“I’m Not an Expert. I’m an Explorer.”
My name is Steve Skojec. I’m a Catholic, a Husband, a Father and a Writer – in that order. Back in 2004 I suddenly realized how much deeper Catholicism permeates into history and the richness of tradition than I had ever known.
As I began to dive in, I decided to start up a blogging group. Recognizing the suspicion with which regular Catholics regard those of the traditional variety, a self-effacing off-the-cuff joke was made by one of us in a comment box. He described himself as an “evil traditionalist” and immediately in my mind the idea sprang to life. The League of Evil Traditionalists was born, and with the blessing of the commenter, I became The Evil Traditionalist and assumed leadership of the group. Over time, the group grew, then shrank again, then finally leveled off. As funny as the joke was to us, there was more to that we wanted to do than be the neighborhood wise-guys. While there was a certain notoriety that came with the group, our focus on not taking ourselves too seriously started to make me wonder if anyone else was taking us seriously either. We actually had some serious and wortwhile things to say. We began to run the risk of being perceived, as one of us put it, ” as a group of know-nothing kids who think they are cool.”
I’ll be thirty this year. I have three kids, which means I don’t get to be one anymore – at least, not as much as before. Some things have changed, and some have stayed the same. What I know for sure is this – I may still be young, but the older I get, the more I realize how important it is to be grounded. It’s OK to be serious about serious things, as long as you’re not too serious all the time.
I want to plant my feet on something solid. There was a time when things were rooted, when people knew their place, when everyone knew that God and the Church were at the top of the heap.
That’s what this blog is about. God. Faith. Liturgy. Sacraments. Family. Art. Music. Culture. Land. Food. Love. All of the really good and important stuff, and the way it all fits together in a world hell-bent against anything that might get us to heaven.
I’ve recently discovered, much to my delight, that while I am a traditional Catholic, I’m more than that – I’m a Catholic Restorationist. The distinction, I think, is in how committed you are to ossification. For me, it’s not so much about going back and staying there as it is about taking what was good and proven from before and bringing it forward with you, with feet firmly planted upon tradition. It’s about simultaneously not fearing legitimate change while avoiding change for change’s sake. As Chesterton said, “An open mind is like an open mouth – it should close on something solid.”
The point is, while I live in the here and now, I also believe that much of what is old should be new again. We need to remember, with the memory of our ancestry, how to live like Catholics. The truth is, we just don’t live life like we used to.
I think it’s about time we started.
