In the article last posted, entitled Divide & Conquer vs. Conquer & Unite, a reader kindly sent in some comments. After that, I found a misspelled word in the article; and I “corrected” it by deleting the article and then replacing it with a new article which included the correction. Unfortunately, in doing this, I inadvertently “erased” this reader’s comments; but fortunately, I had “saved” them as e-mails. I present them here again, as I think that they are very pertinent (and apropos). My apologies to the reader who originally sent them in! (meanwhile, I will brush up on my "editing" skills!). The comments were in three parts; here they are:
Part I
Dear Sir,
I read, with great delight, your article about SAG. First off, please let me say that I admire your resolve and the resolve of your pastor to make some sense out of the mess that has befallen the Traditional Catholic movement. I have been reading with a heavy heart the goings on at SGG and know first hand of their veracity and impact. I have suspected these things for years, but have been far too removed from any involvement since I left the seminary in the nineties. First, if you will permit me, a little background on myself. I was a seminarian in Warren during the "heyday" of sedevacantism and the seminary, as we called it, and was part of the first few groups of seminarians to come through the doors of MHT Seminary. For a time, MHT was a peaceful place, but I soon found myself in spiritual hot water because of the lack of spiritual directors-many priests visited only once a month and going to the rector for confession was discouraged. I also struggled with some of my studies, although I was a bright student. To make a long story short, I determined after much prayer that I was not called to the holy priesthood. I left, went to college, and married the woman who would become mother of my six children. I could not be happier! As far as our Mass situation, my family and I worship at a traditional Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church. While we still do attend the Traditional Mass when we can, we have found spiritual Catholic nourishment in the East, and we have not had to compromise one iota on our Faith. If you will permit me, I would like to share some thoughts with you about my past, as well as some thoughts I have about your situation.
Part II.
There was always something that troubled me about my time in the seminary. I have since talked with trad friends and former students of the seminary, and they have the same issues, namely, that the program the rector developed looked really good on paper, but there was no punch to it when it actually came to imparting the material. He was in our minds a brilliant man, but anyone can seem brilliant by translating Billot or Ligouri and regurgitating it back to us. In my opinion, and their's, it lacked teeth. I think I learned more about logic while courting my wife, than I ever day in the seminary. I also had trouble reconciling the sedevacantist thesis in my mind. My parent's were both victims of the effects of VII, and in my father's instance, it led to MANY years of not going to church at all. When we discovered sedevacantism in the late 80's, it kind of confirmed what my father had long been unable to reconcile. What ended up occurring for both him and me was that, as the years went by, and the situation was obviously not getting any better in the Church, a subtle despair overtook my family. We lost hope that things would ever get better in the Church. My attending seminary only complicated things, so even in sedevacantism, I (we) still had no peace. I eventually rejected sedevacantism, as did my parents, and we prayed that the good Lord would give us some peace. He, eventually, did. I tell you these things, because for once, I think you and the other members of SAG have got it right. What has happened to the traditionalist movement since I have been a part of it is, splintering, dividing and more conquering. There is NO unity, and NO Charity. You all have taken steps to change this, and for that I applaud you. As for what I said at the beginning of this very long comment, before I went off to tell you a little of my background story, I know first hand of the horror stories of Lotarski and company. I was present the day, a day we called "Black Tuesday" in the seminary, when "over 5000 points were handed out on pink slips to the children of Mary Help of Christians Academy. Sanborn yelled at some poor little first grader so badly that she wet her pants. Or the constant belittling by Lotarski to "slower" children, children who stepped out of line and so on, I witnessed first hand his brutal demeanor.
Part III.
Looking back, I think we, all of us in Warren at the time, were just accustomed to this type of behavior from Lotarski and Sanborn. We thought we were the remnant, and that bad behavior was the influence of the world and the devil. As I have gotten older though, I take a different position. Children are fallen individuals who need to be trained, not scarred into or beaten into the ways of the Lord. Furthermore,as the parent of a special needs child, I am appalled by the treatment of slower children as "retards". But it has become common place in traditional chapels for children to be treated as such. My wife and I have searched far and wide for a peaceful place to share our Catholic Faith with our children. In most, not all, but most trad chapels, I think the priests and lay people actually hate children. Sure, priests encourage large families, but when it comes to children making the slightest bit of noise, moving around too much, and so on, they are shown the "cry room" which more often than not is half way across the church, and Mass is piped in on closed circuit television. How are we supposed to Mass train our children if every time they cough, or sneeze, the priest "gives them a look" or, worse yet, the old chapel bitty takes it upon herself to "correct" the unsuspecting child. And please do not misunderstand me... if little Johnny or little Isabella are screaming their lungs out, of course they should be removed and removed quickly from the church. But, children are very perceptive, more so than any of us would give them credit. They pick up on whether Father so and so made them uncomfortable, or was mean to them. How do priests honestly expect us to encourage vocations in our little ones, when they appear to be so unhappy in their's? I thing our Lord said, "Suffer the little ones to come unto Me." I don't think he said, suffer the old grumpy priests and people to come unto me. although I could be wrong. Our children should know that our Lord and our Lady love them very much, and that they should, in turn, love our Lord and Lady with their whole being. It is hard to convince a child that God loves them when the people the look up to don't! Furthermore, it has often puzzled me, just by looking at some of our trad chapels, why there are so few older children of families who practice the Faith. Perhaps it is because they have seen how unhappy their parents are about the practicing their Faith and they want nothing to do with it. Again, I applaud you and the good folks at SAG for your work. I wish we lived a little closer! Thanks so much for allowing me the opportunity to share some of these thoughts with you. Do not hesitate to contact me if you desire further correspondence. In Christ and Mary, xxxxx
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