CathInfo.com

First of all, I would like to point out that the "NFP" thread is exactly what I like to see on CathInfo. We have reasoned discussion, and we're all trying to get to the bottom of important issues.

Of course, we have this Crisis in the Church which means that certain issues will never be resolved definitively -- for example, anything that only existed in the last 10, 20, or 40 years would have existed only after Vatican II. So the Rome of neo-Modernist tendencies will not act as it should -- for example, the Church used to have an Index of forbidden books. Reading books on the Index was sinful. Would a truly Catholic Rome put most movies/TV shows on the Index? You bet. But since they haven't, you have a constant debate about TV.

When I read Raoul's thread on NFP, a few questions popped into my mind:

1. Why Raoul, and why this topic? Why is a single man spending dozens (hundreds?) of hours on an issue that affects only those in the married state.

2. Even though he's not being paid to do this, it's not part of his Duty of State (as it would be for a Priest), and he's not pursuing a degree in that area?

3. Has Raoul considered that many priests, including holy ones, have thought about these same issues and not come to the same radical conclusions as he? Does that not raise red flags for him? Or is he quick to humbly accept the fact that he is a genius groundbreaking pioneer in the Traditional movement? (Ok, that was a bit of a stretch)

4. Does Raoul really think that NFP is the central issue, bar none, facing the Traditional Catholic world? That would mean that if everyone stopped using NFP, the world would improve more than if any other one thing was done. But wouldn't all those kids end up in public school, injected with poisons (vaccinated) and sent to die in Illuminati-contrived wars overseas? How can "more Catholics", in itself, be the solution? By itself, it is nothing. Especially if all those Catholics end up in hell because of more serious issues, including spiritual ones, in the world today.

5. Does he realize the contradiction between his own personal stance ("I'm not ever going to marry or have kids, because the world is going to Hell") and his belief that NFP is the prime issue in the Catholic world?

6. Does Raoul appreciate the correlation between his own personal status (single man, practicing ongoing abstinence) and his seeming obsession with abstinence for married couples? There is a phenomenon which applies many places -- not just here -- whereby a strong man looks down on the weakling, the money-savvy looks down on the bad-with-money person, the computer nerd looks down on the AOL-user, etc. because, to them, certain things are "easy" and so anyone should be able to do them.

Whatever a man is strong in, he is less likely to be compassionate about. If a man is convinced of his own sinfulness, he will have compassion on sinners. But if he never had a hard time with drunkenness, for example, he will be especially hard on drunks -- since alcohol was never a difficulty for him.

More later...

Matthew

In short, he has sidelined his Faith by listening too much to CM and those like him, but also, he feels there are no valid priests, let alone holy ones or, very few, so that arguement is lost on him.

On another thrad, he said something to the affect that the world is bad and evil, sorry to be here,etc....could be why his approach to sex,etc is distorted.....

your poinst #'s 4 and 5 are spot on and need no further input from a non-cnju-gate-ing and mizspller such as my self.

Quote from: Belloc

what do you grow on that 5 acres? several things or one crop? Do you use tractor or mre by hand? Sounds nice, though hard work no doubt.....

Right now I'm "clearing the land" including all the 1-foot potholes that opened up recently. (I guess a severe drought followed by excessive rain will do that!) I had to remove 3 dozen mesquite trees last year, which are very thorny and puncture a mower's tires. I'm removing a bunch of redundant shrubbery (a lot of it has thorns), so I can mow a bit easier.  But now I have to finish removing the stumps, then I have to fill in the holes where the stumps were.

Whenever I get enough cardboard/paper/brush saved up, I have a "stump burning" session.

Once I get the land under control, so mowing becomes a much more easy and boring job, I plan to get some animals -- the only question is what kind and how many.

Right now, though, I have a decent garden (though I can't take good care of it yet -- way too busy keeping my land from becoming a jungle) and I have a small orchard I planted last fall.

We've only been here for 16 months -- so, as you can see, I've been very busy! I don't have any help yet, either. My oldest (Dominic) is only 3 1/2. He tries, though. Yesterday he was helping shovel dirt into buckets, put the buckets on a wagon, then wheeled the wagon to one of the many potholes, and dumped it.

Matthew

Wow Chant.  I wish you luck with your efforts.  It's not at all easy to attempt to seriously increase self-sufficiency.

Quote from: ChantCd

We've only been here for 16 months -- so, as you can see, I've been very busy! I don't have any help yet, either. My oldest (Dominic) is only 3 1/2. He tries, though. Yesterday he was helping shovel dirt into buckets, put the buckets on a wagon, then wheeled the wagon to one of the many potholes, and dumped it.

Matthew

Wow Chant.  I wish you luck with your efforts.  It's not at all easy to attempt to seriously increase self-sufficiency.

It's true that self-sufficiency is a good thing, but that's not the only reason I'm doing this.

I am doing this for the benefits of the down-to-earth lifestyle, including health and the physical/spiritual health of my children. I want plenty of privacy and land for them to play on, and things for them to do in "the real world". Our kids won't be on "screens" until they're old enough to use a computer to do book reports or something. Even then, I want them to be able to write a report by hand first.

We know where the sun comes up and goes down, which direction North is, if the moon is getting fuller (waxing) or smaller (waning), and what the weather's doing. We're aware of the local weather patterns here, etc. We line-dry our laundry, so we can't afford to be ignorant about that.

When I was a teenager, and living in the city, none of that was true for me. I still couldn't tell you which side of my family's house faced south -- and I lived there for 10 years.

We also like to run "climate control" as little as possible -- we open the windows whenever we can.

Man vs. nature is a good way to build masculinity. A man HAS TO conquer something (not necessarily nature) or overcome some kind of obstacles, to be a man. If life is predictable and easy, he will be a wimp at best.

As a corollary, becoming a saint is a very masculine thing, because it requires much effort and discipline to overcome one's fallen nature and build up virtue. Too bad many men don't understand this.

Matthew