Modernist confusion

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Hello all. I’m in RCIA and have a very interesting question I think… First off I want to say to any who read this that have answered me in the past, thank you so much! You guys are great brothers and sisters!
Now to my question,
I have noticed many modernist ideas in the Church since I started. I disagree with many ideas floating around, however I realize and remember the wheat and the tares are in the Church and there will always be the devil trying to deceive… However I’m perplexed by Vatican 2. It is fishy to me (I’m not saying it isn’t valid), but how should I respond? How should I feel towards the sedevacantest stuff?
 
First off, there is nothing wrong with being a Trad, as long as you don’t become a heretic. Sedes are heretics: they are just as bad as Cafeteria Catholics.

I don’t know much about the details of Vatican II, but I know that it changed a lot about how Mass is done. AFAIK we don’t have to agree with it 100% as it’s not doctrine, but again, I don’t know much about this. I do know that Trads, hence the name, prefer the traditional aspects of the faith and often follow the older, stricter requirements for Mass such as fasting from Midnight.

From experience, it seems people who are Trads seem to take their faith more seriously. But then again, I’ve only known a handful of Trads.
 
Even growing up Protestant and coming into the church, I have a strong desire for older school Catholicism and will most likely try to practice older traditions and find a Latin mass around me. So it’s great to hear being a Trad is ok, lol. I guess it won’t necessarily affect me too much if I’m gonna practice it more traditionally, but I hear alot of theories. Especially those from Most Holy Family Monastery. (Notorious, they even claimed John Paul ll was the beast) I don’t believe that ridiculousness as MHFM has misunderstood scripture, but I won’t lie I’m still a bit concerned as to whether the Church in Rome would advocate NWO. Is there any information out there that debunks those theories?
 
BTW, it’s stuff like “oh Noah didn’t exist” that gets me worried honestly. It’s completely ludicrous.
 
Conspiracy theories are made by people who have way too much free time on their hands. I’d look at them with a grain of salt.

Just remember that the Catholic Church is the One True Church and that the gates of Hell will never prevail against it. Sure we get people who want to change the doctrine. Fortunately these people will never get their way because God never changes. We must change ourselves to be like God. If any change happened to the Church that was evil/heretical, rest assured as God obviously would lead a Saint/s to repair the damages done by heretics.
 
Have you spoken to your RCIA director about this concern of yours?

Vatican 2 at this point is almost 60 years old, and established. It’s important to note that there is a difference between those who prefer to practice in more traditional ways permitted by the Church, and those who reject teachings of Vatican 2. I like traditional practices and I am glad that Pope Benefit made it easier to have a TLM Mass and that old devotions are coming back. This doesn’t mean I reject Vatican 2 or think Pope John XXIII was a shady guy.

In my mind, the post-Vatican 2 reforms went a bit too far in some cases throwing out old devotional practices, changing church architecture, removing the St Michael/Hail Holy Queen prayers from after Mass, and so on, but there’s a difference between those types of mostly external changes, which are now being remedied, and changes in actual church teaching. Other than your Noah example, it’s a bit hard to tell exactly what you are concerned about.

Edited to add, if you are going through RCIA to join the Church of Rome then you should totally be rejecting and not even paying attention to the ideas of any extremists not in communion with the Church of Rome.
 
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Welcome!

You have to understand that Catholicism is always at war with the Enemy and since we are a free association open to all, we will have all types sitting in the pews and sacrificing on the altars. The key is to understand that no one, not the priest, not the bishop, not the Pope, nor any angel or saint, NO ONE can change the Traditional teachings of the Church. They cannot be altered even one little bit.

Now we don’t always understand the teaching, so we rely on the clergy to guide us. The problem is: who do you trust among the clergy? There is no easy answer. You have to pay attention to what they teach. If they teach Tradition and Scripture, then that is a good sign. I suggest you look at some FSSP priests like Fr Wolfe, Fr Ripperger, Fr Isaac Relyea; the Sensus Fidelium channel on YouTube is a good resource. Fr. Z is a good blog to check out. Read St. Thomas Aquinas. Get a copy of the Catechsim of Trent. Read St. Augustine. Arm yourself with knowledge, and when you hear a contrary doctrine you will know how to combat it.

Many, maybe even most, Catholics in the US don’t believe that Noah ever existed. The Church currently allows them to hold this opinion. You are not required to agree with them, and despite what you will be told, the Church does NOT teach that Genesis is mythology and allegory. The Church currently allows certain differences of opinion, but the Traditional understanding of the Scripture supports the historical reality of Genesis. Don’t let people tell you things like:

“The Church doesn’t teach a literal interpretation of Gensis”

Or

“Catholics don’t believe Noah was a real person.”

Or

“The Church rejects Creationism”

Those are misrepresentations. Catholics can and do believe in Noah, the Church definitely teaches a literal interpretation for the vast majority of Genesis (if not all of it), and the Church only hesitantly allows for evolution, but does NOT teach it.
 
Yeah, there is definitely a tendency for some Catholics to present their version of a concept on which the Church has not definitively spoken as the right and only way for Catholics to think. Example:

“Noah didn’t exist. Surely you don’t believe he was real? Hahaha” <— slight paraphrase of something said by a NUN teaching Bible History at my high school…sent the whole class into an uproar because most of them did indeed believe the OT stories more or less happened. And the Church find it perfectly permissible for people to believe that.
 
