Catholics: Don't do this if you want to be welcoming!

How can we be more welcoming to people in the Catholic community? This is something I've thought about more recently because I think in a lot of ways, people with potentially good intentions can veer off into become unwelcoming to outsiders or even people who have been part of a group.

I've been involved in a group / groups of Catholics for quite some times with varying levels of involvement. I'm kind of known for not making frequent appearances and I'm at the point where those infrequent showings may become non-existent. I just don't feel I belong to the group.

In my experience, what ended up happening is that people have progressed in their lives and there is an implicit underlying idea that to really be part of the group you have to have certain qualifications. The group I am familiar with in my area is composed mainly of people in their 20s and 40s, so they are relatively young when it comes to Catholic groups. Many of those who are involved in a lot of activities and have a lot of friends share many things in common. One is having a large number of children. Others include women having a very traditional role, being involved in conversions of others, prayer life, etc. They seem to appear to have everything under control.

These things are amazing and beautiful and I would never discourage anyone from seeking those things. Our society needs them more than ever. But many people do not fit the mold.

People come from all kinds of different situations and all kinds of different lives. Nobody is a cookie cutter of the other person. We don't know where somebody might be in their spiritual journey or their journey of Catholicism. For example, someone may become interested in joining the church in their 60s. Other people have led lives of licentiousness for many years and perhaps don't have things together very well. Others may be very interested in Catholicism but perhaps struggle with many different vices and addictions and find it difficult to live a virtuous life. There are yet others who, although they are attracted in some way to the Catholic faith, have a great deal of difficulty in accepting many of the teachings. It could be that they're steeped in modern-day thinking and they find it hard to reconcile Catholic beliefs to some of the modernism that they have been exposed to their entire lives.

A lot of these people would not easily be accepted. There's an implicit idea that in order to be a part of the "real group" a person must implicitly accept all of these things without question and must go 100% in their pursuit of these things. But even beyond that there are many people who are in situations which perhaps they do not want to be in but because of various life circumstances it has been forced upon them. Yet I believe that many people see these things and immediately start to judge them.

Something that my wife and I have thought of and I've heard others say as well is that sometimes this judgment is masked in a pseudo-compassion or understanding. For example they will point out a major flaw or issue that somebody has or is undergoing and they will either tell that person or the group that we should pray for them. A lot of times it would not be appropriate for a random person to just tell you that they will pray for you unless you ask them to. It's kind of an implicit way of saying "I'm pointing out your flaws right now but I'm going to present it under the guise of me caring about you and trying to help you". Not too many people are open to unsolicited help from others like that.

Another issue that can occur is when members of the group speak theoretically about things that other people might be doing. For example they might derisively talk about people who are divorced or struggle with various sins or other such issues. It could even be things that are not necessarily sinful in and of themselves such as a couple that is childless. Sometimes people in the group will speak about these things in a theoretical way not realizing that perhaps somebody in the vicinity falls in one of those categories. That person would feel extremely judged and uncomfortable and perhaps would not say anything and so it would be assumed that nobody is in those categories and that it would be fine to talk about them.

This is a realization I had myself. I was helping lead a course and before we had begun I started talking about other people and how they may lead lives of immorality in some ways and how they may not be well-versed in Christianity and so on. However after I had said these, someone mentioned something about people waiting beyond their early twenties to marry and how people should marry young and things like that. But I myself wasn't in this category and so I felt like I was being somewhat rejected.  Obviously the person talking about this didn't mean to target me in any way and didn't know when I married but the feeling was still there.

One of the reasons I don't like to be around many of the people in these groups is because of the feeling that you have to be almost perfect in order to be accepted. You have to check a lot of boxes in order to be a part of that group. They seem to forget that the church is a place that sinners go to be purified and made holy.  One of the marks of the church is that it is Holy and the reason it is Holy is because it is the bride of Christ and that Christ is the head of the church and we are the body of Christ. The church is not holy because of us, it's holy because of Christ. Therefore we should not boast or feel that we are superior in some way.

I cannot confirm for certain but I know that many of the people who would not fall into the traditional categories I mentioned no longer attend any group meetings or events. Although sometimes these people are invited, in some cases there isn't even an invitation. Again I think much of it has to do with the idea that people who happen to not be living completely outwardly virtuous lives are seen as evil rather than as people who may be struggling with certain things or facing issues. There's also a great deal of unearned judgment that occurs. People who may know absolutely nothing about a particular situation will still judge the people as perhaps wanting those scenarios. Again, for example, if there is a childless couple they will assume that they have rejected children and and that they are violating tenets of the Catholic faith. But in actuality it's quite possible that despite their attempts they have not been able to conceive and give birth to a child.

I realized that I may have been doing much of the same things myself in many ways. I will now try to make more of an effort to be careful about the things that I say. If I ever feel the need to condemn or be negative about a particular aspect of things that people do I will always try to come at it from the perspective of being compassionate and actually caring about that person rather than seeing them as some part of an evil force that's trying to attack us and that I must condemn. There could be many ways to accomplish this.

Here are some ideas when speaking to others:

• Speak not just of the sin, but of the opposite virtue
• Speak as though people are "struggling" with various things as opposed to just talking about them as though they are evil individuals.
• Perhaps admit your own failings to show you are not coming from a place of pride.
• Don't offer to pray for an issue you may perceive someone as having unless they explicitly as you to.
• Have patience and listen to people, get to know them. Don't use various litmus test to determine their level of orthodoxy.

