An article by Steve Skojec I admire.

arth Vad­er used to be Anakin Sky­walk­er; and in Cri­sis Mag­a­zine, the Steve Sko­jec of 2010 cri­tiqued the Steve Sko­jec of 2016:

Years ago, when I first became enam­ored of the tra­di­tion­al Catholic litur­gy, a friend of mine who enjoyed going to the Extra­or­di­nary Form (but wasn’t com­mit­ted to it) asked me a point­ed ques­tion: “If tra­di­tion­al Catholics have this great trea­sure, as they say they do, shouldn’t it make them the hap­pi­est peo­ple you know? Shouldn’t their joy over so beau­ti­ful a litur­gy be over­flow­ing, and there­by draw oth­ers in to find out what they have that’s so great?

Should­n’t their joy be over­flow­ing? That’s a good ques­tion. I could not have said that bet­ter myself.

That’s an impor­tant point. [Yes it isIs that the point of 1 Vad­er 5? To share good­ness?] We should be hap­py at Mass, friend­ly to our fel­low parish­ioners, wel­com­ing to those who are new, and under­stand­ing to those who don’t yet see why we make so much effort to be a part of some­thing so out­side the norm.

What was that again? We should be friend­ly to oth­ers? “Under­stand­ing to those who don’t yet see why…” Yes, that’s right. But here’s the best part. Watch this.

Con­dem­na­tions, judg­ments, spe­cious argu­ments, and morose dis­po­si­tions do no favors for our cause, or its future. [No, they do not.] We’ve got some­thing great going on, and it’s about time we act­ed like it.

Wow. It sure is about time. Sounds to me very much like a cri­tique of 1 Vad­er 5. Does it sound that way to you too?

It’s called “They Will Know We are Trad­dies By Our Love.” You can read all of it here. Per­haps Mr. Sko­jec should take a few moments to read it again him­self. Espe­cial­ly that last para­graph.

(What hap­pened to him? Any­one know?)