Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Crisis in the Church => Topic started by: ServusSpiritusSancti on October 04, 2011, 08:55:31 PM
-
I thought this would be a good thread for us to share how we discovered Traditional Catholicism. Afterall, most Catholics born after Vatican II start off as Novus Ordo Catholics before finding Tradition years later. I'll tell my story to get us started.
I started off as a Novus Ordo Catholic and was baptized at a young age. I grew up with a Protestant father who was Catholic-friendly at first but slowly drifted further and further away from his original Catholic-friendly self. I remember watching our local Protestant service with him on tv when I was very young and thought it was "cool". Fortunetly, I never attended a Protestant service (atleast I don't remember attending one). Still, I was close to going down a very dangerous path. To keep this from happening, my mother took me to Mass every Sunday. I remember usually sitting there bored, not really paying attention to what was going on. Afterwards we would usually go out to eat for lunch. Sometimes afterwards (when I was in the about the 2nd grade) I'd attend Sunday school, which I remember being filled with the typical "warmth and fuzziness" crap you'd expect from the Bogus Ordo. Of course, I knew nothing about Tradition at the time and really was always caught up in materialism.
My mother knew there was something wrong with the Church but couldn't put her finger on it. Research led her to discover what happened during Vatican II and what Traditional Catholicism was. She passed all of this on to me, and I believed it. Yet I remained a spiritually lazy Novus Ordite who was still more interested in materialism. I attended my last NO in 2008 (it might have been 09 actually, but definitely no later) and haven't been back since. I attended my first TLM in 2007 in South Carolina and attended 4 more afterwards. I attended my most recent one in November 2009, which was the first in my area in over 40 years. After just one TLM, my bishop took it away. It was really just a diocesean one though, more of a hybrid really. In June of that year, I had watched a movie about Fatima that inspired me to start praying the Rosary daily and to start wearing my Brown Scapular more frequently. But I still was caught up in materialism, which was rather embarassing given that I was certainly old and mature enough to get away from all that.
In January 2010 I officially became a Traditional Catholic, after I realized I needed to stop being spirituall lazy and get away from materialism. Most of you know what happened from there. Not long afterwards I felt the strong desire to post on a Traditional Catholic forum. FishEaters was the first one I looked at, I wasn't really impressed with it. Then I tried to join here but couldn't for some reason. So then I joined Catholic Answers without really looking at it and soon realized how modernist it was. I was banned on May 20, 2010 for "contempting Catholicism" and "refusal to follow moderator directions" (I didn't refuse to follow any directions, I only asked why I was given an infraction, LOL) for cutting down Vatican II. Later that day I tried to sign up on CatholicInfo again and was successful, and now here I am a year and a half later.
That's my story. Feel free to share yours.
-
We are glad that you are here. I never look at Catholic Answers.
-
I just got banned from CAF today for introducing Fr. Luigi Villa lol.
I have one person to really thank my traditional coversion- Fr. Malach Martin. Maybe he was a double agent, idk, but the man was so brilliant and interesting on those Art Bell tapes. Fr. Malachi Martin RIP.
-
I just got banned from CAF today for introducing Fr. Luigi Villa lol.
This ?
http://www.chiesaviva.com/430%20mensile%20ing.pdf
Good read
:reading:
-
I stopped going to Mass as a teen. Around 35 years or so I was non -practicing. A few years ago, I decided I had better get back. I had missed all the fuss. The NO was still new when I stopped going to Mass, and I doubt I'd have known what was really happening in the Church if I had stayed. So I never got used to the NO, and I suppose that was a blessing.
As I lurked on the forums, unbiased, it didn't take long for me to see who the real Catholics were. New Rome isn't a derogatory label. It's a real group of evil men. And the NO must certainly be poison, because those who grew up on it are blind. I can see it in their posts on CA.
Thank God for traditional clergy.
-
I grew up NO Catholic in a small town. We had a fairly conservative priest from 1980-92 (who later died of a heart attack while on a trip to the Holy Land) whose influence held for some time after, so I never experienced anything too bizarre. I went to a Lutheran university as it was the closest college to my house and realized sometime during those years that, despite having had 14 years of youth catechism, I knew next to nothing about Catholicism. :smirk:
After college, I had more time for self-study and did learn quite a bit, but none of my approaches led to anything Trad -- I still had no idea that the Latin Mass still existed. However, the things I did learn from, among other places, some very conservative NO religious, predisposed me to the integral Catholicism found among TLM attendees, as well as, to a lesser degree, the TLM itself.
I was introduced to Traditional Catholicism when I met Matthew on Catholic Match. He mentioned the SSPX in his profile as if everyone should know what that was and my first correspondence with him was to ask what SSPX stood for. I began attending the TLM exclusively perhaps about 6 weeks later.
We became "online" Trads when I left work after our first child was born in 2006. I started looking online for other Catholic mommies and landed at Fisheaters.
-
I grew up NO Catholic in a small town. We had a fairly conservative priest from 1980-92 (who later died of a heart attack while on a trip to the Holy Land) whose influence held for some time after, so I never experienced anything too bizarre. I went to a Lutheran university as it was the closest college to my house and realized sometime during those years that, despite having had 14 years of youth catechism, I knew next to nothing about Catholicism. :smirk:
After college, I had more time for self-study and did learn quite a bit, but none of my approaches led to anything Trad -- I still had no idea that the Latin Mass still existed. However, the things I did learn from, among other places, some very conservative NO religious, predisposed me to the integral Catholicism found among TLM attendees, as well as, to a lesser degree, the TLM itself.
I was introduced to Traditional Catholicism when I met Matthew on Catholic Match. He mentioned the SSPX in his profile as if everyone should know what that was and my first correspondence with him was to ask what SSPX stood for. I began attending the TLM exclusively perhaps about 6 weeks later.
We became "online" Trads when I left work after our first child was born in 2006. I started looking online for other Catholic mommies and landed at Fisheaters.
We have something in common, I found out about SSPX through Catholic Match too.
