Taking a CAF Break

[EasterJoy]

…My second highest reason for ignoring people is people who hold themselves out to be Catholic but have obviously never stepped in a Catholic Church in their life.

Do not be too quick in assuming that. I once had a baptized Catholic whose parents had totally neglected his catechesis–they essentially quit going to Mass when he was about five or six–ask me this: Why do people say Jesus was Jewish? I thought Jesus was Christian?

Stop for just a minute and consider the total denial of his Catholic patrimony that he had to have suffered in order to even ask that question. We have brothers and sisters out there who are that ignorant, through no fault of their own. They sometimes post like trolls, but they are not trolls. They have been robbed, and they sometimes come here not even aware of how impoverished they are. Even if that is 1 in 100, we have to be careful to be gentle, lest we add to the abuse that person has suffered.

People need to be able to come here and ask the most ignorant questions you can possibly imagine, and yet not be questioned about whether they are really Catholic. When you are that ignorant of the faith and yet Catholic, it is extremely embarrassing. It is important that Catholics whose formation has been utterly neglected can come here and rectify that situation in safety.

It is also easy to spring out with a snarky comment that you either wouldn’t use in real life or else that you can get away with in real life because you can see the face of the person who hears it and do some damage control when you unwittingly cross the line. We can hurt people’s feelings here or give them the wrong impression about our attitudes towards them and never know that we did. It is a minefield!

 

[mcrow]

Do not be too quick in assuming that. I once had a baptized Catholic whose parents had totally neglected his catechesis–they essentially quit going to Mass when he was about five or six–ask me this: Why do people say Jesus was Jewish? I thought Jesus was Christian?

Stop for just a minute and consider the total denial of his Catholic patrimony that he had to have suffered in order to even ask that question. We have brothers and sisters out there who are that ignorant, through no fault of their own. They sometimes post like trolls, but they are not trolls. They have been robbed, and they sometimes come here not even aware of how impoverished they are. Even if that is 1 in 100, we have to be careful to be gentle, lest we add to the abuse that person has suffered.

People need to be able to come here and ask the most ignorant questions you can possibly imagine, and yet not be questioned about whether they are really Catholic. When you are that ignorant of the faith and yet Catholic, it is extremely embarrassing. It is important that Catholics whose formation has been utterly neglected can come here and rectify that situation in safety.

It is also easy to spring out with a snarky comment that you either wouldn’t use in real life or else that you can get away with in real life because you can see the face of the person who hears it and do some damage control when you unwittingly cross the line. We can hurt people’s feelings here or give them the wrong impression about our attitudes towards them and never know that we did. It is a minefield!

I think it is important to remember that Catholicism is a bit different than other Christian faiths. People who are born into it will always identify as being Catholic whether or not they are practicing or not. So, you have a lot of Catholics out there that know little or nothing about the faith but identify as Catholic. Some may remember some of it from when they were a kid and many were poorly catechesis on top of not being a practicing Catholic.

This is why we have so much false information and perceptions out there about the church. For every practicing Catholic there are probably “former Catholics” who spead false information about the church, some really believe what they say and think it’s true and others know it’s not true but want to inflict their own brand of retribution on the church for whatever reason.

We simply have a many more people claiming our faith than most other Christians do and a good number don’t really understand the faith.

 

[Joe_5859]

There are people I ignore but I have never used the ignore function

yes. My ignore list is quite long in my head. But I know myself enough to know if I put someone on an actual list where I could see they posted but not the content I would go batty. I would always assume it was the worst, most heretical, thing out there. And that they were talking about me. You know, like anyone using a foreign language around me…

Part of the reason I stopped using it was because I found that I almost always hit the “view post” button anyway out of curiosity.

 

[Xantippe]

Part of the reason I stopped using it was because I found that I almost always hit the “view post” button anyway out of curiosity.

Funny!

 

[estesbob]

Do not be too quick in assuming that. I once had a baptized Catholic whose parents had totally neglected his catechesis–they essentially quit going to Mass when he was about five or six–ask me this: Why do people say Jesus was Jewish? I thought Jesus was Christian?

Stop for just a minute and consider the total denial of his Catholic patrimony that he had to have suffered in order to even ask that question. We have brothers and sisters out there who are that ignorant, through no fault of their own. They sometimes post like trolls, but they are not trolls. They have been robbed, and they sometimes come here not even aware of how impoverished they are. Even if that is 1 in 100, we have to be careful to be gentle, lest we add to the abuse that person has suffered.

People need to be able to come here and ask the most ignorant questions you can possibly imagine, and yet not be questioned about whether they are really Catholic. When you are that ignorant of the faith and yet Catholic, it is extremely embarrassing. It is important that Catholics whose formation has been utterly neglected can come here and rectify that situation in safety.

It is also easy to spring out with a snarky comment that you either wouldn’t use in real life or else that you can get away with in real life because you can see the face of the person who hears it and do some damage control when you unwittingly cross the line. We can hurt people’s feelings here or give them the wrong impression about our attitudes towards them and never know that we did. It is a minefield!

Actually I am referring to people who claim to be devout , practicing Catholics but who’s post indicate they know nothing about the Faith, I don’t make snarky comments to them-I just quit reading their posts

 

[Xantippe]

Actually I am referring to people who claim to be devout , practicing Catholics but who’s post indicate they know nothing about the Faith, I don’t make snarky comments to them-I just quit reading their posts

That’s kind of a tell for trolls, I think.

Back on planet earth, if you were actually a devout Catholic, you’d probably describe yourself as a “practicing Catholic.”

 

[LongingSoul]

Originally Posted by estesbob
Actually I am referring to people who claim to be devout , practicing Catholics but who’s post indicate they know nothing about the Faith, I don’t make snarky comments to them-I just quit reading their posts

They’re the type who are more wolf in sheeps clothing kind of trolls than the usual though. They hang around living the lie for longer than the usual troll. Like estesbob, I tend to just ignor their posts and only have one on ignore to prevent private messages. One thing about CAF admin though, is they are pretty on the ball. I don’t stress about those types at all now because they all eventually end up zapped.

 

[EasterJoy]

Actually I am referring to people who claim to be devout , practicing Catholics but who’s post indicate they know nothing about the Faith, I don’t make snarky comments to them-I just quit reading their posts

That is fair. It is sad how many devout Catholics have accepted and embraced wrong-headed teaching in good faith, because so many writers and preachers substitute some fashionable wind of contemporary thought for the truth. Excommunicated priests such as Greg Reynolds and Roy Bourgeois immediately to mind, not to mention certain politically active members of the LCWR.

IOW, it is not just that Catholics are not being educated in the first place, or fail to try to know what they ought to believe. It is that many Catholics are being actively misled because of strenuous efforts being made to lead them away from the definitive and binding teachings of the Church.

 

[SuperLuigi]

I’ve been thinking about quitting just because this place is such a time sink for me. I haven’t had much success with making this a* limited* thing!
(That could be a or a , and probably both…which I suppose is a )

The key measuring stick is are you making a difference. A lot of on-line activity is wasteful, but this is one of the useful sites.

Of course, I spend time in the Clubhouse.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Sometimes, even a prayer thread gets

Well, some users need to READ the rules and the stickys BEFORE posting! :bluelite:

It can be painfully obvious sometimes when people do not do that. :tsktsk:

 

[EasterJoy]

The key measuring stick is are you making a difference. A lot of on-line activity is wasteful, but this is one of the useful sites.

I don’t think I do a lot of harm here, but I’m not getting all my real duties attended to.

Of course, I spend time in the Clubhouse.

Think of how many people that forum keeps out of real trouble!