These are just ideas I thought of. If you have more, please feel free to share in the comments.

Michael Voris Resigns! Shocking News from Church Militant

In news that has come as a shock to me (and I'm guessing anyone who has followed Church Militant over the years), Michael Voris has been asked to resign. I have no idea why. Below this post you will see the official statement issued by Church Militant regarding his resignation.

They say he violated the "morality clause". Other than that it is not clear why Voris has been asked to resign. One of the reasons this is shocking is that Voris isn't just one person working at Church Militant. In my perspective, he IS Church Militant. I mean, how can you separate Church Militant from Michael Voris and him spiraling his pencil declaring that it is the place where "lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed". In fact, I remember back in 2012 and prior when it was called Real Catholic TV. He was forced to remove the word "Catholic" from the title. There is hardly a Catholic out there, especially those who are media-aware, that are not familiar with Michael Voris. Some like him more than others obviously.

The released memo claims that the show will go on with Michael unabated, but this seems implausible. I can't even imagine what Voris must have done to cause this. Those who made this decision must have seen his breach as being rather egregious. As a Catholic organization, they would strongly believe in the Sacrament of Confession. So, whatever it was that Michael Voris is guilty of, they must think it is of such consequence that it would impede or destroy the reputation of the entire organization.

I remember a few years back, Voris came out and publicly gave details of his wayward past life because the Archdiocese of New York was going to expose him. So he decided to take the bull by the horns and come clean publicly himself. This was a very brave move on his part. However, he was obviously not asked to resign over this. So if even these admissions did not cause a resignation, what could have? I suppose in this older case, the sins were of the past and he rejected them, while perhaps these current violations were ongoing? I cannot say.

Let's all pray for Michael Voris and the organization that he founded. I cannot say if those responsible for his resignation are in the right or not in this case, but prayers never go to waste.

Here is the news release issued by Church Militant today:

Fellow Catholics,

Church Militant/St. Michael's Media was founded as a bastion of Catholic truth and a light to the faithful in hard times. This is why we are being fully transparent with you all.

Michael Voris has been asked to resign for breaching the Church Militant morality clause. The board has accepted his resignation.

We understand this is a shock to you all, but our founder and former CEO is stepping aside and focusing on his personal health.

The Board of Directors has chosen not to disclose Michael's private matters to the public. The apostolate will be praying for him, and we kindly ask you to do the same.

Church Militant/St. Michael's Media is just as positioned to save souls as it ever has been. There are more than 40 full-time employees on the cutting edge of Catholic truth moving forward with renewed fervor.

The apostolate will remain unwavering in its reporting and its commentary — defending Holy Mother Church from errors both inside and out.

We appreciate your continued support and prayers.

God love you,

Church Militant

Slovakia to declare Jesus Christ as King of the Country

In a move similar to what Poland has already done in 2016, the Culture Ministry in Slovakia wants to declare Jesus Christ as King of their country. I really love to see this! Kind of like how Christ is the head of the Catholic Church, it would be great to declare Him the King of every country on Earth. Also just as the pope is still the head of the earthly Church, these countries can also have an earthly leader. Makes sense to me!

Here's more information: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/official-make-jesus-christ-king-of-slovakia/

"Good person": Self-proclamation by modern-day moralists

Something I've noticed a lot more recently is people unilaterally declaring themselves to be good. They make no nuance about it or ever proclaim that they themselves have any issues or problems. They then proceed to name somebody else who they say is not a good person. I guess I just find this interesting because they seem to have made this absolute moral standard for other people and they compare them to themselves to decide if that person is good or bad.

I was listening to a talk by a priest named Fr Chad Ripperger recently in which he said something along the lines of if he was speaking to a room full of people he could say that nobody there was a saint and that nobody would object to that because the people who are far from being saints and are actually immoral in many ways would not consider themselves to be saints. And at the same time people who are in fact close to being saints would also not consider themselves to be saints because they know how sinful they have been in the past and how much they rely on God for their sanctity.

However this doesn't seem to be the case for how a lot of non-religious people speak nowadays.

A major example of this is what has been deemed "cancel culture". People will dredge up 20-year-old videos of somebody who said something a certain way, misspoke, or what have you and they will be lambasted and perhaps even lose their career because what they said is deemed to be inappropriate by today's standards. The people exposing them will then go on to declare that this is not a good person and that this person deserves everything they get. It doesn't matter if it was a minor foible or small error in judgment even for that time. The mob will be relentless and unforgiving of this person.

I just wonder where the people making these declarations have such gall to be able to declare themselves perfect while pointing out even the most minor flaws of other people.

Some people may listen to what I'm saying and respond by asking isn't that what religious people do all the time? In my experience, truly religious and spiritual people generally are not overly judgmental and they also acknowledge their own sins and failings. I rarely meet any religious person who declares themselves to be a good person as such and that they do everything perfectly. They admit their need for God's grace.

One last thing is the irony of some of these people being self-appointed moral authorities. You will often see this in some of the most wicked people around. People who commit all forms of evil. Yet they will not hesitate to pronounce their innocence while condemning others. Often they criticize people for things which are actually morally good.

Bottom line is pay no attention to modern-day moralists. They don't seem to have any knowledge or understanding of good morality no matter how much they puff our their chests.