-
As some of you know, I left the modern Church after the canon of the mass was changed in 1968. Back then, the few of us that were around did not believe that the "Pope" in the Vatican was the true pope. The imposter at the time was Paul V1, who was responsible for the destruction of the mass. At that time the term sedevacantist had not come into existance, and there was no SSPX.
All of us then knew that the papacy had been ursurped. Things were not confusing for those who had the courage to accept the truth. It was a frightening time. Its interesting to note that the few traditional catholics at the time were of one accord.
Very tough days.
At the time I left the modern church, I had 5 chidren. I went on to have 5 more. I drove 1 1/2 hrs one way to mass once every three months. We had mass in a house. Priests were few, and were under so much pressure and intimidation. There were some Tridentine masses still in the churches in some areas.
A priest I know (hes about 45) told me that he grew up in Russia. When he was a young boy, his family had mass in their house, with an altar that could be quickly hidden. Who was he hiding from? He told me that the Catholics attending mass at his home watched out the window for the KGB. I told him that we in the late sixties were watching for the modern church and their agents. The civil authorities were not a threat to us.
Was a lifetime ago. Since then we have had three generations
of new Catholics. A tiny remnant of Catholics know the true Faith. All of us should be profoundly grateful that we have found and kept the true faith!
-
Great stories everyone.
And thanks, RomanCatholic1953. Much happier to be here instead. :cheers:
-
When I was baptized.
-
I just got banned from CAF today for introducing Fr. Luigi Villa lol.
I have one person to really thank my traditional coversion- Fr. Malach Martin. Maybe he was a double agent, idk, but the man was so brilliant and interesting on those Art Bell tapes. Fr. Malachi Martin RIP.
To be banned from NOA (Novus Ordo Answers) is a badge of honor! Wear it proudly! :rahrah:
I was banned after ONE WEEK for showing my true colors as a sedevacantist. :roll-laugh1:
-
To be banned from NOA (Novus Ordo Answers) is a badge of honor! Wear it proudly!
This is exactly what I've been saying since I was banned from there! LOL.
-
I was raised as a Jєω, by a born-Jєωιѕн father and a mother who was raised Italian Catholic but converted to Orthodox Judaism in 1944 when she married my father. However, I was much closer to my mom's family, and discovered traditional Catholicism through them (they all left the Church in 1970 after the changes, and I grew up as a kid hearing them complain about and discuss the changes. Their discussions made me curious, and so as a teen, I began investigating to find the True Church.)
I first became a Catholic in the mid-1970s, via the traditionalist movement in existence at that time. I've only been to one, maybe two novus ordos in my life, so I consider myself blessed in that regard (one wedding, one funeral, if memory serves). Everything I know of the novus ordo religion, I know from fellow Catholics who were involved in it.
However, the group I was involved with was sede, and so was/am I. When they disbanded due to the death of their priest, I had noplace to go...I drifted into the Eastern Rite but because they accept the modern "popes", that again left me out in the cold.
I sort of became a home aloner for a long time, and unfortunately because of that I came to believe the gates of hell had indeed prevailed. It was only within the last few months that I decided that they did not, because I have missed my Catholic Faith so very much, and have always been on the periphery, wanting back in, but not knowing where or how (where I live now the closest sede TLM is about 2 hours away by car, and I am unable to drive...though I am trying to find out if anyone local to me goes to them and maybe I can share gas expenses if they take me.)
I have looked over this forum.....I cannot believe how starved I have been all these years! So many issues we all think alike on, apart from TradCatholicism! Vaccines, survivalism, Masonry, zionism....I thank God this forum is here, and thank you to Matthew for being so kind in helping this older lady who is not very computer savvy get signed up (my registration was messed up at first).
I have contented myself with watching videos of TLMs on YouTube; thank God my son told me about that!
I am so happy to be home, and to be here! Deo gratias!
-
Honestly, I first started learning that there are differences in the Catholic Church when I heard about the Charismatic Renewal. I always thought that anything other than that was Traditional. Now that I have come to this site, I am learning that there is even more differences in the Church. So I guess I didn't hear about Traditional Catholicism until I came here.
-
I was raised as a Jєω, by a born-Jєωιѕн father and a mother who was raised Italian Catholic but converted to Orthodox Judaism in 1944 when she married my father. However, I was much closer to my mom's family, and discovered traditional Catholicism through them (they all left the Church in 1970 after the changes, and I grew up as a kid hearing them complain about and discuss the changes. Their discussions made me curious, and so as a teen, I began investigating to find the True Church.)
I first became a Catholic in the mid-1970s, via the traditionalist movement in existence at that time. I've only been to one, maybe two novus ordos in my life, so I consider myself blessed in that regard (one wedding, one funeral, if memory serves). Everything I know of the novus ordo religion, I know from fellow Catholics who were involved in it.
However, the group I was involved with was sede, and so was/am I. When they disbanded due to the death of their priest, I had noplace to go...I drifted into the Eastern Rite but because they accept the modern "popes", that again left me out in the cold.
I sort of became a home aloner for a long time, and unfortunately because of that I came to believe the gates of hell had indeed prevailed. It was only within the last few months that I decided that they did not, because I have missed my Catholic Faith so very much, and have always been on the periphery, wanting back in, but not knowing where or how (where I live now the closest sede TLM is about 2 hours away by car, and I am unable to drive...though I am trying to find out if anyone local to me goes to them and maybe I can share gas expenses if they take me.)
I have looked over this forum.....I cannot believe how starved I have been all these years! So many issues we all think alike on, apart from TradCatholicism! Vaccines, survivalism, Masonry, zionism....I thank God this forum is here, and thank you to Matthew for being so kind in helping this older lady who is not very computer savvy get signed up (my registration was messed up at first).
I have contented myself with watching videos of TLMs on YouTube; thank God my son told me about that!
I am so happy to be home, and to be here! Deo gratias!
We should not listen to Popes anymore? I thought whatever the Pope says is bound in heaven.
