I will miss reading Greg's prudent advice on this forum.
As will I.
I learned of his banning mere hours ago—and I regret to say that I learned of it from several snide remarks on another thread, remarks made by people who should be ashamed of themselves for acting like spiteful children at the bottom of their high school class.
Needless to say, I hope, it matters not at all whether I or anyone else thinks the punishment fits the crime or even whether Matthew's explanation corresponds with what an impartial observer might see as having taken place. When it comes to membership, the sole salient point is that this site belongs to Matthew, and he gets to decide who's in and who's out. I know of no one who would have it any other way.
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I have no idea whether ggreg will ever see the following comment, but I am posting it on the off chance he will.
I had disagreements with him from time to time. So what? The fact remains that he was one of only three or four commenters whose remarks I have found consistently worth reading, primarily because he often showed evidence of having
thought before he typed—a pattern of action all too many commenters hereabouts seem to regard as somehow un-Catholic.
May I add, too, that I am singularly unimpressed by all these complaints about ggreg's so-called worldliness. For one thing, it's pretty plain that he was given certain talents by his Maker, talents he seems to have put to good use rather than bury in the ground. There is some rather weighty authority in Scripture and Tradition favoring such a course of action, as perhaps a few of ggreg's tireless bashers might just recall. For another thing, it would do all our computer- and cellphone-owning self-proclaimed wooers and admirers of Lady Poverty no harm to recollect that poverty, like work and ill health and death, is a Fall-generated
evil of the human condition, not a good. All of those (including me) who find themselves in the lady's embrace are under orders of divine origin to make the best of a bad situation in this life so as to gain a reward in the next, but it is hardly proper or admirable to sneer at or stand haughtily aloof from those (e.g., ggreg) whose earthly burdens do not include material poverty. Some people here seem to require regular reminders that
no terrestrial condition is free of trials, temptations, and challenges. (Since such reminders seem as scarce as 90-degree days in February, those who fit my just-offered description may consider this their first.)
But this is by no means all there is to say. How quickly people forget ggreg's more than occasional offers of sound advice and practical assistance to other CI members! In this sphere he has put virtually everyone else using this site, again including me, to shame. Unbanned members here talk and talk and talk and talk about the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, but I am willing to bet that no other commenter has backed up such talk with action to the extent that ggreg has. What's more, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I saw any expression of gratitude for ggreg's generous offers and actions and counsel. Indeed, subtracting LaramieHirsch frequently reduces the number of thankers to zero.
May God bless and keep ggreg and his family. I repeat, I shall miss him.
Topic: Ggreg is banned from CathInfo (Read 4918 times)