He admits that his exposure to traditionalists tends to be just in the online world. Here is a little piece of advice for the Mr. Shea, who was a seasoned battle hardened apologist when I first came into the Catholic Faith 13 years ago: if you are letting your online dealings form your perception of a group of people, you are doing it wrong.
He himself tends to admit that those he meets face to face tend to be a lot better than the "urine and vinegar" wing of traditionalism online* that essentially treat him as the bane of all that is right and holy. I think Mr. Shea should change that. He doesn't need to become a traditionalist. He doesn't even need to neccessarily like the Extraordinary Form. (Though he should!) He should just look up the parishes that have a vibrant EF community, and see if they are hosting any events. Then he should go check them out. Spend some time talking to them, maybe even have a few drinks. He will find almost all of them are of the sane variety. I'm sure his readers can find him the locations of some vibrant communities. If all else fails, should he ever find himself traveling to
Another way to help with this is to remember that in many cases, what he is seeing is a generational problem. A lot of the more bitter minded traditionalists went through some pretty nasty persecution. Not all of it (though in some cases a fair amount) was self-inflicted. Nowadays when you walk into a traditionalist parish, the audience has been experiencing a downward trend as the congregations become younger and younger. (Compared to your normal liberal parish which is becoming older and older!)
A lot of these individuals didn't experience those dark times. Most traditionalists who are 30 years old only know life under the motu proprio, or at least it is just a faint memory. For me, at 30 years old, this is the first year where my attendance at the Latin Mass falls more under the Post motu proprio age than the Indult age. As traditionalists become more and more involved with these parishes, expect the trend to only continue.
So when you come across the U&V wing (which are just like every other troll group online), you can then say with confidence "These guys aren't like the traditionalists I know!" because you actually know a ton of traditionalists who aren't like that.
* A phrase that I coined and demand royalties for!
" He'll certainly have far more in common economically with most traditionalists than I do!"
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That's an observation I have pointed out to him before. His political/economic outlook sounds just like my Sunday afternoon discussion with the men of the parish.
[Here is a little piece of advice for the Mr. Shea, who was a seasoned battle hardened apologist when I first came into the Catholic Faith 13 years ago: if you are letting your online dealings form your perception of a group of people, you are doing it wrong.]
ReplyDeleteMark used to be a different and better apologist and person prior to the whole enhanced interrogation stuff circa 2005-06. (All one has to do is read his blog prior to 2005-06 and subsequent to it and the change is pretty stark and unfortunate.) Unfortunately, a lot of apologist sorts who find themselves drawn to an issue that they do not well understand (and cannot admit this to others let alone themselves!), it creates a kind of nastiness or near-paranoid egotism that permeates virtually everything they do. And with no kind of real peer review in that area (and a downright refusal by those who could put one in place to actually do so!), things will only continue to worsen rather than get better in that area.