-
As some of you know, I left the modern Church after the canon of the mass was changed in 1968. Back then, the few of us that were around did not believe that the "Pope" in the Vatican was the true pope. The imposter at the time was Paul V1, who was responsible for the destruction of the mass. At that time the term sedevacantist had not come into existance, and there was no SSPX.
All of us then knew that the papacy had been ursurped. Things were not confusing for those who had the courage to accept the truth. It was a frightening time. Its interesting to note that the few traditional catholics at the time were of one accord.
Very tough days.
At the time I left the modern church, I had 5 chidren. I went on to have 5 more. I drove 1 1/2 hrs one way to mass once every three months. We had mass in a house. Priests were few, and were under so much pressure and intimidation. There were some Tridentine masses still in the churches in some areas.
A priest I know (hes about 45) told me that he grew up in Russia. When he was a young boy, his family had mass in their house, with an altar that could be quickly hidden. Who was he hiding from? He told me that the Catholics attending mass at his home watched out the window for the KGB. I told him that we in the late sixties were watching for the modern church and their agents. The civil authorities were not a threat to us.
Was a lifetime ago. Since then we have had three generations
of new Catholics. A tiny remnant of Catholics know the true Faith. All of us should be profoundly grateful that we have found and kept the true faith!
Thank you for posting your experience. I have wondered often what Catholics went through at this time and why so many did not protest or riot in the streets. This explains to me a bit of the atmosphere in the air.
-
My path to traditional Catholicism is miraculous, I believe. I know, without a doubt, that I would not be here without the grace of the God and the Holy Ghost really working in my life. My story is horribly long, but I will find the relevant details.
I did not grow up in a religious home. My mother's family was Southern Baptist. My father's family was United Methodist. (I learned in 1996 that my father's father had been a Catholic and that my father and 2 of his 3 brothers had been baptized Catholic. My father left the Church in 1959 to marry my mother because his priest would not marry them)
My parents divorced in 1976. I went to live permanently with my father in 1977 at which time he began attending the UMC where his brother attended and where his new girlfriend attended. We continued to attend services at one UMC church or another until I graduated high school in 1985.
I went to private school in those years that was attended by mostly Catholics and Jєωs. (Our school had both Christian and Jєωιѕн holidays) I attended Mass a lot, CYO, and youth camp. My first exposure to Catholicism was in JPII hey-day. I also went to temple with some of my Jєωιѕн friends. (My maiden name is rather Jєωιѕн)
In the years while I was in college I went to mostly Pentecostal or Holiness churches. But by 1990, I was burned out and decidedly agnostic.
I met and married my husband in 1991 and we never attended any religious service until I was pregnant with our 2nd son in 1994. We "experimented" but settled on a Unitarian "church" and and Episcopal one.
After some soul searching, my husband eventually decided that if we were going to be serious about God then we must go to a Catholic church, the church of his youth. (He was baptized. His mother is Calvinist. His father Catholic, but left in the 1970s.) That is what we did. In 1996 we went through RCIA together. It was a fairly progressive NO church. We were in and out of church over the next few years. IN--when it agreed with our secular way of thinking, OUT--when it didn't suit our purposes. Cafeteria Catholics, I suppose.
After our ins and outs, we found ourselves with a "conservative and traditional minded" priest. He wore a cassock and biretta. He brought out the Latin hymns. He gave sermons on the evils of contraception, feminism, communism, etc.
But in 2004, we moved to the liberal Northeast. In the 6 years were attended NO here we experienced every liturgical abuse known to man. Perhaps it was God's will because it nauseated me and sent me doing my own research. During that time, there was one family who garnered nothing but sneers every Sunday, but became my models. They had 10 children. The girls wore mantillas. The children sat perfectly quiet during Mass and after Mass they all knelt and prayed for 5 or 10 minutes. They carried Missals (which I didn't know what they were).
We discovered an FSSP Mass in our diocese and went but it was a 4 hour round-trip drive. Too far. We then found an indult Mass not far from here, but they kept moving from location to location. We found a haven on the internet.
We knew NOTHING about tradition, Vatican II, modernism, etc. before this time. Nothing. But the sickening experiences in our Church reminded me of my youth in the Methodist church. I wanted to leave again, but my husband said no. Because we just couldn't go back to NO, we stayed home for 2 months. It was a really sad time.
Finally, we found an SSPX chapel. We didn't even know what that was. We just went to Mass and immediately KNEW we were in a holy place. I can't explain it. We KNEW. Our children KNEW.
That was May of 2010. That is when I found this site. I have been truly grateful because it has helped me in so many ways. I get a lot of information and inspiration from here.
I am a product of a divorced family. I was deprived of both my parents. I never knew my mother. Our relationship is difficult. That is how I relate my experience as a Catholic. I am a product of a divorced Church. I was deprived of the richness and truth. I never knew my Mother. Now that I am reunited, it is difficult. I am glad to be home, though.
-
InfiniteFaith, that is an exaggeration of Papal Infallibility. Not everything the Pope says or does is Infallible.
-
InfiniteFaith, that is an exaggeration of Papal Infallibility. Not everything the Pope says or does is Infallible.
I agree with what you are saying, but there are things that the Pope has published in the newer Catechisms that people are saying is heresy. I guess at this point i'm just not sure what to believe. I will continue reading stuff on this website, and looking into it further.
Given that what sedevacanists are saying about the papacy...and given that what they are saying is true...is it possible that this is all a part of the tribulation or something? I just can't imagine the Church without a true Pope for so long.
-
I agree with what you are saying, but there are things that the Pope has published in the newer Catechisms that people are saying is heresy. I guess at this point i'm just not sure what to believe. I will continue reading stuff on this website, and looking into it further.
Alot of what these conciliar Popes have said are heresy. You're on the right track to discovering Tradition.
Given that what sedevacanists are saying about the papacy...and given that what they are saying is true...is it possible that this is all a part of the tribulation or something? I just can't imagine the Church without a true Pope for so long.
Well, I'm not a sedevacantist, but I do know that the Pope is not necessary for salvation. So the Church can still survive even without a Pope, because God never abandons it.
