Anne, I thought you hated social media and especially this place? Why are you back? I thought you had a learning disability, why even look at a debate about the Pope question?
I do. There is no place to go read Catholic articles and things without the stupid comment sections!!
It doesn't matter if it's Church Militant, Life Site, Catholic News Agency, From Rome, GAB, Twitter, CI here, and a whole bunch of other websites that I have looked at with supposedly Catholic threads/pages/content. I have been looking off and on for 2 years now, and each of these places has their own group of regular posters that comment on different things.
I have been noticing that there is NO Catholic site free from: Priest bashing, Pope bashing, name-calling, criticizing people, and so-on. There are definite themes happening.
This place, I thought while lurking, would be one of the better places to join in to help ease some of the isolation. But once I joined? I quickly realized that it was actually not so great. In fact, it is probably the WORST, if I had to rank them all, based on what I have read--and I am only a member here and nowhere else.
I underestimated how many people here actually are Sedevacantists. They either come right out and say it, or they dig/poke me, and not-so-subtly, but the long and the short of it is, they are vicious about it. They don't like me because I am not one of them. I have tried to figure out a few things, but at the end of the day, Sedevacantists make no sense to me, and that is why I get attacked so much. Do I get angry? YES. It's usually because I have been attacked so much for either not being in their "club" or "group," or because I have honestly tried to keep up with many of the threads here and I cannot.
Why am I back again? Duh, obviously I am a sucker for punishment, or determined, or both, and plus, I keep getting mail. One of these days I will be able to figure out my thoughts to reply to those inbox messages here, but yes, I do have a learning disability, and that's not going away. Part of it affects my ability to focus and concentrate, so I get distracted easily sometimes. The more people that jump on me at once, the worse it gets, and the more frustrated I get.
Actually, when I got on this topic, I didn't realize it was a Pope thread exactly. But a couple of people suggested that I read more, and I laughed, but then I figured that I would just get out my missal and go from there.
So here you go: In my missal, In the Prayers before the Consecration, the opening prayer in the Canon of the Mass is the Te Igitur. Near the bottom of that prayer is where the prayer for the Pope comes in: "Una cuм..."
Me and my understanding and the Masses I attend: Insert name of Pope Francis and Bishop in charge of area.
Possible Sedevacantist: Skip that whole part, insert name of deceased Pope, insert name of living "Pope" of some group, insert name of some Bishop of choice or in charge of group. I don't know what other possible scenarios that I can think of, but anyway...
Good Friday: The Great Intercessions: PUBLIC PRAYERS.
1) For Holy Church
2) For the Supreme Pontiff
3) For all Orders and Grades of the Faithful
4) For those Engaged in Public Affairs
5) For Catechumens
6) For the Needs of the Faithful
7) For Heretics and Schismatics
8) For Conversion of the Jews
9) For Conversion of Unbelievers
If a person is a Sede vacantist, then they would skip 2, or else somehow add in some name of some other supposed living "Pope" or I don't know, pick an old one that has died?
If they skip it, then do they add in Pope Francis into 7 and 9, or just 7?
So not only do I not belong, but I don't even follow the same missal. Or if we share the same missal, then Priests are just making up their own Mass stuff for the Canon, or altering it, and the same goes for Good Friday.
So if this is going on, then how are Sede Vacantists any different that SOME "innovative" Novus Ordo Priests that add or alter Parts of the Mass? They aren't if you ask me.
So now here's Anne finding herself on this website where it seems there are exponentially more Sede Vacantists openly claiming it, or else if not openly claiming it, holding that view and somehow going to a Mass where the Pope is still prayed for?
WEIRD. It makes NO sense to me. If you have no Pope, then you have no visible head of the Church. If you make stuff up or alter it in the Canon of the Mass, then I would say that Mass is not valid.
So I don't fit in here because I believe Pope Francis is the Pope, and there's not much that I can do about it, except continue to pray God's will be done, and to pray for Pope Francis.
So actually, the advice that I think it was Meg gave, and Nadir earlier, a long time ago, was to read more, and post less or something, that was Nadir, I think. I don't know exactly but I think it was those two ladies. Anyway, I just picked up missal and it's all there. It's not hard to figure out if I keep it simple like I do. If I try to complicate things, or read some heavy-duty obscure stuff, it makes me MORE confused, and not less, and I get more frustrated and the likes.
And here, when people gang up on one person? It's basically like psychological gang-rape, believe it or not. If people are not actively partaking, then there are many others on the sidelines cheering/egging on.
It's the same disgusting situation when there is a person on a bridge and they are considering jumping to end their life. Cars driving by or people walking by will egg the person on by yelling, "Jump!" It's no different. The principle is the same. That's why they always shut down bridges and call them "Police Incidents." They don't want the person to be bullied or peer-pressured into jumping.
Here then, I am really NOT amongst my "peers" if you will. I am like the jumper on the bridge, and people are pretty much telling me, with few exceptions to jump. "We hate your guts, Anne, JUMP!" "We hate your guts, Anne, don't come back!" "We are better than you, Anne!" "You SUCK, Anne!"
I see no difference. I found myself amongst a bunch of losers doing exactly this, and I found myself turning and doing some of the same things to retaliate at times towards others. It's awful, wrong, and I don't want to be like that! This place has brought out the WORST in me, and so I took some steps back to figure out why, where it happened, and how, and what to do about it, (if I could do anything), etc.
I came to the conclusion that it is very unlikely that I will change anyone's opinions of many things here, because there are so many people and so many topics that the exponential numbers of possibilities is more math than my brain can handle. But what I CAN DO, is return to being the person that usually helps the jumper off the bridge, instead of finding myself caught up in a group where too many people think it's okay to tell someone to jump. In this case, me.
That's kind of the best comparison I can come up with in my head. And if this site is bad for the things that I have mentioned, then that's more scary still, because 1) Everyone here is supposed to be Catholic and 2), There are no other sites left for me to go where I won't run into this same kind of stuff I already listed above with the Priest bashing, name-calling, fighting, and so on.
It's very sad. The pressure of group think is enormous, and the pressure to "outcast" or shun those that don't conform is also enormous. I am usually the only one going against a group or a crowd, so-to-speak in many cases, and when I got here, I found myself getting into group attack mode, and that's not right. Not at all.
There are Resistance People here, but I am finding out there are issues there, too, and some of them are actually kind of similar to the Sede Vacantists. The way I understand it in my brain, is that the Resistance is one step away from being Sede Vacantist, to keep it simple. So that in itself, also has me wondering what other dangers are lurking if I try to explore that further.
When I said to you the other day about going around and around on your hamster wheels? It's true, because I couldn't see how any of the Sede Vacantist stuff made sense, or how people can go to Good Friday and not pray for the Supreme Pontiff, etc.
To me, you have to be Inside the Catholic Church, and I just don't see how that is possible as a Sede Vacantist. I am no theologian or anything, or Priest, and my Catechism was interrupted and I only had spits and spats mostly, but I listen to the Sermons and read simple Saints Stories and articles that are things I can put down and take up again later. Here? This is more like rapid-response, or else the number of people gets prohibitive, and I can't respond to hundreds of people. I have done my very best to reply to those that have been patient and kind enough to put up with me, or to answer back to threads.
God bless, Anne.
P.S. It makes a lot more sense now, too, if people have been here awhile, they have also probably held their views as long. If a new person comes along, there will be pressure put on that new person to slot themselves into a BOX, or else be slotted into one or more BOXES. There is more likelihood that the group will pressure to conform.
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