perceived persecution, negativity, and pseudo theologians, oh my…

… some time ago I enabled comment moderation. Today I disabled anonymous commenting. By removing the immediate satisfaction of having a nasty comment published the nasty comments decreased in number. And really, I’m under no obligation to publish a comment, even if you email me demanding I do so. I really don’t like how the internet has created an environment conducive to combativeness. It makes it too easy for people to say things to others they would never dream of saying to someone’s face, either out of prudence or lack of courage.

Look, I love my blog. I liken it to my home where I invite you over. I show you the art on my walls, make you feel at ease and welcome… and then hit you with a one sided diatribe of opinions, political rantings, and pontificate pompously. I’m kidding. No I’m not. Not kidding. No really, I jest. Sort of.

The point is, I do my best to remain well behaved …within my limited realm of capabilities. I really don’t think it too much to expect the same of others. Not just here on my blog, but every where. There is so much nastiness and too many self appointed pontiffs.

I maintain my stance on blogging, that it’s an act of ego. I wonder at those who claim to blog with purely altruistic motives. I marvel at those who actually accomplish it, usually the blogs maintained by religious communities. But really, I’m under no delusion that this blog is saving souls and nothing I write will aid in my cause for canonization. If anything, it will be the condemning nail.

I also can’t claim righteous indignation, in fact I doubt many of us can. We have religious freedom and the ability to chose any parish we see fit. Here in the United States we are not persecuted or prevented from attending mass. We are not shot at as we enter our churches and suffer under pain of death for doing so. No one is out to get us. There is no huge conspiracy against The Church and the USCCB is not an emissary of Satan and the Novus Ordo mass is not a weapon to do the Dark One’s bidding.

Every perceived injustice in the mass is not some small cog in a vast machine designed to destroy Catholicism. And the fact that I actually prefer the Ordinary Form to the Extraordinary does not make me an agent of the Devil. It also doesn’t make me any more pious or less pretentious if my preferences were reversed.

In fact I don’t care what the topic of the post is that you are commenting on; if it’s not something you would say upon entering someone’s home as a guest then it needn’t be said at all.

I know we all watch the news and know which stories get the most attention and coverage; the nasty ones. Even if a blog author invites negativity to their blog by repeatedly posting controversial and divisive topics in an accusatory manner there is no need to challenge them. What is to be gained?

Admittedly there was a time when a truly believed that with my mighty pen I could thwart heresy and enemies of the Church. It’s laughable to type now. I felt I had a duty to defend The Church from bad theology and tambourines. But The Church needs my prayer more than it needs my defense. She has survived long before the advent of blogging and She will continue to survive long after I am dust.

Lastly, I cannot post anything that will do more good for The Holy Church than for me to attend mass and see to my life and my son’s. My sole duty is to raise a good and faithful Catholic young man and myself be an example of piety… again, within the realm of my limited capabilities.

I’m tired. So very tired of it all. If those who blog feel they are called to expose abuses they witness and lies on the internet then by all means, take up your arms and give yourself wholly to The Church. Personally, I feel the laity need to learn their place within the hierarchy of the Church. We can’t have it all by playing priest and theologian on the internet.

Usually whenever I am tempted to rail away at some silly thing or another like those sloppy Americanized youth embarrassing our country at WYD [yes, sadly that is all some people saw with their fixed and critically watchful eye], I have to remind myself it is in reaction to some unhappy place I am spiritually. Some times I feel the sting that I missed my vocation, and that is when the need is strongest to offer “loving correction” in matters of faith. Really though, that is when I should stay as far away as possible from blog.

Please be patient with me while I slowly learn to shut up.