I often struggle to listen to talks that commonly come in at an hour or more in length, because it’s difficult to set aside that much uninterrupted time to listen. But what follows here is a great — and blessedly short! (roughly 17 minutes) — talk by traditionalist priest, psychologist, and exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger about serious problems afflicting the traditionalist movement.
These include pride, impurity, rebellion against authority, disrespect for clergy, an exaggerated interest in what is bad in the Church and the world, undue isolation from the world, weakness in the spiritual life, and so on. These are real problems, and they really are obstacles to not just our salvation, but our success in attaining even the most worthy goals we seek in this life.
If you can listen to this and not feel like he’s addressing at least one or two issues you struggle with, I hope I can be present at your canonization. In all seriousness, though, as we careen forward through the crisis growing increasingly bitter and fighting amongst ourselves, this is a real moment to stop and reflect on what we’re doing.
Although the videos on the Sensus Fidelium YouTube channel are not official works of Fr. Ripperger, they are created using his original content. As such, I offer the standard reminder: All of Fr. Ripperger’s files are offered as PenanceWare, which require that you do one of the following if you listen to or watch them:
- donate $1.00 via Father’s Paypal, which supports his work.
- offer up a decade of the Rosary, or
- perform some form of penance for the intentions of Fr. Ripperger (for each individual media file).
The same rule applies if you copy and distribute to friends.

Steve Skojec is the Founding Publisher of OnePeterFive.com. He received his BA in Communications and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2001. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, Huffington Post Live, The Fox News Channel, Foreign Policy, and the BBC. Steve and his wife Jamie have eight children. You can find more of his writing at his Substack, The Skojec File.
[…] movement; there are some very sincere people in the movement. However, it is not a unique critique; Father Chad Ripperger has described the Gnoticism of the Traditional Movement before. I will speak about it from a slightly different angle. I will speak about it from the perspective […]