Overview
Traditionalist outlets do not argue in a vacuum. A loose set of Catholic writers, apologists, journalists and scholars regularly answers their claims, sometimes point by point. They are not one camp. Some websites made defending Pope Francis their mission. Apologetics apostolates mainly answer Protestants and atheists but also take on sedevacantism and papal-critique media. Some responders are journalists, and some are researchers whose data cut against stereotypes on several sides. Traditionalist writers criticise many of them in turn, and that argument is part of the picture. This page covers public work only; listing someone is not an endorsement of their arguments.
Papal-defence sites and shows
Where Peter Is. The site began in early 2018 as a blog started by a few lay Catholics to answer what they saw as unfair attacks on Francis and his teaching. Mike Lewis, whose author biography lists earlier communications work for the U.S. bishops' conference, is its founding managing editor (Where Peter Is; Where Peter Is; National Catholic Reporter; Mike Lewis interview). The site describes itself as conceived by Catholics "concerned about the attacks from within the Church on Pope Francis and his teachings" (Muck Rack). It has argued that Vatican II's teaching is binding (Where Peter Is), and it reviewed Peter Kwasniewski's True Obedience critically as a case for disobedience (Where Peter Is). It has rebutted claims that Archbishop Bugnini was a Freemason (Where Peter Is), criticised teachings of Fr. Chad Ripperger (Where Peter Is), and published a translation of the 2026 SSPX decree (Where Peter Is). Lewis distinguishes prudential disagreement with a pope from dissent (Mike Lewis). An article in The Catholic Herald accused the site of double standards on dissent and called it a clearing house for articles defending Francis (The Catholic Herald). See Papal authority and "recognize and resist".
Michael Lofton (Reason & Theology). Lofton started the show in January 2019. He holds a master's degree from Christendom College's graduate school and is writing a doctoral dissertation on the magisterium; the show's about page says he once described himself as a "radical traditionalist" (Reason & Theology; Catholic Answers profile). Catholic Answers Press published his book Answering Orthodoxy. He has repeatedly answered Taylor Marshall, including over a November 2023 livestream against critics Marshall calls "popesplainers" (Reason & Theology). He has argued against sedevacantism, including with Trent Horn on Catholic Answers (Catholic Answers), and rebutted Fr. James Altman's claim that Francis was not pope. FromRome.info, a benevacantist site, called that defence "theologically faulty" (FromRome.info), and a Substack critic accused him of ignoring Vatican I's teaching on papal primacy when he defended remarks by Leo XIV on Christian unity as consistent with it (Substack).
Apologetics apostolates
Catholic Answers. The apostolate's apologists answer traditionalist and sedevacantist arguments alongside their main work. Jimmy Akin's video "The Errors of Sedevacantism" argues that sedevacantists' reasons contradict Christ's promises, and another answers the claim that Leo XIV is not pope (Catholic Answers; Catholic Answers). Akin has also argued that SSPX priests cannot rely on "common error" for supplied jurisdiction (Jimmy Akin). Trent Horn's The Counsel of Trent podcast rebutted Peter Dimond's sedevacantist arguments, calling the position spiritually dangerous (Catholic Answers). On Catholic Answers Focus, Joe Heschmeyer, with host Cy Kellett, answered a video in which Patrick Coffin, a former host of Catholic Answers Live, set out "seven pieces of evidence" that Francis was an antipope (Catholic Answers). A magazine article titled "Hyperbolic Traditionalists" replied to a Remnant TV video in which Michael J. Matt and Christopher Ferrara had criticised Catholic Answers Live programmes on "radical Traditionalism" (Catholic Answers), and "What Went Down with the SSPX" analysed the 2026 decree (Catholic Answers). Horn also criticises the other flank: his book Confusion in the Kingdom criticises progressive Catholicism (AbeBooks). Traditionalist critics push back. Crisis Magazine's podcast examined what it saw as right and wrong in a Horn video on "Catholic fundamentalism" (Crisis), and FromRome.info questioned why Catholic Answers gives him a platform (FromRome.info).
Word on Fire and Bishop Robert Barron. Barron presented Word on Fire's Vatican II collection as a response to traditionalists who argue that the council betrayed Catholicism (NCR). In 2020 he argued that one cannot repudiate Vatican II and claim to be a traditionalist (Archdiocese of Washington blog). A Word on Fire reply, reproduced by bloggers, said he meant "extreme, radical traditionalists (not ordinary traditionalists)"; Fr. Z's Blog argued that Barron stretches "traditionalism" to cover almost all of Christian history (Fr. Z's Blog; Archdiocese of Washington blog). NCR reported that Barron hosted an invitation-only meeting of Catholic media professionals on "disturbing trends in the online Catholic world," including "radical Traditionalist" movements, and that he called online attacks on him "mean-spirited" and "unjust" (NCR). Word on Fire has also published an essay arguing that not all criticism of magisterial texts is dissent (Word on Fire).
