Inc?

A new term has popped up in the Catholic blogosphere lately: Trad Inc. The term refers to Traditional Catholic Media. Is that like the drive-by media in the Church? It seems so. It's hard to find a definition and I have no idea who coined the term, but it refers to the velvet glove avoiding criticism of the pope and the Vatican. Some of those labeled "Trad Inc." include Eric Sammons at Crisis, Taylor Marshall, Kennedy Hall, Damian Thompson, and presumably Steve Jalasevac since John-Henry Westen and Stephen Kokx's ouster from LifeSite News. 

In an interview with Steve Kokx, Chris Jackson of Hiraeth in Exile defined Trad Inc this way:

“Trad Inc.” is just a name for what happens when Catholic truth becomes a brand and a business model. It’s not about personalities, it’s about the structure: an entire media class that once stood against the revolution but now makes its peace with it, because the alternative is to go broke or be blacklisted.

If you’re publishing books, speaking at conferences, appearing on Catholic media outlets, and moderating your tone to protect all that, then yes, you’re part of Trad Inc., even if you don’t want to be. The term exists because there’s now a visible pattern: strong opposition under Francis, immediate docility under Leo. Silence purchased in the currency of Summorum hope and donor stability.

If that shoe doesn’t fit you, don’t wear it. But if it does, don’t blame the mirror.

The movement against Trad Inc. involves a minority of media these days determined to blow the warning trumpet. They are mostly castigated as doomsayers. Are they? Is defending the Traditional teachings of the Church passed down through the millennia really "mean-spirited" and "unjust" as Bishop Barron described it at a 2020 invitation-only media event? Didn't St. Paul warn his followers reject any gospel other than the one the apostles were preaching. Didn't he express surprise at their infidelity saying, "I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel." [Galatians 1:6]?

Who are you, Pope Leo?

Jackson goes on:

I think the sad truth is that for many in traditional Catholic media, the ideal pope is Benedict XVI, not St. Pius X. Benedict gave us the trappings of traditional piety with post-conciliar theology and allowed the Latin Mass to be freed....

But notice: they’ve given up on doctrine. Leo represents far worse than the conservatively interpreted post-conciliar theology of Benedict. Francis was a clear break, even from Benedict’s Vatican II Catholicism. The Bergoglian church now teaches in its catechism that the Church was wrong on human dignity for 2,000 years, blesses homosexual couples, allows unrepentant adulterers to receive Communion, rewrites the words of Christ in the consecration with “for all,” and places women religious in positions of authority over male clergy....

But now, when Francis' successor plans to cement those errors as Catholicism for the next two decades, they throw in the towel?...

And this is the moment they choose to lay down their arms? For what? More conservative aesthetics, a gentler personality, and maybe the off-chance of lighter restrictions on the Latin Mass?

At what cost? The entire 2,000-year doctrine of the Catholic Church?

Are we supposed to keep silent about Leo just to preserve a false peace while Catholicism is gently smothered to death, until Bergoglianism becomes indistinguishable from Catholicism itself?

That’s madness. But it’s the deal Trad Inc. has apparently accepted. It has, for all intents and purposes, surrendered. It sees the aura of Leo as too difficult to fight, and so it has offered terms: complete silence about Leo’s cementing of Francis’ legacy, in exchange for the hope of looser Mass restrictions and a stable donor base, fueled by the novelty of an “American pope.”

I urge you to subscribe to Chris Jackson's substack and Stephe Kokx's as well.  We always need to speak the truth in charity, but we need to speak the truth. Judas was good at the masquerade. He was so good that, when Jesus dismissed him at the Last Supper to betray Him, the apostles thought he was going to help the poor or buy something for the feast. 

Let us pray unceasingly for the pope and all the magisterium, pray and sacrifice. But we are not just called to be gentle as doves, but as wise as serpents. And that means facing the hard truth that some of our shepherds are hirelings at best, wolves in traditional vestments at worst. The obvious wolves are much less dangerous than the costumed wolves. Remember that many who are known villains were ecstatic when Robert Prevost was elected.