-
I was raised as a Jєω, by a born-Jєωιѕн father and a mother who was raised Italian Catholic but converted to Orthodox Judaism in 1944 when she married my father. However, I was much closer to my mom's family, and discovered traditional Catholicism through them (they all left the Church in 1970 after the changes, and I grew up as a kid hearing them complain about and discuss the changes. Their discussions made me curious, and so as a teen, I began investigating to find the True Church.)
I first became a Catholic in the mid-1970s, via the traditionalist movement in existence at that time. I've only been to one, maybe two novus ordos in my life, so I consider myself blessed in that regard (one wedding, one funeral, if memory serves). Everything I know of the novus ordo religion, I know from fellow Catholics who were involved in it.
However, the group I was involved with was sede, and so was/am I. When they disbanded due to the death of their priest, I had noplace to go...I drifted into the Eastern Rite but because they accept the modern "popes", that again left me out in the cold.
I sort of became a home aloner for a long time, and unfortunately because of that I came to believe the gates of hell had indeed prevailed. It was only within the last few months that I decided that they did not, because I have missed my Catholic Faith so very much, and have always been on the periphery, wanting back in, but not knowing where or how (where I live now the closest sede TLM is about 2 hours away by car, and I am unable to drive...though I am trying to find out if anyone local to me goes to them and maybe I can share gas expenses if they take me.)
I have looked over this forum.....I cannot believe how starved I have been all these years! So many issues we all think alike on, apart from TradCatholicism! Vaccines, survivalism, Masonry, zionism....I thank God this forum is here, and thank you to Matthew for being so kind in helping this older lady who is not very computer savvy get signed up (my registration was messed up at first).
I have contented myself with watching videos of TLMs on YouTube; thank God my son told me about that!
I am so happy to be home, and to be here! Deo gratias!
We should not listen to Popes anymore? I thought whatever the Pope says is bound in heaven.
He has to be a legitimate Pope. I do accept the office of the Papacy, and every legitimate Pope (from Pius XII on back). Its the modernistic claimants to the office that some have questions about, including me.
-
I grew up NO Catholic in a small town. We had a fairly conservative priest from 1980-92 (who later died of a heart attack while on a trip to the Holy Land) whose influence held for some time after, so I never experienced anything too bizarre. I went to a Lutheran university as it was the closest college to my house and realized sometime during those years that, despite having had 14 years of youth catechism, I knew next to nothing about Catholicism. :smirk:
Change 1980-92 to 1964-1973, and this is exactly the story of my life! Unfortunately, in my mid-20's I fell away from the Faith altogether and it was another 12 years before I returned to Her!
When I came back to the Faith, after the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the BVM, I went straight to Tradition. I had a corporal vision and an intellectual vision, both of which pointed in the same direction. I didn't even know where to find Tradition at first, but thanks to the Lord's help and the Internet, I started attending an Indult Mass and then after several years, the SSPX.
I see God's Hand not only in everything that's happened to me personally, but also in the Crisis as a whole. I don't worry too much about Nibiru or the 3DD. Everything will shake out as God intends it to. We just have to play our part. Sometimes this is really hard to do because we don't have the proper authorities to determine who's right and who's wrong on certain issues, but we do know what never changes--the Church's Eternal Truth! We can't go wrong if we follow the Faith as our ancestors once did.
-
As some of you know, I left the modern Church after the canon of the mass was changed in 1968. Back then, the few of us that were around did not believe that the "Pope" in the Vatican was the true pope. The imposter at the time was Paul V1, who was responsible for the destruction of the mass. At that time the term sedevacantist had not come into existance, and there was no SSPX.
All of us then knew that the papacy had been ursurped. Things were not confusing for those who had the courage to accept the truth. It was a frightening time. Its interesting to note that the few traditional catholics at the time were of one accord.
Emerentiana,
I'm very interested in this time period right after Vat2. I know that the "heresies of Paul VI" have been enumerated many times on this forum and others, but could you please tell me specifically what was it that made you and the other dissenters at that time decide that Paul was not the Pope? What exactly did he do that made you sure that he was an impostor? Was there anything else besides the promulgation of the Novus Ordo?
I appreciate your taking the time to reply, or if any other "old-timer" Trads want to opine, I would love to hear it.
-
We decided in 1970 that we had to leave our home parish after we talked to our long-time pastor there and he told us that he had "no choice" but to go along with the changes. He told us that he had held back with the changes that his bishop had been telling him to make as long as he could. He said that other parishes were ahead of ours with the changes.
With great sadness he told us that our bishop, his bishop, told him that if he didn't go along with all the changes that he (our pastor) would be ousted with no retirement pension. We held firm and told him he was putting his soul in jeopardy. He said he felt he had to stay for the sake of his parishioners.
He told us that he understood why we were leaving and he didn't have much to say, just that he was so very very sad. He had gone from a vibrant priest to a beaten man who all of a sudden looked 15 years older. It was a very sad good-bye. Heartbreaking, actually. He had been our pastor for many years. He was like a father to us. What am I saying?! He WAS a father to us. I can weep now these many years later. It seems just like last week when we sat with him and tried to convince him to go back to saying the Tridentine Latin Mass. May God have mercy on his soul. He died some years ago.
We then began traveling to another city to attend the Byzantine Mass. We soon met a few other families who also had left the NO in our area and they told us that a retired Roman Catholic priest was going to come and live in a near-by city and say Mass for them and would we be interested? Indeed we were so we all pitched in to pay this priest's rent and other expenses.
Here I have a very similar story to tell that Emerentiana tells. We went in secret to this priest's rented house for Sunday and Holy Day Masses and once a week catechism lessons for the kids. The priest asked us to park a few blocks away and walk quietly to his house and enter a back door quietly, no talking outside whatsoever. He was always afraid of the local church authorities. We always worried that we would be found out and that the priest would be "kicked out" of the area or who-knows-what. This priest only wore his Roman collar inside his own house, or if he visited our houses he would put it on after he came in. We were never supposed to address him as father if we saw him outside. He seemed a bit more paranoid than necessary, but we felt that he must have known that he could be chased away if the local church authorities found out that he was saying the outlawed true Tridentine Mass. We were indeed living in the catacombs.