Journalists
- The Pillar was launched on Substack on 4 January 2021 by the canon lawyers J.D. Flynn and Ed Condon, both formerly of Catholic News Agency. Religion News Service described it in 2021 as expressing both a new era of journalism and "an emboldened form of conservative Catholicism" (RNS; The Pillar; Wikipedia). Its coverage of the 2026 consecrations included a canonical analysis calling the SSPX's prospects for recourse "unappealing" (The Pillar).
- National Catholic Reporter (not to be confused with the EWTN-owned National Catholic Register, for which Edward Pentin writes from Rome) covers Latin Mass policy through reporters such as Brian Fraga, who joined in 2021 (NCR). It has reported on organised opposition to the synod and quoted a canon lawyer who called the SSPX decree necessary for Church unity (NCR; NCR).
- America, the Jesuit magazine, explained Francis's dispute with EWTN (America) and has covered the SSPX decree and Leo XIV's liturgy letter in detail (America; America).
Scholars
Massimo Faggioli (Villanova), commenting in NCR on Francis's critics, said "It is healthy that Catholics see limits in papal powers" (NCR). A 2026 report carried by NCR quoted him calling the SSPX "Traditionalism 2.0" (NCR). In a July 2019 essay for La Croix International he described three U.S. prelates, Archbishops Charles Chaput and Salvatore Cordileone and Bishop Joseph Strickland, as "devout schismatics," citing their response to Archbishop Viganò's 2018 testimony; a spokesman for Chaput said he had not endorsed Viganò's allegations (CWR). Faggioli later denied accusing Chaput of schism, a denial Phil Lawler questioned (CatholicCulture.org); a 2024 Catholic World Report column sharply criticised his commentary on Strickland and Barron (CWR), and Kwasniewski has disputed his account of liturgical "rupture" (Fr. Z's Blog).
Stephen Bullivant and Stephen Cranney are researchers in the sociology of religion. Their surveys of U.S. Latin Mass Catholics treat hostility to Vatican II as a question to be tested empirically, and they say their work challenges portrayals of "Trads" on both ends of the debate. Their book Trads is due from Oxford University Press in late 2026 (OSV News; America). See Stephen Bullivant, Stephen Cranney and Young Catholics and the Latin Mass. Earlier academic studies include Michael Cuneo's The Smoke of Satan (1997), which a Kirkus review praised for never mocking its subjects (Kirkus). Newer work studies trad social media (see online culture).
Watchdogs and the "radical traditionalist" label
The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed some groups, The Remnant among them, as "radical traditional Catholic" hate groups, citing what it describes as antisemitism in their ideology, while saying it distinguishes them from the much larger traditionalist movement (SPLC). Michael J. Matt of The Remnant argues that the SPLC treats attachment to the Latin Mass as a stand-in for hatred (The Daily Signal). A January 2023 memo from the FBI's Richmond field office on "radical-traditionalist" Catholics drew on the SPLC's list; FBI headquarters withdrew it after it was leaked in February 2023 (CWR). A 2024 review by the Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence of religious bias or malicious intent but faulted the memo's analysis (OSV News). An August 2026 report by the department's Weaponization Working Group called the memo a "grave failure of responsibility" and said the FBI had relied on SPLC material without assessing its credibility (EWTN News; Justice Department). See Judaism and antisemitism and online culture.
The argument about the answerers
Critics such as Taylor Marshall call these responders "popesplainers"; a 2019 post at The American Catholic described "a cottage industry" of apologists "explaining what the Pope really meant" (The American Catholic). Kwasniewski's two-volume The Road from Hyperpapalism to Catholicism and the collection Ultramontanism and Tradition argue that an inflated view of papal authority has harmed the Church (Os Justi Press; Arouca Press). Kwasniewski says "hyperpapalist" Catholics think "we must all simply change our minds with each new pope" (The European Conservative). From the other side, a commentary at jesuit.ie argues that conservatives attacking Francis in the name of tradition "have been pressed into holding a variation of the doctrine of private judgement" (Jesuits in Ireland). Both sides appeal to Vatican I and Lumen gentium 25, read differently. The SSPX's 2026 consecrations, and the Holy See's declaration that the society is in schism, have since divided traditionalist media itself (see Papal-critique and "resistance" media). Related: Synodality and A glossary of traditionalist terms.