If Colorado is very liberal, then why is it a hotbed of Traditional Catholicism

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Francisco_Fernando

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If Colorado is very liberal, then why is it a hotbed of Traditional Catholicism? I mean there are a number of Traditional Catholic Parishes and Monasteries. It is the home of Fr. Aquila, Fr. David Nix, and Fr. Chad Ripperger. There exists Servants of a Holy Family and Sisters of Carmel.
 
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Why should “liberal” politically equate to “traditional” in the Catholic sense? It has always bothered me that, at least on this forum and some other “online locales”, traditional Catholicism gets conflated with American conservatism. They are not the same and in some cases there may be blatant contradictions between the two worldviews.

Vancouver, BC, where I live, would be considered politically “liberal” by most American / Canadian standards, but I find the Catholic archdiocese to be quite traditional. For example, at our cathedral we use the altar rail at every Mass…but that really has nothing to do with liberal or conservative politics…its simply a matter of Catholic tradition.
 
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It’s a big place. NYC also has some very traditional parishes despite the place in general being very left wing.
 
To figure out the answers, we need a definition of liberalism. Do you mean theological liberalism or political liberalism?

Then you’d need the percentage of Catholics who are traditional.

You could start out by looking at the number of SSPX and FSSP chapels per state.

Then we need to look at the membership numbers in chapels. Then compare the membership per overall numbers.

Without numbers and definitions, we’re just speculating.
 
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This was what I was getting at in my post above… so many on this forum seem to conflate traditional Catholicism and American conservatism…they…are…not…the…same. Americans have become so used to seeing the entire world through the left vs right, Democrat vs Republican, liberal vs conservative lens, that many see EVERYTHING through this lens. Yes, you can broadly speak of a “progressive” wing of the Church and a “traditionalist” wing of the Church…but it does not equate to the American “left vs right” divide…there is overlap, especially in the local context of the US, but the analogy starts to break down pretty quickly when you look at global Catholicism.
 
@Francisco_Fernando: You still need numbers.

The number of secular Discalced Carmelites would be another good metric.
And how do you establish a connection between Colorado and other locations?

New Jersey is extremely liberal politically. Same-sex marriage is legal.
But it is still chock full of traditional Latin chapels.

@twf: Thanks for your reminder about your post. I had read it. And you make excellent points.
Francisco_Fernando said:
Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers | Jeff Ziegler I’ve heard that the Diocese of Denver, Co is 14th in the nation for vocations.
Click to expand...
@Francisco_Fernando: This article is from 2005. And a lot of times, the Archdiocese of Newark leads the nation in ordinations. How does the number of correlate with traditionalism?
 
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Define “hotbed”.

In my thinking, two priests who are famous on the internet, (I’ve never heard of Fr Nix), and two orders are good things, but, they do not a hotbed make.

We have famous priests in my Diocese, an EWTN famous author/teacher in our parish, nationally know Catholic apostolates, Latin Mass, and I would not call us a “hotbed” of Traditional Catholicism.
 
Maybe labels aren’t as important – or accurate, or useful – as some people make them out to be.
 
As a resident of beautiful,Colorado since 1972,I wholeheartedly agree.It is truly God’s Country 😌
 
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