We were just so very grateful to attend the true Mass, all squished together like sardines in the small living room fo this rented house with all the curtains and blinds closed. We thanked God for the true Mass, the Blessed Sacrament, Confession, our Holy Faith.
Those were the early years.
Always thank our Gracious Lord and His Blessed Mother for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist.
Blessed be God and His Holy Name! In His Gracious Mercy He allows us the True Mass and His Body and Blood, the life blood for our souls. :incense:
-
Ora,
That was my story exactly! I didnt know you went that far back. However, the priest that was in our parish went along willingly with the changes, and didnt care much for the few of us that left.
Juse,
I had a whole page typed the other night and went to post it. It disappeared! Didnt feel like writing another whole page. I have been attending the 51st annual Fatima Conference in Spokane. Long hours, but such an inspiring event!
For those of you who would like to buy the CDS, Im sure they will be available on the CMRI website soon.
Well, I can say, Jude, that if Paul the VI was responsible for destroying the mass.what other evidence do we need that he was an antipope?
The papal election was interfered with.
A good book to read is Judaism and the Vatican (Poncins). You can get the book on Amazon.com and buy it thru the link on this site so Matthew can get the credit for it.
-
Emerentiana,
Are you sure that conference is the 51st? Were CMRI really in operation 51 years ago? I feel older every day! Well, we're all older every day! :scratchchin: How time flies! :stare:
-
The CMRI started in 1968, I believe.
-
With great sadness he told us that our bishop, his bishop, told him that if he didn't go along with all the changes that he (our pastor) would be ousted with no retirement pension. We held firm and told him he was putting his soul in jeopardy. He said he felt he had to stay for the sake of his parishioners.
He told us that he understood why we were leaving and he didn't have much to say, just that he was so very very sad. He had gone from a vibrant priest to a beaten man who all of a sudden looked 15 years older. It was a very sad good-bye. Heartbreaking, actually. He had been our pastor for many years. He was like a father to us. What am I saying?! He WAS a father to us. I can weep now these many years later. It seems just like last week when we sat with him and tried to convince him to go back to saying the Tridentine Latin Mass. May God have mercy on his soul. He died some years ago.
This is why the way the SSPX is managed, throwing priests out onto the street for speaking up to the big boss and his cronies is very dangerous.
-
I had read about tradition for many years but was very depressed and not going to mass until I went to Eucharistic adoration at the old seminary in Cincinnati, the Holy Spirit Center. Then I went to mass the next week.
-
I've mentioned in other threads that I was raised Prot and was also a paid Prot minister, but I didn't give the whole of my backstory. Here are the salient parts:
Born in 1973 to nominal Novus parents; baptized as an infant.
Adopted by fundamentalist Prot parents in 1976 due to my biological mother's severe health and financial issues.
My adoptive mother's family are all Catholic; many were traditional and stayed in their churches throughout the changes brought on by the NO; my grandfather stopped attending at the time of the NO and my grandmother kept going for some years after, but never stopped her traditional devotions nor stopped going to the validly-ordained priests there for confession, etc.
My adoptive father's family are all Prot (mostly Lutherans). There are a few Catholics, but most of them died many years ago.
To make a VERY long and involved story a BIT shorter, suffice it to say that I grew more dissatisfied with Prot religion the longer I was in it, and by the time I was given a job as a pastor on staff at a 'baptist' c-urch, I had run the gamut of Prot denominations and even spent time studying so-called 'messianic Judaism'.
I found Tradition through the Traditio website, and then just started Googling 'traditional Catholic' or 'Roman Catholic' and kept reading whatever I could find.
Over many long years now, I have wrestled with the validity of the Novus Ordo and what its existence MEANT as far as the claim of the Roman Catholic Church that She is the ONE TRUE CHURCH, but, Deo gratias, I have settled these matters in my heart and mind and am firmly on the way to being catechized, baptized and received into full communion with Her as soon as possible.
Please pray for me; not only is there NOT A SINGLE traditional priest, church or chapel where I live (New Jersey; everything 'trad' is either FSSP or diocesan Motu), but the nearest chapels or churches are hours and hours from me.
I am thankful every day that I have come to be humbled at the foot of Christ's Cross and have had the Way home pointed out to me by the faithful, the saints of the ages and the Magisterium. May God have mercy on me as I endeavor to obey His every command through His Church.
Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
-
Oh, goody, a story!!!
I am 29 years old, and converted to Catholicism 7 years ago frm a Reformed Southern Baptist background.
My mom homeschooled me my entire life and raised me to know the Bible (Protestant Bible).
When I was younger, and in the Military, I practiced the occult arts. I walked the borderline with Satanism. I was angry and pissed that Christians allowed themselves to be such senseless and ignorant sheep.
When I came home, I shared this with my younger brother, and we prayed together. After that point, I could feel the Devil's grip weakening. I got back into scripture.
I asked myself at my Military Base one day, "Why do I believe the Bible is true?"
Mistake.
I quickly learned about the Councils of Carthage and Hippo, the Council of Rome and the Councils of Florence and Trent.
I realized that the CATHOLIC Church is the reason I believe in the New testament. Based on THAT, I KNEW I had to belive in the Catholic OLD Testament on that SAME AUTHORITY, or I could not consistently say I believed in the WHOLE Bible.
So I did.
I then realized, "Wait, the Catholic Church had to get it ALL right when it comes to official pronouncements...otherwise THIS one on scripture COULD be faulty, and there goes the whole basis for my believeing the Bible in the first place!"
So I decided I needed to be Catholic in order to be saved and truly be a Christian.
I was not baptized yet at this point.
So after lots of good talks with a Traditionally minded validly ordained Novus Ordo Priest, Fr. Ralph Belluomini, I was accepted into the "Church" on March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph, during Lent.
