Avoiding Babylon

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
A single letter from Rome can change the whole temperature of the Catholic internet, and this one hits like a brick: Pope Leo pleads with the SSPX to “please turn back,” warns of a “schismatic act,” and points to the seamless garment of Christ. We slow the conversation down and read the letters themselves, because the hot takes are cheap and the stakes are not. If you care about the Society of St Pius X, the consecration of bishops, faculties, and what “unity” actually means in the middle of a Church crisis, you need the primary sources, not the caricatures.

We also address the side drama that keeps poisoning the well: critics who misframe what we say, the temptation to turn every disagreement into a bad faith accusation, and the constant pressure to jump from “there’s a crisis” straight to sedevacantism. We explain why we won’t take the “no valid pope since 1958” route, why we think that conclusion creates a bigger ecclesiology problem, and why people owe their audience clarity if they’re going to flirt with sedevacantist arguments while denying the label.

Then we get practical and painfully real about liturgy. We play a Bishop Williamson clip that cuts through slogans: the Novus Ordo Mass is not automatically invalid by its text, but it can still be spiritually dangerous in how it forms people, especially children, through irreverence and confusion. We talk about why so many cradle Catholics only found their faith by discovering the Traditional Latin Mass, and why this whole conflict should break your heart instead of feeding your ego. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s caught in the crossfire, and leave a review with your take: what do you think Rome and the SSPX should do next?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
The SSPX consecrations story isn’t just about bishops and Rome. It’s a stress test for the whole traditional Catholic world, and the reaction tells you more than the headline ever could. We talk through why people who never attend an SSPX chapel can seem the most obsessed, why sedevacantists and anti-SSPX critics both use the moment to drive wedges, and why calling everyone a traitor or a grifter is a lazy substitute for thinking.

We also get concrete about the substance beneath the drama. We read through a blunt list of modern errors that traditional Catholics keep naming, from relativism and situational ethics to false ecumenism, synodality, and a liturgical focus that feels more human-centered than God-centered. Then we ask the uncomfortable question: how do you reconcile claims that “it’s all in Vatican II” with the day-to-day Vatican posture on interreligious dialogue and “fraternity”? If you care about the Latin Mass, the FSSP, diocesan TLMs, or the SSPX, these tensions shape your lived Catholic experience.

The second half turns toward mindset and spiritual survival. We push back on the idea that it’s a Catholic duty to “cope” if that means pretending all is well, but we also warn against scandal addiction and doomscrolling. We close with a surprising historical lens: the real clash between Lefebvre and Paul VI, and why the Church can look like it’s in its passion without having failed. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s stuck in trad infighting, and leave a review so more Catholics can find the conversation.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
“Can we please be normal?” That’s the line we start from, because the Israel conversation rarely stays normal for long. We take a careful look at Michael Knowles’ comments and the broader conservative Catholic media instinct to treat the modern State of Israel as a purely political alliance, detached from theology. We don’t buy that split. When people invoke Scripture, prophecy, covenant language, or “God’s promises,” they are already doing theology, even if they call it foreign policy.

We’re joined by Catholic State (Justin) and American Reform to sort out the terms that constantly get blurred: Israel as a people, Israel as a land, and Israel as a modern nation-state. From there we dig into Romans 9–11, what Saint Paul actually means by “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” and why Catholic fulfillment theology doesn’t fit comfortably with Christian Zionism or dispensationalism. We also discuss Vatican II language that’s often cited in online debates, plus earlier Catholic sources that shape how many traditional Catholics think about covenant, promise, and continuity.

The conversation turns to a newer pro-Israel Catholic advocacy effort asking the Pope to clarify whether the founding and endurance of the State of Israel should be read as a sign of providence. We explain why that question isn’t neutral, why “right to exist” can smuggle in theology, and how Catholics can reject sensationalism while still refusing a forced, two-option script. If you want a more precise, historically grounded way to think about Catholic teaching on Israel, the Holy Land, and political theology, this one will challenge you.

Subscribe for more long-form Catholic conversations, share this with a friend who argues about Israel online, and leave a review with your biggest unresolved question after listening.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
She was alone, spiraling, and ready to end her life. Then a single thought cut through everything: “What if the pain doesn’t end here?” That question didn’t just stop Nancy, it started a chain of events she still can’t explain away: five days of praying the Rosary, an unmistakable push to go see a priest, and the terrifying walk into a Catholic church where she felt like she didn’t belong.

We talk with Nancy about the real backstory leading up to that moment: childhood trauma, secrecy, same-sex attraction, family upheaval, and years of addiction that moved from “normal” partying to isolation, overdoses, psychiatric holds, and repeated rehab cycles. She shares how the culture’s identity scripts can feel like relief at first, whether it is coming out or experimenting with gender transition, and why that “freedom” often collapses into deeper confusion when the underlying wounds stay untouched.

Then we dig into the bigger questions her story raises for anyone trying to live and speak the faith clearly today: What is identity, and is it built from desires or received from God? Why does language like “gay Catholic” create a conflict of frameworks? How do we tell the truth about confession and Communion without turning it into a pride project? Along the way we get practical about healing, shame, conscience, and why the sacraments are not a side detail but the center of recovery and conversion.

If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
You’ve probably heard the Saint Michael Prayer. The part most people miss is that its origin story is bound up with a Pope who believed the Church was facing more than bad politics, and he answered with something sharper than commentary: Immortali Dei, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on how a nation should be ordered, what authority is, and why the state cannot pretend God is irrelevant without slowly hollowing itself out.

We walk through Leo’s core framework: two real powers established by God, the spiritual authority of the Church and the temporal authority of the state. That distinction is not a call for theocracy, but it is a direct challenge to the modern “religiously neutral” state. From natural law to public education to marriage, Leo argues that law and culture always point somewhere, and when they stop pointing toward truth, they don’t become neutral, they drift toward chaos. Along the way we dig into the thesis hypothesis approach, the idea that there’s an ideal political order, and there are also prudent concessions Catholics may accept when the ideal is impossible without greater harm.

That sets up the tension a lot of Catholics still feel today: Immortali Dei’s “error has no rights” versus Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae and the modern language of religious liberty. We lay out why this debate keeps splitting the Catholic world, and we test it against real life examples, including a clip of JD Vance explaining how he weighs papal criticism against his duties in civil office. If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t have the words to explain what went wrong in the modern West, Leo XIII gives you a vocabulary worth recovering.

Subscribe for the next installment as we move toward Rerum Novarum, and if this helped you, share it with a friend and leave a review so more people can find the series.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss