Welcome redcandle77,
Were you a cradle Catholic who had previously only known liberal to moderate N.O. parishes, and was unaware of other valid serious options--that was my story. I don't think any of the N.O. parishes I had previously attended regularly or had even visited would have qualified as conservative until I relocated and found my current parish about 11 years ago.
Being conservative by nature, I was most pleased and I knew I had found the proper reverence (as proper as N.O. can be) when I found my current parish. I was even more elated when we got the "Motu."
Growing up in a liberal N.O. parish, in the Bible-belt, with no population of Catholics of any considerable quantity anywhere in the region, and all that were within hundreds of miles, or even known to me, were N.O.s, I thought my only hope to ever have traditional Catholicism in my life was to fervently pray that the Church (N.O.) would eventually reject V-II and the N.O., which I still pray for that eventuality.
I was aware of traditional Catholicism because my parents were conservative and older than parents of most people my age, and they had old Missals, Catechisms, Catholic Guides, etc., which I started reading at a young age. That just felt right--the explanations in those old Catechisms for the Latin, the abstinence on Fridays, etc., etc. By the time I came along in 1972, all of that was already gone--but reading those solid explanations in those books that were only about 30 or 40 years old when I was reading them, and understanding that these were the practices for so many centuries, and they were explained as though they were as unshakeable as the Rock itself, I have always yearned for a return every since that young age and something never felt right that so many centuries of our Heritage, our Faith and Religion, had been cast aside over a span of time of a decade or so.
But even given my awareness and yearning for tradition, I thought it was history and would only come about again through fervent prayer. I was so excited when I found a few Internet communities (particularly this one) of like-minded traditional Catholics--talking about a human being feeling like an island, a man without a home, a man who didn't really belong anywhere, etc., that was truly me. I couldn't go protestant (though I toyed with the idea out of frustration in my late teens) because of the Truth I had known from those old books; my liberal N.O. family parish made me want to scream from the time I reached the age of discernment. I went through a period of not going to Church in my late teens, and my father would get after me about it, he had a feeling I was considering leaving it and he was rooted enough in tradition to set me straight, and he kept getting after me weeks after I had decided not to leave (but he didn't know for sure) but while I was still attending irregularly, and we had a few big arguments, and I would rebelliously yell that I was not going anywhere else because I was more Catholic than the Catholic Church. I felt that way then, but had a tinge of "can this really be true?" Looking back, I have never felt more confident of the accuracy of my assertion that I am more Catholic than the Catholic Church, the N.O. that is, as that was all I knew at the time.
Reaching out to anyone who may have a similar background as I perceive you may have, redcandle77. Not that I was or ever have been socially shunned or discriminated against, but I have been in an area my whole life with very few Catholics of any sort, and that sort has been solely N.O. until most recently. Until very recently, I have felt like I was 1 of maybe 150 people in the entire U.S. who holds my traditional Catholic views. For an example of one aspect of what this does to a person over time, just take a look at my exchanges with Classiccom in the Crisis forum.
In short, my entire life I have felt, to some degree, isolated in my views from the rest of my community by being Catholic; and isolated in my views from other Catholics by being conservative and traditional. Anyone else have this experience?
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