During this whole time I had been studying the intense debates between "Traditionalists" and "Novus Ordites."
In fact, after attending my first "mess" I was rather ignorant and called my mom to tell her how similar it was to OUR church (The Southern Baptist reformed one).
When I got serious about studying the Latin Mass, I realized that something was deadly wrong. I did not know all about Catholic theology, but it did not take a wizard to see that a travesty had occured.
I felt gyped. I quickly decided I wanted to be a "Latin Mass" Novus Ordo Traditional catholic in Communion with Rome. This was before I realized that a sentimentalist and a traditioanlist were not ACTUALLY the same thing.
Then I learned about SSPX. Then FSSP. Then SSPV. Then CMRI. I was enthralled, but figured Communion with Rome was the safe Choice, so i deceided that I loved the FSSP an ICK.
After studying MORE theology and the wrtings of the canonists and theologians, I came to realize something: My Popes were contradicting the Church!
So much for safety...Then I looked into the sede movement further, and realized it was the most logically satisfying solution and...here I am.
Later!!!
-
Stephen, I definitely sympathize for you. You and I have alot in common actually, we both grew up with Protestant fathers and were subjected to the baptist church at some point. None of the Protestant denominations are good, but the baptist denomination is the worst because they are extremely anti-Catholic and infested with Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ. I am very grateful that God kept me from going down that dangerous path, because when I was a young child I liked the baptist church. Now I can't stand it. I'm trying to convert my baptist father but have had no success and probably never will have any success with him.
You and I also have no Traditional Churches or Traditional priests in our area. I'm currently forced to stay home on Sundays, watching a live TLM on the internet and making a Spiritual Communion as I refuse to attend the Freemasonic and Protestantized Bogus Ordo. There is an SSPX chapel three hours away from me, I will try to attend that in a few months. I'll definitely keep you in my prayers.
God Bless.
-
Emerentiana,
Are you sure that conference is the 51st? Were CMRI really in operation 51 years ago? I feel older every day! Well, we're all older every day! :scratchchin: How time flies! :stare:
Yep, Im sure. The first conference was Blue Army affiliated in 1960 in Phoenix. I attended my first conference at the Immaculata at the University of San Diego in 1966. It was conference # 6. The bishop of the disocese was there. I was 26 at the time.
After that conference, our group broke away from the Blue Army because they started adopting the mdern changes. We became known as the Fatima Crusade. The Congregation didnt form until 1968.
-
Please pray for me; not only is there NOT A SINGLE traditional priest, church or chapel where I live (New Jersey; everything 'trad' is either FSSP or diocesan Motu), but the nearest chapels or churches are hours and hours from me.
I believe that there is an SSPX group in Newark. Im not at home right now, so I cant look the location up in the Traditio Catholic directory.
-
I've mentioned in other threads that I was raised Prot and was also a paid Prot minister, but I didn't give the whole of my backstory. Here are the salient parts:
Born in 1973 to nominal Novus parents; baptized as an infant.
Adopted by fundamentalist Prot parents in 1976 due to my biological mother's severe health and financial issues.
My adoptive mother's family are all Catholic; many were traditional and stayed in their churches throughout the changes brought on by the NO; my grandfather stopped attending at the time of the NO and my grandmother kept going for some years after, but never stopped her traditional devotions nor stopped going to the validly-ordained priests there for confession, etc.
My adoptive father's family are all Prot (mostly Lutherans). There are a few Catholics, but most of them died many years ago.
To make a VERY long and involved story a BIT shorter, suffice it to say that I grew more dissatisfied with Prot religion the longer I was in it, and by the time I was given a job as a pastor on staff at a 'baptist' c-urch, I had run the gamut of Prot denominations and even spent time studying so-called 'messianic Judaism'.
I found Tradition through the Traditio website, and then just started Googling 'traditional Catholic' or 'Roman Catholic' and kept reading whatever I could find.
Over many long years now, I have wrestled with the validity of the Novus Ordo and what its existence MEANT as far as the claim of the Roman Catholic Church that She is the ONE TRUE CHURCH, but, Deo gratias, I have settled these matters in my heart and mind and am firmly on the way to being catechized, baptized and received into full communion with Her as soon as possible.
Please pray for me; not only is there NOT A SINGLE traditional priest, church or chapel where I live (New Jersey; everything 'trad' is either FSSP or diocesan Motu), but the nearest chapels or churches are hours and hours from me.
I am thankful every day that I have come to be humbled at the foot of Christ's Cross and have had the Way home pointed out to me by the faithful, the saints of the ages and the Magisterium. May God have mercy on me as I endeavor to obey His every command through His Church.
Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
There is an SSPX chapel in New Jersey, It is in the North, I know two people that attend or have attended there. They also sometimes goto New York.
Is this near you?
NORTH CALDWELL
[Paterson area]
St. Anthony of Padua Chapel
973-228-1230
203-431-0201 [Ridgefield, CT priory]
103 Gould Avenue (corner of Mountain and Gould)
Sunday: 7:30am & 10:00am (High Mass 2nd & 4th Sundays of month)
First Fridays: 6:00pm
Saturdays: 9:00am
Holy Days: 10:00am & 7:30pm
-
Emerentiana---The Fatima Crusade---was that Fr. Nicholas G? If so, is Bishop P. still associated with it. If it is so then I have an ironic story to tell about an NO sister at large.
-
I attended Catholic schools through 12th grade, but started losing my faith as a teenager a few years after the new mass was introduced in 1970. By the end of high school, I was refusing the NO wafer because I wasn't sure it was the Body of Christ (little did I know). I attended a Quaker college and went through a period of atheism, which I couldn't stomach. So I started exploring Eastern religions, then became a devout pagan.
In the spring of 1998, I worked for an old college classmate during Holy Week. On Holy Thursday, she supplied a free lunch, which I soon learned was spiked with the highly toxic snake-venom-based drug we were promoting. As the symptoms of poisoning appeared, I remembered she had bragged about the drug's toxicity and laughed out loud about it during a conference we attended 5 years before. I also remembered a cardiology workshop I had attended at which one of the doctor's very quietly admitted that the drug caused "toxic gangrene." And I remembered that this classmate had confided to me in college that she/he was the Antichrist and that her father was Satan, and that if I couldn't keep her/his confidences, I would forget them!
