A thought occurred to me today: what if some/many/most CathInfo members continue to enjoy this forum but only as a guilty pleasure they wouldn't dare tell their friends, family, or priest about?

How often do any of you send links of important articles, news, or discussions to your e-mail list? How often do you mention CathInfo in person to your family and friends? How often do you post links to CathInfo material on social media (Facebook, etc.)?

Perhaps some of you don't have (m)any friends, maybe all your friends are on CathInfo, or maybe you're the only Catholic or Traditional Catholic in your family or circle of friends. So there are valid excuses for some. But what about the rest of the membership?

On a related topic, I often get criticism from members and non-members about CathInfo content. Of course, we discuss just about everything here -- it's hard for a forum of this size and breadth to have NOTHING you are bored/annoyed/offended by. Please keep that in mind. It's the price of free speech. Isn't that what we tell the leftist liberal SJWs all the time? Free speech means you're going to offend someone.

I hold that there is nothing on CathInfo opposed to a Catholic version of free speech. And yes, liberty is compatible with the Catholic Faith. It's license (freedom to do evil) that is not. Think about it: Do Catholic monarchies really operate like fascist regimes? Do they really tell you what subjects you can and can't talk about? What terms you can and can't use? Would an ideal Catholic empire or monarchy employ and maintain a Thought Police? I really don't think they would. I thought Catholic monarchies and empires merely enforced the rights of the Church and Catholic morality, including the First Commandment which forbids heresy, the Second which forbids blasphemy, the Fourth which forbids ѕєdιтισn and treason, the Fifth which forbids incitement to violence, the Sixth which forbids impurity, etc.

Perhaps most members here have no problem with the content, they just think that 1% of it is too controversial to share with their friends. They are afraid what their friends might dig up if they searched on CathInfo long enough.

It reminds me of the hand-wringing about up/downvotes. If more people participated in the system, they would dilute the influence of "bad" upvotes and "bad" downvotes into complete obscurity. Imagine if all the good people on CI today decided they would vote on 1/2 the posts they read. Anything good would have 25 upvotes, and anything remotely bad would start at 25 downvotes (or more!) Then the 1 or 2 idiots that upvote bad stuff, or downvote good stuff, would become barely noticeable noise. The system would work.

The same goes for content. People complain about CathInfo, but do you send any of YOUR friends or YOUR family here to make CathInfo into a better place? CathInfo is nothing more or less than the sum of the people on the board (plus the leadership/rules of the Moderator, of course). But when you have a large forum with tons of posts and traffic, can you really get all upset if one or two bad posts get posted once in a while? You might as well write off your whole city, your whole state, or your whole country. Tell me where you live, and let me see if I can dig up any dirt on that place so I can write it off as "a cesspool" or "to be avoided". I guarantee I can do this. I am confident based on my knowledge of human nature.

But looking at CathInfo's charter and rules objectively, can anyone honestly say I do a bad job? The leader sets the tone for the organization he leads. Well let's look at CathInfo under that aspect: I'm a cradle Trad living a 7-day-a-week Trad Catholic lifestyle, with some seminary training, well read in Catholic literature, and a desire to bring the warring clans together in the world of Tradition. What's to criticize there?

Or perhaps a Trad Catholic forum is inherently problematic, due to the nature of Trads? In other words, it's not CathInfo, it's the fact that the forum targets Trad Catholics, who are flawed human beings. And this particular sub-set of human beings are maverick, contrary, usually stubborn, and don't get along well with each other. And they have wildly different interests. Some only want to talk about homeschooling or lifestyle topics. Others can't get enough of theological topics. Some obsess over Rome and the Crisis in the Church.

So here are my questions:

If CathInfo were offering $100 referral fees, would you start referring more people to CathInfo, and why? Why not just spread the word about the best Catholic forum right now, for free?

and

If you somehow inherited CathInfo, what would stop you from instantly sending out an e-mail to your list about the best Catholic forum that they should all join?  Would you have to delete a sub-forum or two first, purge some topics, delete certain members, or what?

