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  • I have a high opinion of a lot of institutions - before I start working for them. Then you get to see all the antics going on behind the scenes. Must be equivalent to finding out what really does go into the secret sauce at your favorite fast-food joint?
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    I have a high opinion of a lot of institutions - before I start working for them. Then you get to see all the antics going on behind the scenes. Must be equivalent to finding out what really does go into the secret sauce at your favorite fast-food joint?


    In a way I suppose. I thought the EF was the magic bullet that would cure the ails of the Church until I actually worked in support of one. It was there that I learned that traditionalists are their own worst enemy. I still would prefer an EF if I didn't have to work it behind the scenes, but there's the rub: EF's tend to be fledglings requiring lay-nursing by a small handful which renders it almost impossible to avoid a turn manning the sausage grinder.
    Thanked by 2melofluent Adam Wood
  • Scott,

    Are there traditionally-minded Catholics who hurt their cause? Sure. There are two causes:
    a) Human beings are involved.
    b) The "new" tradition-oriented Catholics don't have the baggage of the Low-Mass-in-the-Catecombs types. I put "new" in inverted commas because the age of the people in question is irrelevant, as is the length of time they've been attracted by traditional thought.
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    I was fully aware of a and somewhat familiar with b. What I wasn't prepared for was how stark the functional-in-spite-of-itself it was. Holding it all together was a supportive NO-only pastor whose patience was tasked at every turn and yet he still wouldn't pull the plug on the EF which he was (as best I could tell) fully within his rights to do so since the EF was run by outsiders. He will have much treasure in Heaven.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    1
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    1 - x - 1 (TLM)

    Yes, people in the TLM communities can be lacking in charity, and yes we still like to form circular firing squads. But as we have grown and expanded (here in England) these two flaws are becoming few and far between.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,164
    1
  • Methodist--->Nazarene( not by choice)--->Wiccan/Neo Pagan--->Catholic *whew!*
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
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  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    You should write a book about your faith journey, FideminFidebus! It sounds really fascinating.


  • At least you finally 'made it'. Congratulations!
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    About the trad = whacko thing...

    I've found from experience working in churches (and just being in them) that there are plenty of whackos everywhere, it's just they're harder to pick out of a large crowd.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • @Mike: Not sure if your comment was meant to be snarky or not, perhaps I should have included that I was baptized Methodist only because that's what my grandmother was and she took me to church with her when I was very young, so it wasn't exactly a choice. My father and stepmother left the Nazarene church many years ago, thankfully, but that was a very dark time for our family, more so for them because they refuse to return to any church and also refused to attend the baptism of my children into the Catholic faith. But I digress...
    I don't care much for roller coasters...

    @Julie- not much of a book to write, at least I don't think so. I found my way home through music and a good friend in high school who led the way.

    @M.J: Indeed I did "make" it! I do wish I could return one day to my home church, though (ie where I first began attending and went through catechism etc)...or at least find somewhere that isn't so large and impersonal. We kind of got stuck at our current church for various reasons, but it's better than nothing, or any other nonsense I experienced before lol!
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    About the trad = whacko thing...

    I've found from experience working in churches (and just being in them) that there are plenty of whackos everywhere, it's just they're harder to pick out of a large crowd.


    I don't know if that is directed my way, but I don't intend (and didn't think I even implied) that the trads in my anecdote were whackos. If they were, then it would be easy -- the pastor would pull the plug and the whackos would have to go somewhere else to inflict massive destruction. But precisely because they weren't whackos meant you had the herculean task of still having to work with them like a donkey that fights you every step of the way. Yes, an NO parish has similar if different difficulties, but let's pretend that all of us here know that instinctively without having to mention it.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,822
    Yes. Hence why we must love the faith, know it and practice it without compromise in order that the Church becomes who she is supposed to be. If we who know it don't fight for what it believes and espouses than those who don't know it will never become it.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    there are plenty of whackos everywhere

    Verily.