There were other weird coincidences too numorous to mention that convinced me she/he was in fact the Antichrist. I will mention one, however: when I was about 7 years old, I warned my angry, shotgun-toting father than if he shot my mother, he would go to a place worse than hell that will one day replace hell. I even mentioned the place by name. That name was the same one that this Antichrist classmate chose as her/his company's name. Name Hint: Although it rhymes with Zion, it's almost its exact opposite, alphabetically speaking. (And FYI: Hell's replacement = Lake of Fire, the final kingdom of Antichrist.)
I quickly concluded that if there was an Antichirst, there had to be a Christ, because this person is so supernaturally, diabolically destructive that if there were no counterbalancing force against her/him, nothing would be left standing. And I realized I had to be a member of Christ's Church, so I started searching for the true Church.
I remembered the peace enjoyed by some Pentecostals I had met as a teenager, and I started attending Pentecostal services. Shortly after that, I attended a lecture given by the Schuckhardt group to try to discourage them from "Mary worship." They explained the post-VII crisis in the Church, and things started to click. After all, if the Antichrist was here, the Great Apostasy had to have happened.
The lecture also reminded me that the Pentecostals I met as a teenager had told me they were not going to heaven because God didn't like their worship. When I asked them what worship He did like, they told me Catholic worship "before Satan changed it." When I asked them why they worshipped in a way disapproved of by God, they explained they didn't know any better.
I was puzzled by this explanation because it seemed impossible for someone to tell me something they didn't know themselves! I've since concluded that the Holy Ghost was speaking through them to explain to me what had happened in the Catholic church, especially because I had been spending a lot of time on my knees begging the Sacred Heart to help me avoid losing the faith.
Thinking the Schuckardt group was completely legit, I believed everything they told me, including their lies, relocated to their HQ, and spent 10 years in their cult until we couldn't stomach each other any more and parted ways. I finally concluded that Schuckardt was full of crap when he claimed he was the last true bishop (and even the Pope personally crowned by Mary herself in Rome!) and you had to have a bishop to be a practicing Catholic.
Wish more of these boards were operating sooner so I could have learned the dirt on Schuckardt's sleazy abuse of power, irresponsibility, and dictatorial craziness sooner. Also wish I had asked other Trad priests their opinion of Schuckardt before I swallowed his hook.
-
That's quite a story, Diva. But there are a few parts that I don't quite understand. You knew someone who claimed to be the Antichrist and claimed their father was satan?
There were other weird coincidences too numorous to mention that convinced me she/he was in fact the Antichrist.
Not sure if you still believe this, but Scriptures and Prophecy both tell us that the Antichrist will be a Jєω who will appear in the Holy Lands. He will be posessed by satan and will claim to be either a prophet or Christ Himself.
-
Emerentiana---The Fatima Crusade---was that Fr. Nicholas G? If so, is Bishop P. still associated with it. If it is so then I have an ironic story to tell about an NO sister at large.
CMRI has NEVER been associated with Fr Gruner. You should know that if you are from Bp Pivarunas' parish.
-
Please pray for me; not only is there NOT A SINGLE traditional priest, church or chapel where I live (New Jersey; everything 'trad' is either FSSP or diocesan Motu), but the nearest chapels or churches are hours and hours from me.
Stephen Francis,
Go to pages 51 -53 of this directory: http://traditio.com/tradlib/masslat.pdf
The crazy red faces next to SSPX in this directory just shows the directory's author's opinions, but I would be cautious in attending a Latin Mass at a local VII parish and would only do so if I could ascertain that the priest was validly ordained, uses the Tridentine Latin Rite for his Mass and if it were my only choice.
May Jesus and Mary come to your aid in finding a Traditional Catholic Mass and parish. God bless you and your family.
-
@ora pro me:
You misunderstood me, or I was not clear; I would not attend a FSSP or Motu mess if my life depended on it.
I have looked into the nearest SSPX chapel; it was once a completely independent chapel, but upon the founder's death, the Diocese of Newark, NJ attempted to take over operations and install a Novus Ordo presider to say the Motu service.A very large percentage (EIGHTY percent, if I remember reading correctly) of the parishioners left the first chapel, purchased a new chapel, obeyed their deceased pastor's wishes and turned the chapel over to the SSPX, who appointed a traditional priest.
I have visited their website, and while it is clear that the parishioners of the chapel are publicly and staunchly aligned with the SSPX, it is also clear that this particular priest and congregation are NOT blind to the machinations of Fellay and Ratzinger to try and Ordo-ize the SSPX. I hope that means that if there is a split in the SSPX or it somehow otherwise compromises with Ratzinger, that this chapel will remain totally faithful to Tradition.
I will be visiting the chapel this week to at least pray if not to speak with the pastor, Deo volente; I will report what I have seen and learned at that point.
Please do continually pray for me; I am trying to gently, patiently and slowly lead my wife and children into the true Faith (my wife was baptized NO, my children have never been baptized) after years of her faulty instruction in the NO and then years of our common life in the Prot organizations.
St. Anthony of Padua, hammer of heretics, terror of Hell, pray for us.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
-
Stephen Francis,
You and your family are in our prayers. Did you see this other thread with a link to 2 booklets ( at the bottom of page 1 in that thread) that may be of help to your wife and children?
http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/I-read-my-missal-for-the-first-time-today
Best wishes to you and your family.
ora pro me
-
Stephen Francis,
Did you mean that your wife is still in the NO? If so, perhaps you will be able to find something at the site below that may help you in your efforts to lead your wife to Traditional Catholicsm:
http://www.traditionalcatholicsermons.org/index_files/SermonsOnTheNovusOrdoAndVaticanII.htm
The grace of God, of course, more than any sermons will help your wife and so please be assured of my poor prayers.
