.
Well, everyone does this in one way or another, since we all reject the heresies of Bergoglio (except Poche). And that's on private judgment, not on the judgment of anyone else. Where you want to go with that idea determines which traditionalist camp you fall into.
.
.
You give a lot of attention to whether or not other people are allowed to say what they are saying. I find this a little odd. If you disagree with something someone else says, why not just ignore it and consider it nonsense? Why does it bother you so much if other people disagree with you? And along similar lines, you seem to also be bothered greatly to try to determine the subjective state of other people's consciences. This comes out more in your next paragraph:
.
.
Why not just leave it to God to figure out things like this?
.
.
Yes, I say the same. Most trads of whatever variety say the same. This is nearly a universal belief in the trad world.
.
.
Jerm, can you please try an experiment? Next time you are having one of the conversations you describe here, just ask the person straight out the following question: "Do you believe that everyone on the other side of this question is going to hell?" For example, if you are talking to a sedevacantist, say, "Do you believe that everyone who goes to an SSPX chapel will go to Hell for heresy?" If you are talking to an SSPX person, say, "So do you believe that every sedevacantist will go to Hell for schism?" I think you will be very surprised at the answers you will get from doing this. I strongly doubt you will find even one traditional Catholic of any variety who will answer that question with a simple "Yes." If you do, please respond back and describe that conversation in detail.
Sure, I will oblige!
1) I talked to Fr. Desposito on the phone on September 16, 2019. When I asked him, directly, if I could continue to see Fr. Ringrose at St. Athanasius in Vienna, VA, he directly said to me that I could not. He told me that not only was it a sin to go to a priest who included Francis in the una cuм part of the mass, but you couldn't even go to a priest who was willing to work with priests who did so, under pain of mortal sin. He told me instead to go to confession once a year to a sedevacantist priest completely and utterly separated from an una cuм mass.
2) I talked to Introibo ad Altare Dei, the popular sedevacantist blogger, extensively. At one point, I considered going back into union with Rome for the many reasons I've put up here. On December 15, 2019, he sent me this message:
"
I’ll pray for you as always Jeremy. One last piece of advice: If you’re right and I’m wrong, there’s no reason to worry. The Visible Head of Your Church has said: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense” and “There is no Catholic God.” So no worries! (Of course SSPX will strain all credulity by claiming “nuances” whereby “Proselytism is solemn nonsense” REALLY MEANS “outside the Church no salvation”)If I’m right and you’re wrong—oh boy! Think of it as a modern Paschal’s wager.God Bless,—-Introibo"If this isn't clear, I don't know what will be. As a note, he had told me it was okay to go to the SSPX before, but that any actual union with Rome will cause me to be damned. Still, not the best outlook.
3) As I have shared here before, I also was in correspondence with the popular Steven Speray for a while. I've noted his posts here claiming that even those who disagreed with the use of the 1955 Holy Week missal, such as Fr. Cekada, were on the path to Hell. I never directly asked him about this, but he always seemed to imply that those who disagreed with him, especially on BoD, would go to Hell and were outside of the faith. You can look at his blog to verify any of this.
4) At one point, I was considering being a layman connected to MHFM. They always tell everyone that all outside of their small, correct theology, will go to Hell, and that all who disagree with them are bad-willed heretics. It was no different with me. I do not have a direct citation for this one.
5) I also got in touch with the Home Aloner website truecatholics.org at some point, though I've since deleted the email. On their website, they directly stated that only Catholics who do not attend a public Mass can be considered as true Catholics. The website has actually since been deleted, as has their Twitter account.
Perhaps you can see why one would become scrupulous about this, when they are first looking into traditionalism, seeing so many different sources that they will go to Hell for going to the traditionalist Church closest to them (Fr. Desposito), going to Church at all (truecatholics.org), disagreeing with sedevacantism (MHFM), or even assenting to people like Fr. Cekada's (and therefore Fr. Desposito's) teachings on the 1955 Holy Week missal! At the time, I did not even know this forum existed, my entire family wasn't Catholic, and I had no traditionalist Catholic friends in real life. (I still don't, but I digress.) What is one supposed to do? How am I supposed to know who is right in this case, and how am I supposed to assume that Struthio isn't a dogmatic Home Aloner when every Home Aloner I've ever met said you would go to Hell unless you were a Home Aloner too?
As for me trying to read peoples' consciences, I had no intention of doing this. Nor am I trying to say people can't say their opinions, or that they're not allowed to have them. It does bother me when people try to say that their own opinions are dogma because, as a complete newcomer who just discovered traditional Catholicism about a year ago, how am I supposed to know that they're wrong? For example, I can think Struthio's perspective is wrong all I want, but as an already scrupulous person, how am I supposed to know that what I'm doing will save me? Ignorance won't save me either, so say so many people, so clearly I have to learn and discuss it with them, else I risk being damned. This is the way I used to think, and the way that I fear is still right today even when I technically know better. So, essentially, I had no one in my life to talk about this with, no way to figure out who was right, and I couldn't go to my priest nor Church out of fear of going to Hell for doing the wrong thing. And, even if I tried to do the right thing, I could never know it was right, and trying to do the right thing wouldn't matter at all because I would just be damned for it anyways. Don't you see why this would make someone upset?
I know that my posts can be annoying. In fact, most people would probably just prefer I shut my trap and stop posting. I know that I can be mean spirited. But I would appreciate some understanding of my situation by
someone. Simply saying that I've done everything wrong for the past year isn't very helpful, and saying that I should sit down, shut up, and stop asking questions isn't helpful either. I want to find the truth, just like everyone else, and it's extremely difficult to do so when so many people are telling you completely contradictory things, and frequently, towards the beginning of my search, saying that you
need to agree with them or you'll burn in Hell for eternity.