On August 17th, 2016 CathInfo will be exactly 10 years old.

CathInfo has come a long way since it started as a small forum with 5 members that had a distinct niche: discussion of modern errors/cօռspιʀαcιҽs, and free speech for all Traditional Catholics including Sedevacantists (even though during the past 10 years I haven't been sedevacantist for even a single day)

It is one of the oldest Trad forums in existence, which has also kept the same "government" and the same format (message board). Now that is stability!

To celebrate, I looked over the top 225 posters and decided to un-ban some members.

Alex
Sedetrad
Crossbro
Soulguard
Caminus
Telesphorus
Ggreg
Marcellino
Andysloan
EcclesiaMilitans
TheD
Icterus
LucasL
McFiggly
brainglitch
GertrudeTheGreat
Alex117
Hatchc

My thoughts were:

A) Time heals some wounds
B) Everything changes; people change -- especially after many years
C) The situation changes from year to year.
D) Some people deserve a second chance
E) I don't want it to seem that I hold grudges

I could write a long post giving examples of what I mean, etc. but that isn't necessary. So I'll leave it at that.

A few points about this unbanning --

1. I decided to leave certain members banned, after reviewing their "case". Some spiritual maladies are more permanent than others, and in the case of some individuals, I happen to know that they are still obstinate.

2. I make no guarantees about the future for any of these members. If any of them come on here and promptly remind me why I banned them -- I will be forced to correct my mistake.

3. Obviously, any or all of them are free to return, but like so many other members who have quit posting on their own over the past 10 years, there is no guarantee that any of them will return. That is up to them.

But for these members, I believe a second chance is in order. Either their banning was long ago and there is a good chance that the banning is obsolete, or the situation has vastly changed (e.g., the Resistance) and the banning is likewise obsolete.

At the very least, these 16 will join the ranks of "still welcome here, though they have moved on". Let's put it this way: plenty of ex-CathInfo members have been gone for years, but for reasons that are now OBSOLETE. I don't want to be part of that problem by locking people out indefinitely.

We'll see how it goes.

                     
                                        Magnanimous Ceasar



        "Centurions!  Let these banned citizens return to fight again!"

If only it were the good fight.  I appreciate Matthew's generosity, but Soulguard has already had two chances.  He has little training in basic Catechism, yet forges ahead pontificating with no interest in learning but rather an apparent disdain for it.  His particular sedevacantist stance is incoherent (he accepts the validity of the bastardized mass) and he openly advocates conclavism.  Not to mention the utter disdain he has addressed for the assortment of trads typically found here at CI with venomous rants about our "ghetto chapels," etc.  And I can't stress enough that he has had two chances, and both times his admitted mental defects manifested themselves venomously and poisonously.

Crossbro was nearly as frustrating with near idolizations of heretics, faithless sports "heroes," etc.  His take on such characters as the heretical Tim Tebow was clearly the product of heretical modernisms of false ecuмenism and religious indifference.  He, too, furiously rejects fraternal correction.

If they return with those same flaws and just as unwilling to accept correction as before, then I hope they're promptly showed the door again.  I do appreciate this extension of generosity by Matthew.  But I believe he and the members of CI should remember these points and be alert to promptly recognize if they return with the same-old-same-old.  Furthermore, I think it's important that any new members who haven't encountered them before be on guard due to their tendencies.

To celebrate, I looked over the top 225 posters and decided to un-ban some members.

Alex
Sedetrad
Crossbro
Soulguard
Caminus
Telesphorus
Ggreg
Marcellino
Andysloan
EcclesiaMilitans
TheD
Icterus
LucasL
McFiggly
brainglitch
GertrudeTheGreat

Have you sent these un-banned members an off-forum email so that they know they are un-banned.  Many of them may just never come to CathInfo to find out they are un-banned and, if you had gone so far as to block their IP Address, they would have been unable to even try to come to CathInfo to look.

Happy and Holy Anniversary to Cathinfo! :cheers:

Happy Anniversary.

I been here since 9-19-2009.

It is great that some members where un banned.

People never change.

In some respects, yes. But small, incremental improvements can be made. And sometimes major conversions can take place. Think of St. Ignatius of Loyola or many other saints.

Actually, great falls are possible as well. On CathInfo someone posted that "Jehanne", a former CathInfo member, is now a rabid atheist with a blasphemous blog. Another family (all three members of this family were on CathInfo) gave up the Faith -- a baby boomer aged single mom with son and a daughter. First the son and daughter gave up the faith, then she followed suit. She is in a nursing home now.

But I agree that even when you vastly improve yourself, your old self is sometimes just waiting under the surface ready to break out again. It doesn't matter what vices that "old self" had: uncharitable, worldly, wrathful, undisciplined, immature, impure, alcoholic, etc. That's why we all have to be vigilant until the day we die.

As I said in another thread, there ARE vices that each man doesn't have to worry about, because of developed virtues, background, personality, etc. For example, sodomy. Many men don't have to waste any energy fighting this sin. But vices that were very much part of you just 10 years ago? That's another story.

So "in theory" we are each capable of all sins, from the greatest to the least. That is, if God withdrew all His grace all at once (which isn't likely to happen!) That's well and good, in theory. But we are MUCH MORE capable, and likely, to fall into tendencies from our own past.

Long story short, even though those tendencies might remain under the surface, you can smother them with virtue. You can make an act of will that you're not going to be your old, ______ self. We have free will, so we get to decide if we're going to be good or bad, at any given point. We can merit heaven or hell based on our own free choices.

We're not Calvinists who think that some men are "born bad, destined for hell" and others are "born good, destined for heaven".

Let's not forget Trinity who was a member here (wasn't she one of the first CI members, Matthew?) and who died on April 20, 2012.

Yes, she was one of the "founding members". She really helped seed the forum with posts and activity back when we had only a dozen members.

After her death, I put in an "RIP, please pray for her soul" note in her signature, so it will show up at the bottom of all her posts.

from the early says of the forum

I meant to say "days", not "says."