Beautiful answers guys. The LORD lifts us up through one another. Pray for my conversion and i will pray for your Salvation as well. May The God of Lights keep us. Amen.
 
i will definitely into those suggestions you gave. I have seen some Sensus Fidelium before, very head on people. Praise be to God for that haha
 
Welcome home! Many Trads believe VII was the Protestantization of the CC. I agree. The altars were ripped out and replaced with tables. Communion rails removed and Communion in the hand started. (Saint Mother Teresa said {Communion in the hand} was the worst thing to happen in the Church). Altar girls. And some Protestant music.

If you’re near enough (even if you’re not, it would be well worth the drive) to an FSSP or Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest parish, I would go there.

Also, check out Sensus Fidelium on YouTube. You’ll find wonderful Catholic teachings and sermons there…I think they’re all FSSP.

God bless.
 
Sensus Fidelium is a great YouTube channel! They have homilies from both FSSP and Institute of Christ the King. The homilies they post there are always very moving! 👍
 
When I first started practicing Catholicism, I struggled with the issue of birth control. I totally didn’t get it. I prayed, etc., And after a while, J came to understand it.

I also went through a period of being attracted to a strong traditionalism. And it was really bad for my spiritual life. Certain aspects are good: different people are attracted to different forms of worshipnd of course the Church includes many types of spirituality: Franciscan, Benedictine, Ignatian, and so on. However, the strong traditionalists and the group’s which a separated from the Church (conclacists and sexevacantists) are focused on the “wrongs of the NO church” and do not offer anything like the fullness of the Faith we find in the Catholic Church.

While I have no problem with the Latin Mass, consideration of Church history shows the Church moving back and forth like a pendulum. Being comprised of human beings, there is always movement, and sometimes that movement is in the wrong direction.

There were actual problems which needed to be addressed when V2 was convened, but the implementation of some of the suggestions in the documents was extreme in the opposite direction. We may not like the extreme that some priests go to to accept same-sexarriage, but the pre-V2 victorian-style lack of Mercy regarding unwed pregnancy was also an extreme.

So why did I bring up my difficulties with birth control at the beginning of this post? Because it was a difficulty which I faced. I later faced a difficulty with attraction to a problematical view of the Church, which I should have recognized and treated as the same type of problem.

The devil will use anything to get us to separate ourselves from God, even something that seems good on the outside.

If you feel drawn to the Latin Mass, go, but be careful not to get in with people who have a narrow focus: Catholicism is broad and offers so much that you don’t want to lose!
 
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I guess the fact that the priest faces us now instead and the sign of peace right after consecration of the Eucharist. I’m not saying it’s necessarily EVIL… however its kinda distracting to start talking to others right after the blessing. I guess my reasoning in this thread was should I be at all concerned? I do believe the Catholic Church is h
His church and the gates of hell will NOT prevail… But could it possibly fall into an apostasy, is that possible? I’ve even heard about a saint who apparently prophecied the eucharist will not be available one day… Idk
Im not saying its not valid, but what do we do if that time comes? And Mary at Fatima even a prophecies of apostasy? Where do I turn? I’ve already been deceived and confused by many in the past… And now coming into His church, I don’t want to be confused and led astray by garbage again and would hate it. Would we still have mass underground? I hope… I’m sorry I’ve ranted a bit but honestly I’ve been through craziness concerning the different people I’ve run into and been part of during my walk with Christ… I just want the Truth ya know?
 
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I sgmpathize with the difficulties you mention at Mass. For a long time I was upset about these things myself, but then I thought, I will offer these things that bother me at Mass up to Jesus.

Either these things are pleasing or displeasing to God. If they are displeasing, offering up my discomfort will help. I just thought about the His Passion and death and realized that anything bad happening within or to the Church is the Passion all over again.

As to your concerns about apostasy: no, the Church cannot apostasize. The rite of the Mass is discipline and not dogma, so there is no problem there. And a careful reading of the docs of V2 show that what some complain about is not actually there.

OTOH, there could come a time when Mass is not available all the time everywhere. in fact, I heard about a parish in Central America which has only one priest, so he has to make the rounds from mission to mission in the parish. Some of the parishioners have Mass available only a few times a year.

But if no Mass is available, the obligation is lifted. If it is not possible to attend Mass, if you or someone you care for is ill, if there is a blizzard, if you are too old to drive and have no way of getting there, if Mass is a really long way away. During the persecution in England, many Catholics were able to attend Mass only when a priest in disguise was able to reach a safe place (see St Edmund Campion and others).

You are at the beginning of learning about the Faith. Stick to the basics: avoid anti-Catholic (whether from Jack Chick or Sedevacantists) material, and focus on learning to praise God in all things, thanking Him for everything, praying, and growing in holiness.
 
Many good posts above, and all I have to offer is a little prayer:

May the Holy Spirit assist and guide you always toward faith, hope, and love.
 
Good advice honestly. The way ive been looking at it lately is: hey i cant receive Christs body in any other Church (besides the Eastern one lol) so im gonna go with the one who still serves us His body with reverence.
 
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