If you are reading this article, you are probably an extra-ordinary man and a genuine soldier for Christ.  You spend diligent time every day developing your interior life, frequent the sacraments, and actively engage in apostolates like Church security, fighting for the pro-life cause, or engaging in grassroots activities as a precinct committeeman in your Legislative district.  Or perhaps you have some other apostolate you are engaged in that authentically serves the common good and is developing you as a real Catholic man ready to fight the darkness that is upon us.

So now what?  Now we recruit more men and we up our solidarity game in order to prepare for upcoming next level offensive and defensive battle.  This is literally why I am running a men’s retreat with a vetted guest of like minded men ready to learn how to get into these apostolates and prepare them for what is to come.

Church Protectors is un-apologetically conservative, traditional, authentically Catholic, pro-life, pro-family, anti-forced “vaccination”, pro-prepper, anti-democrat, pro second amendment, and pro man as protector and leader of his household.  The kinds of men on board with all of this will be at the August 28th retreat at Ville de Marie Academy.  No one will be in masks, no one will be socially distanced, everyone will be allowed to attend the reverent and tradition rich mass in person, and no one will be escorted into their seats by pant-suit wearing ladies.  Period.

When is the last time you have been invited to a men’s retreat that will be packed with over a hundred men who have that much in common with you?  Where else will you find a concentrated group of such men also ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and help you prepare for what is coming?  Men also ready to build up a network of support to guard against things like career canceling and forced jabs?  Wouldn’t you like to meet these men?  This is the place to be on August 28th.

As we recruit more men into the fold for any of the awesome apostolates in this diocese, I think it is important to consider the modern temptations that pull us back from staying fervent in our work.  The devil has rigorously attacked masculinity for years, but thankfully we all have grown in our fight against these attacks against us, our culture, and our families.  Here are four common modern attacks we must overcome for ourselves and other men we recruit in these times:

1. The Gamma temptation.  Success is a good thing.  Believing that worldly success alone qualifies one as an “Alpha Male” is not reality, nor is it Christian.  As fathers, we would be derelict in our duty if we did not take care of the natural well being of our family in addition to their spiritual well being.  Dave Ramsey likes to call money a “brick”, it can be used to build great things or it can be used to cause great destruction.  If you are a good “brick” layer, loved ones within your family and your close Catholic community would be stupid to discourage you from building great things at this time.

That being said, some of us men are currently faced with the threat of compromising our bodies with a highly experimental jab in order to keep our present careers.  But are keeping a well paying career at all costs or going homeless really your only two options?

As stated in my last article, building a network of solidarity and financial support with like minded Catholic men will give you a third option.  And that is the Alpha move, my friend.  And you don’t necessarily have to find these guys at spots where they are highly concentrated, like this retreat, but you can show the flag and talk openly in places where you likely will meet others facing the same fears.  Pro-life rallies and school board trainings are such places (we got stuff coming up, email me!). Network and build some great things with these men.  Securing yourself and others against the jab is the Alpha move.  It’s great to see so many men already tmaking that move.  You can too.

2. Fight feminism.  This seems so obvious to all of us, but in actuality, fighting feminism is an overwhelming and tiresome task.  It’s everywhere!  I think a lot of good and holy Catholic women believe they are staunch opponents of feminism, when really it is so ingrained in our upbringings that we don’t often recognize it’s controlling power.

The etymology of the word “husband” is Germanic.  It literally translates to “house bound”.  I think some wives intuit this.  Marriage tends to domesticate men.  Study gang culture and it becomes clear that this is not entirely a bad thing.  Men without families to watch over (which primarily happens from within the home) typically end up getting themselves into trouble.  Without the duties of the husband/father vocation to bind us, men usually wind up living lives of sin.

However, we are now at a point in the game where getting out of the home, in many cases, is an act of protecting the family.  Despite many women knowing that their husbands are going out for adoration, to keep the elderly ladies protected praying outside of the abortion clinic, or attending a Legislative District meeting, the natural instinct to keep their husbands home often prevails.  

I have been encouraged in seeing many A-Team members honor their obligations toward family, while simultaneously stepping into the breach, by bringing their sons with them to prayer rallies.  As well, what an awesome example their sons are witnessing.  At the same time, as we move forward, let’s continue to assert our presence as real conservative and Catholic men in the public forum, even to the things the kids can’t come to.  And if any wives are reading this article, please help your man to step up by recognizing the value his presence has in public apostolates and what fruits his fellowship with other good Catholic men will bring back into your home.

3. Overcome passive aggressiveness.  We often unwittingly act in passive aggressive ways.  Many of us go into a work place five days a week where we hear ideas that we know are bad, we are told that things will work out this time thanks to everyone's monitored compliance, and then we helplessly watch these bad policy fail.  And when we try to advocate for better solutions, we are often given duplicitous and misleading information/affirmation, simply to be ultimately ignored to the detriment of ourselves and our colleagues.  And it sucks.  Some days you wonder what it might be like to present an idea if you were someone a little less “privileged” (the irony).

No wonder so many men go from hot to cold in their commitment to engage in projects with others.  No wonder men often practice the same MO that prevails from 9 to 5 when something seems unworthy of time or effort; they disappear.  They ghost.  This may be a regular practice in today’s ever de-humanizing world, but we can do manlier.  We can lead other men to do better too.  

I recently wrote an article suggesting how we should respond to the Motu Proprio.  In response, I received a message from a good friend who felt that he was personally referenced in the article in a disapproving way.  He was right!  Instead of quietly walking away and cursing me among company that would validate him, he brought it straight to me, man to man.  And he presented multiple quality arguments for why I was intellectually wrong about what I wrote.  

How did I respond to this?  First, I thanked him for calling me out and debating me.  And for debating me with some passion to boot.  It was literally the first time someone had given me that kind of a reaction to one of my articles.  Maybe I’m getting better at this?  

I know I don’t like being talked at, so I asked him if he felt that readers would know that it was specifically him whom I talked at in the article.  He told me not to worry about it and to change nothing.  Fair enough.

This man did for me what I was not man enough to do for him; he came directly to me and confronted me with a true spirit of fraternal correction that considered my sanctity as his top priority.  We need more real men and leaders like that in our present crisis!

What an amazing privilege it is to be surrounded by so many more fervent men in this diocese!  What a credit it is to our bishop, to many holy priests, and to other giants, the real fighters, who have come before us all and set up a culture where this can be our present network.  Now is the time to even more robustly carry their mantle.

Over the past two weeks, I have observed the anxiety over forced jabs and career cancellations rise almost to a crescendo.  What a bitter sweet moment, though, as through this tribulation, I have observed some great Catholic men take it upon themselves to emerge as leaders.  One man has started a group dedicated to escaping Big-Tech.  Another one has started a group focused on networking men who are trying to escape a coerced poison jab.  I also met recently with a gentleman who is interested in helping to secure financial support for men who lose their job and to improve our collective patronage of Catholic businesses.  The fervor, the charisma, the hunger to be Christ to others in a time of peril for so many… WOW!

These men are leading specific charges that I am not qualified to lead.  I’m so grateful that we have real subject matter experts in these fields who are competent in what they are doing and are willing to help other faithful men do some great things.  I am so eager to support them.  

Join me and support them too.  Together, let’s do some great things.

Carthago Delenda Est,

Gadfly