If Catholics want to hold a conference for Catholics who have been wounded by the modern Church, they will likely need a huge venue.

A group named “Trad Recovery” is holding a conference this summer to minister to people who have been harmed by their involvement in traditionalist communities. Some traditionalist Catholics have taken offense to the project, but it is certainly possible that there are some people who have had bad experiences and who might therefore benefit from some “ministering.”

The proposal itself, though, should shame “conservatives” and “trads” into doing something similar for those wounded by the changes in the Church since the sixties.

While the Trad Recovery group has chosen to hold their conference in a fairly small venue in beautiful Montana, it likely will take counterpoint conference organizers some time to pull their event together. Why? Because the numbers interested may be huge; it will require renting out sports arenas in multiple metro areas to accommodate a mere fraction of the wounded. Millions have left the Church since the sixties, and millions of those who remain are exceedingly unhappy with much of what is happening in the Church. Many of those who left claim, “I didn’t leave the Church; the Church left me.” Hence, a good title for the conference would be: “The Church Left Us.”