I admit that I would be reluctant to tell the priest where I attend Mass that I read Cathinfo.  This priest is SSPX, as in allied with Bishop Fellay.  I would expect him to have major problems with this forum explicitly identifying itself with the Resistance (or whatever better name there is for it -  I think that thread is still ongoing. :) )

I am not suggesting that this is something about Cathinfo that can or should be changed.  It is too much a part of the forum identity.   But I do see it as an obstacle to the forum having a more general appeal.

For what its worth, I'm not ashamed or afraid to mention your site in my conversations or correspondence, even to my pastor who is SSPX. I don't rub it in but when he cautions against use of these websites (especially the Resistance) I do reserve the right and duty of the father of a family to keep my eyes open. When I was Novus Ordo I was looking for something better and found a private traditional priest. When he passed away I was looking and found an indult, but again I was looking and found the SSPX to be better and I will be looking when the SSPX ship finally sinks.


In fact, just today after mass talking with another parishioner I brought up Cathinfo.

I always tend to keep my internet life completely private and hidden from the real world. It allows me to speak freely without worry any old comment will come back to bite me if someone happens to dig it up. I have mentioned this site on others though, in the off-topic sections of other forums/boards whenever an argument about Catholicism/Christianity comes up I inevitably get involved and have to convince them that the wishy-washy, ecuмenical, and spineless face of Vatican II isn't what Catholicism is actually about, leading to me linking them to posts/articles here and on other Trad-sites. It's a shame really - all the rampant degeneracy and leftism in the West today has caused a lot of formerly atheist 4chan-Trump supporter types to turn to Catholicism for the same guiding tradition and faith that was the backbone of our societies before all this madness, but when they see Pope Francis demanding Europe open its borders and defending pedophiles, it turns them away from the Church. 

Those that have tried to ' purify ' the traditional catholic movement into an image of their own particular clan / klan , have too often taken advantage of the moderator's need to attend to real life / real time issues.

Yes but you gotta admit Sean Johnson hasn't been here in a while now :)

I am afraid I have to agree with Jaynek, for CIF is as far as I can see, is the RESISTANCE forum. As another who goes to Mass in a SSPX chapel, I have seen what the 'resistance' people can do and say to turn others to make them leave the church where they went to daily Mass for years and all the different activities to do with Catholicism. Not once have I heard anything that is not the Catholicism of my 76 years of experience in my SSPX chapel. If I did, I too would look for somewhere else.  

I cannot count how many times I have read on the Resistance thread this 'betrayal' of Tradition was imminent, next week, next month. But in spite of that never happening, the Resistance take the position that if it hasn't happened in fact, it has happened in the mind. Proof of this is everywhere. Indeed even when I was writing my answer Joez posted 'and I will be looking when the SSPX ship finally sinks.'

I have of course tried to find out what motivates the Resistance. For years I have read and heard that the SSPX were about to join the Modernists in Rome. When it comes to free speech, debate or try to point out a position contrary to this resistance on CIF, I have learned from experience, one would better wear a crash helmet. Only resistance opinion is welcome on this thread. That is not free speech.

For this very reason, as Jaynek agrees, I rarely refer to CIF as an open Catholic Forum. Yes it is the best Catholic forum I have come across, but it has a thread that invites criticism of every SSPX priest who choses to remain within their Society of Priests, irrespective of whether they too would be concerned or are waiting to see if the SSPX did enter a relationship with the Modernists and what kind of relationship this would involve.

Matthew asked a question. Jaynek and I answered his request in charity.

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What is "CIF?" It has a very specific meaning here in California. If you intend to mean "CathInfo" that's CI, not CIF.

Yes but you gotta admit Sean Johnson hasn't been here in a while now :)

Yeah, but he does keep turning up like a bad penny.

Unfortunately, most of my real-life friends can barely use a computer much less post on a forum.

Same here!  And the few that are on line know about this site.