OK, just bear through one more post if you would please, and then I can get off for a while, because we have lives, right? First, a brief side point. Nothing to do with the Catholic Church, but the United States is not a democracy, and in fact, democracy is not a good thing. No, it doesn't mean dictatorship or even monarchy is a good thing, something I addressed recently. Ben Franklin once aptly defined democracy as two wolves and a lamb sitting down to decide what they would have for dinner. The United States is a constitutional republic, which is limited majority rule done through representation and subject to the limits of established law. But that's not the main thing I wanted to write about. I want to say something that may be a bit startling, may even be a bit irritating, but it is meant not to attack but to give you deep thought and, as best as one can do over the Internet, offer Christian correction. Now, nothing can excuse whatever crazy things have happened to you as a result of someone attacking you on FB and all that. That's evil, that's a sin, and it really is an example of someone who really has too much time on their hands. That being said, I have seen your videos for a while, and in regards to Traditional Catholics, I might offer this. You are prejudiced. I don't know where it comes from but you are prejudiced. And this is the vantage point from which I see this. I am a Traditional, Latin Mass Catholic. I also happen to be a permanently professed member of a Catholic congregation of brothers, which is over 200 years old, which is part of what some other Trads would call the "post-conciliar Church" or the "Vatican II sect". I go to a Novus Ordo Mass with them six times a week. "Wait a minute...what?" Well, life is not always so cookie cutter. To make things even more complicated, I used to be opposed to the Latin Mass, mainly because they had announcements in the middle of everything, and before I came to know why that was, I thought it was a terrible abuse. I had seen it at my first Latin Mass, and because of it I didn't attend another one for seven years. After that, I warmed to it again, and things have changed. I now attend a Latin Mass on Sundays, the one day I can alone, and on any other day when something happens and I can go. If I had a choice, I would go to a Latin Mass seven days a week and would not attend the Novus Ordo, but I don't. Now, here is the challenge. Attend a Latin Mass. Not an SSPX or other independent one, no, an approved Latin Mass. Look around online. There might be some not far from where you are. And don't just attend, but talk to the people there. Maybe go once a month, making friends with some of them. You just might find some things about the Latin Mass that you find beautiful. And you might find some people who are not like the trolls that you encounter online. You might find people who, like myself, have life circumstances where they attend both. I also teach catechism at two parishes where the Novus Ordo is offered, one exclusively. I live in a monastery that is exclusively Novus Ordo. And yet, I am also a Trad Catholic. Like I said, life is not so cookie cutter, and things over the course of years worked out that way, namely because I moved from being "Tradition-minded" in my time here to Traditional Catholic. I challenge you, as a Trad Catholic who is literally surrounded by the "post-conciliar Church" (I don't usually use that term, it's just the Church to me) in his daily living, go to a Latin Mass and make friends with Traditional Catholics. If I can be tolerant enough, be non-prejudicial enough, to live my daily life with BROTHERS who do not share my views, people whom I pray with, work with, eat with, then by all means YOU can go to a Latin Mass, maybe once a month for, say, six months, and make some friends. You might find them to be more Catholic than you think.
There is always a prayer made at mass for our government and leaders, no matter who they are, what they represent, or their beliefs. Government seems to be one of those things that belongs to what Augustine would call "The City of Man." It's an earthy institution, deeply problematic in whatever form, and we ought not be surprised when it fails to live up to divine expectations. But the Christian, as Augustine would say, lives in two cities: the City of Man and the City of God. The City of God is what exists within and around the City of Man, where we can practice and benefit from those divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Mercy over justice. Love over expediency. The profound over the pragmatic. Monarchy isn't going to establish these things. No government can establish these things. The purpose of Christian life isn't to turn the City of Man into the City of God; that would be akin to the folly of the Tower of Babel. A monarchy will make our lives no more holy than a democracy, because the form of the earthly authority does not mitigate its earthly essence. Rather, we should suffer the shortcomings of the City of Man with as much patience as we can muster, and take our strength from The City of God. Is that not what we teach today? Or is this view of things no longer what we learn?
OK, just bear through one more post if you would please, and then I can get off for a while, because we have lives, right?