In the Heart of Jesus and Mary,
ora pro me
-
My name is John V.
I was raised in San Francisco, born in 1969.
My mother and father were divorced when I was about 2. He had been an altar boy in the 50s and she had also been raised in catholic school, both in S.F. Both of my grandmothers were practicising Catholics, and took me to "mass", but didn't know the difference, apparently. They did not talk about it to me, anyway.
I remember in the 80s going to mass in Redding, CA, near where we moved, and QUITTING confirmation class because it was absurd! I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard! I somehow knew this at 16, even though I still "believed". They also had jazz mass, etc. there and I just saw it as a bunch of ugliness and nonsense after a while.
I didn;t think "Vatican II", because I had no idea. I just thought it was the 60s or the liberals or something.
Looking back, I believe I might have had a vocation, but I got involved in an international political movement at 17 instead, not knowing what I was doing. It was very conservative, pro-FDR, economic development, anti establishment, Federal Reserve, trilateral commission. etc., conspirophile stuff mixed in, but it was VERY ecuмenical and violently so :fryingpan:. i.e., --"Trent was evil, Florence was good, because it was somehow pro-Muslim! We need to cooperate with the "great religions" and find all the good in those religions for peace, cooperation, economic development, etc. "
This started my gradual ecuмenical loss of the true faith, though my mother kept me "in the know" through things like Traditio.com and I went to Fr. Morrison's mass in SF a number of times. She also heard mass at a few other places and I knew this to be the true mass, even though I was deep into the man-centered pro-JPII political mess.
I went to the Eastern Byzantine Rite, too, and thought it was "cool", because it was with the pope, but without all the touchy-feely stuff in the NO..
I have since moved to southern California, quit politics, became a union sheet metal worker, (though currently unemployed), went to Fr. Melito's mass, NO, left the church again, even though I was never a big attender, started attending the SSPX here,-- even though my mom said there was "politics" there that I should not pay attention to!!--, read some of LeFebvre's books and :boxer: BAM!! They have uncrowned him! I think this changed my life!
I found the CMRI mass through Traditio, which I checked now and then and it has been miraculous ever since. I started there after reading LeFebvre's books and did not yet know fully about sedevacantism, but it also hit me like a ton of bricks that sedevacantism is the true situation in the church. I have ZERO doubt. I have my children and wife in confirmation class and have been faithfully attending for about a year now. I LOVE it there!
I thank God for people like LeFebvre and the CMRI. I thank God for all of you Traditional Catholics and I have tremendous hope for the future of the Church knowing that there are so many Traditionals out there, even though there are also a few spreaders of slander and :argue: division!
-
Great conversion story, sedesvacans. I also like Archbishop LeFebvre, he was amazing. His book "The Mass of All Time" is incredible. I also like "Horn of the Unicorn" which details his life. It's a great book, even some funny stories in there. I read that ABL received some votes during the first 1978 conclave to be elected Pope. The Vatican was so furious that they examined the hand-writings to see who voted for him, but they couldn't figure it out so they burned the votes.
-
Scriptures and Prophecy both tell us that the Antichrist will be a Jєω who will appear in the Holy Lands. He will be posessed by satan and will claim to be either a prophet or Christ Himself.
She/he could yet make her/his initial appearance on the world stage in the Holy Land. I do not know whether or not she/he is ethnically a Jєω; she/he seems to scoff at all ethics, morality, and religion of any kind. She/he is not just amoral, she/he is actively anti-moral.
She/he told me "My father is Satan, and I am the Antichrist." That's a direct quote, not a paraphrase. We got into a discussion of her/his paternity because I noted that her/his father had not raised her/him to have any kind of proper moral compass, and I asked point blank if her/his father was a Satanist. I don't know if she/he was referring to biological or spiritual paternity; my instinct tells me it was biological, but I'm sure that would open up a whole other can of worms for you.
Her/his front man claims to be Christ Himself. Shortly before I worked for the Antichrist person, I had a job interview with someone who insisted that I had to believe he was Jesus Christ or I couldn't work for him. Since I didn't believe in Jesus Christ at the time, I couldn't believe that he was Jesus Christ, so I couldn't work for him.
He claimed he was opposed to this Antichrist person and her/his business practices and warned my senior colleague not to work for her/him. But he seemed to actually be working for her/him under an assumed name. My sense is that the Antichrist's front man will claim to be Jesus Christ, and once he has everyone believing him because of his false signs and wonders, he'll point to the Antichrist as someone even greater than himself and demand that she/he be worshipped as God.
And just in case you're wondering why I refer to this Antichrist person as her/him, it's because she/he is what is today known as an "intersexed person" -- what used to be called a hermaphrodite. In other words, although she/he presents herself/himself as a woman, she/he has a male member, albeit a small one, which qualifies her/him to be "the Man of Sin" and "the Son of Perdition." I don't have first-hand confirmation of this detail; I only know this information because her/his girlfriend in college told me so.
If you're a sede, as I am, it only stands to reason that the Antichrist must be alive and waiting in the wings to take power now that we have experienced the Great Apostasy in the form of the Vatican II changes. The bible says that the Great Apostasy must occur before the Antichrist appears, or, conversely, once the Great Apostasy occurs, the Antichrist soon follows.
The occultists have a very important concept in their diabolical belief system known as the "sacred hermaphrodite," or better said, the "not-so-sacred hermaphrodite" -- and this little he-she college classmate fits the bill in that respect as well. And what could be more deceptive of Satan than to hide the Antichrist under the appearance of a woman when everyone is expecting a male Antichirst?
-
Prophesies say that the Antichrist will be a male first of all, born of two immoral parents and will also have a "horrible scream". The Antichrist will lead the nєω ωσrℓ∂ σr∂єr and will appear in the Holy Lands. This is what the Church believes. I'm also guessing you don't believe in the world-wide chastisement (three days of darkness) considering the Antichrist will not come until after that.
This person you speak of is obviously just mentally ill and you shouldn't believe any of the nonsense they say.