The Internet can be a very edifying realm where individuals exchange ideas and make things better. It can also be a place of nothing but urine and vinegar, where egotists obsess about things said almost ten years ago as if they are fresh battles, and portray even the smallest of disagreements as lies and willful distortions of the highest order. Everyone loves the former, and most (except those who thrive on urine and vinegar as a way to generate traffic or sometimes revenue) avoid the latter. There's a lot of that going on in the latter, and I really have no interest in dealing with it, except to chuckle that with all the things that have changed in the past decade, a lot remains the same.
The trick is trying to figure out how to handle the things in between. I like to do what I can to expand positive perceptions of the traditionalist movement. During these endeavors, some good questions are asked. Other times, it is just pure concern trolling sadly.
A classic example is when traditionalists are told not to use the moniker "traditionalist" because it implies that those who are outside those circles are somehow second class Catholics. When I hear this, more often than not I'm dealing with a concern troll. For the serious questioner, here is why it is concern trolling.
One of the under appreciated beauties of the Catholic Faith are the various movements and charisms that all lead to the same truth. The faith has different spirituality's, approaches, gifts, all different ways of communicating the faith "once for all delivered unto the saints." Yet while there are these differences, they aren't as profound as you think. Dominicans tend to be big on preaching and scholarship. Yet there are many great Franciscan scholars, or Benedictine preachers, and so on.
The same principle applies here with traditionalists. There is no denying that traditionalists approach the liturgy in a certain way, with a certain emphasis that is different from others. Our spirituality is centered on certain things, the language we use can be different, etc. There's something about a traditionalist that makes him stand out. That doesn't mean that they are superior in the faith to others. Nobody approaches the Little Sisters of the Poor or the Sisters of Charity and says "hey, just because you claim to embody charity doesn't mean we aren't charitable!" The Dominican Sisters of Mary in Ann Arbor a real puzzled look if you told them that "you know, there are those who love Our Lady outside your order!"
This is how the concern troll sounds when he says the same thing to traditionalists. Nobody (or at least precious few people) say that you can't have reverence and a love for the liturgy unless you are 100% Extraordinary Form all the time. In the end, we are judged on a few things. Did we believe the Catholic Faith which comes to us from the Apostles? Have we used the charisms and gifts we have so as to properly display faith, hope, and charity? If so, then it doesn't matter what particular school you subscribe to, if any.
"But, but, but, buuuut Kevin! Some mean people on the Internet in comboxes believe that if you aren't a traditionalist, you are a second class Catholic. These .05% of traditionalists are a blight upon the entire movement, and until they are eradicated, nobody should ever listen to anything a traditionalist has to say!" Again, enough with the concern trolling. Internet comboxes are never the place for sanity and rational discourse. Putting them on a Catholic website isn't going to change things. Blame concupiscence. Anyone who actually spends real time amongst traditionalists in our parishes, at their events, or even at dinner & drinks realizes the Internet minority is a nasty yet irrelevant crowd that most traditionalists aren't even aware of. That's like this everywhere in all movements, and has been throughout history. We haven't needed a Pope to come in between us and tell us to go to our respective corners like major religious orders have. Yet those orders were still respected!
If you really want to offer advice to traditionalists about how they can better express themselves, we are always all ears. Yet please, drop the concern trolling.
[The Internet can be a very edifying realm where individuals exchange ideas and make things better. It can also be a place of nothing but urine and vinegar, where egotists obsess about things said almost ten years ago as if they are fresh battles, and portray even the smallest of disagreements as lies and willful distortions of the highest order. Everyone loves the former, and most (except those who thrive on urine and vinegar as a way to generate traffic or sometimes revenue) avoid the latter. There's a lot of that going on in the latter, and I really have no interest in dealing with it, except to chuckle that with all the things that have changed in the past decade, a lot remains the same.]
ReplyDeleteWell said Kevin and I agree 100% with all of that. (And as you know, it is not often we concur 100% on anything!)
Just as truth is the first casualty in war, the same is the case with those "urine and vinegar" sorts who think everything is about them. Unfortunately, Friedrich Nietzche was right when he said that "[h]e who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster."
It is truly unfortunate that there are no shortage of those who engage in whatever disingenuous antics they can to create controversy and there is no unethical limbo bar to which many will not stoop to crawl under in the process if they think it helps them generate attention to themselves. It is particularly noxious when they do so to try and get $$$ out of it somehow and that goes triple when they dress it up as a kind of religious crusade and pretend to be wounded innocents in the process but I digress.