First, a brief side point. Nothing to do with the Catholic Church, but the United States is not a democracy, and in fact, democracy is not a good thing. No, it doesn't mean dictatorship or even monarchy is a good thing, something I addressed recently. Ben Franklin once aptly defined democracy as two wolves and a lamb sitting down to decide what they would have for dinner. The United States is a constitutional republic, which is limited majority rule done through representation and subject to the limits of established law.
But that's not the main thing I wanted to write about. I want to say something that may be a bit startling, may even be a bit irritating, but it is meant not to attack but to give you deep thought and, as best as one can do over the Internet, offer Christian correction. Now, nothing can excuse whatever crazy things have happened to you as a result of someone attacking you on FB and all that. That's evil, that's a sin, and it really is an example of someone who really has too much time on their hands.
That being said, I have seen your videos for a while, and in regards to Traditional Catholics, I might offer this. You are prejudiced. I don't know where it comes from but you are prejudiced.
And this is the vantage point from which I see this. I am a Traditional, Latin Mass Catholic. I also happen to be a permanently professed member of a Catholic congregation of brothers, which is over 200 years old, which is part of what some other Trads would call the "post-conciliar Church" or the "Vatican II sect". I go to a Novus Ordo Mass with them six times a week.
"Wait a minute...what?" Well, life is not always so cookie cutter. To make things even more complicated, I used to be opposed to the Latin Mass, mainly because they had announcements in the middle of everything, and before I came to know why that was, I thought it was a terrible abuse. I had seen it at my first Latin Mass, and because of it I didn't attend another one for seven years. After that, I warmed to it again, and things have changed. I now attend a Latin Mass on Sundays, the one day I can alone, and on any other day when something happens and I can go. If I had a choice, I would go to a Latin Mass seven days a week and would not attend the Novus Ordo, but I don't.
Now, here is the challenge. Attend a Latin Mass. Not an SSPX or other independent one, no, an approved Latin Mass. Look around online. There might be some not far from where you are. And don't just attend, but talk to the people there. Maybe go once a month, making friends with some of them. You just might find some things about the Latin Mass that you find beautiful. And you might find some people who are not like the trolls that you encounter online. You might find people who, like myself, have life circumstances where they attend both.
I also teach catechism at two parishes where the Novus Ordo is offered, one exclusively. I live in a monastery that is exclusively Novus Ordo. And yet, I am also a Trad Catholic. Like I said, life is not so cookie cutter, and things over the course of years worked out that way, namely because I moved from being "Tradition-minded" in my time here to Traditional Catholic.
I challenge you, as a Trad Catholic who is literally surrounded by the "post-conciliar Church" (I don't usually use that term, it's just the Church to me) in his daily living, go to a Latin Mass and make friends with Traditional Catholics. If I can be tolerant enough, be non-prejudicial enough, to live my daily life with BROTHERS who do not share my views, people whom I pray with, work with, eat with, then by all means YOU can go to a Latin Mass, maybe once a month for, say, six months, and make some friends. You might find them to be more Catholic than you think.
There is always a prayer made at mass for our government and leaders, no matter who they are, what they represent, or their beliefs. Government seems to be one of those things that belongs to what Augustine would call "The City of Man." It's an earthy institution, deeply problematic in whatever form, and we ought not be surprised when it fails to live up to divine expectations. But the Christian, as Augustine would say, lives in two cities: the City of Man and the City of God. The City of God is what exists within and around the City of Man, where we can practice and benefit from those divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Mercy over justice. Love over expediency. The profound over the pragmatic. Monarchy isn't going to establish these things. No government can establish these things. The purpose of Christian life isn't to turn the City of Man into the City of God; that would be akin to the folly of the Tower of Babel. A monarchy will make our lives no more holy than a democracy, because the form of the earthly authority does not mitigate its earthly essence. Rather, we should suffer the shortcomings of the City of Man with as much patience as we can muster, and take our strength from The City of God. Is that not what we teach today? Or is this view of things no longer what we learn?
It supports whichever system you are in. Render unto caesar
No, it doesn't. It's not supposed to support a Communist system, even though the present Vatican seems to do that with China.