Standard basic no-frills introduction

[FamilyRosary]

I'm a male American, raised during the 60's and 70's, originally from the Rust Belt but now living in Texas, cradle Catholic of Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, and British ancestry, indulter/Ecclesia Dei since 2004, lurker on this forum and others for about 15 years, college-educated but have held a variety of jobs over the years including work as an agroforestry extension agent in a Latin American village in the 80's. The last twenty years I've worked in manufacturing, mostly oil and gas and aerospace.

I usually describe myself as an Old-Fashioned Catholic rather than as a Trad for reasons that may become obvious as time goes on.

I'm especially interested in the 19th and 20th centuries and in American history in particular the 1950's to 1980's, in other words, the run-up to Vatican II and its aftermath. As I said, I'm old-fashioned so I prefer to look backward to see how we got where we are rather than try to make any predictions about the future.

I work long hours so it's difficult for me to engage in back-and-forth debate, so please excuse any tardiness in answering a reply.

[red solo cup]

 

[Lynne]

Welcome!

[mikemac]

Welcome

[Jayne]

Welcome to the forum.  I suspect it is unusual to lurk for such a long time before starting to post, but I'm glad that you have finally done so.  I know other people who regularly attend the TLM but do not identify themselves as traditional Catholic.  I find this an interesting perspective, so I am looking forward to your contributions. 

[FamilyRosary]

Welcome to the forum.  I suspect it is unusual to lurk for such a long time before starting to post

I think a lot of people read these forums without ever signing up. I started reading Fisheaters and Catholic Answers in 2003, and this forum since its inception. If you look at the number of members logged in at any one given moment versus the number of visitors, you see that the number of visitors is usually much higher than the members. Some lurkers feel that their views are already represented, and more articulately than what they could do, by other posters. Others may be scared off by the some of the more radical and opinionated posters, and others may simply be too lazy to join up and start posting.

[truly-a-philosofan]

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[truly-a-philosofan]

Used to hear this in a tv commercial more than a decade ago. It was probably advocating for his canonization.

[Heinrich]

Welcome.

Have you read E Michael Jones' Slaughter of Cities? Its thesis is the ethnic cleansing/disruption of Catholic neighborhoods starting circa WW2.

[FamilyRosary]

Welcome to the forum.  I suspect it is unusual to lurk for such a long time before starting to post, but I'm glad that you have finally done so.  I know other people who regularly attend the TLM but do not identify themselves as traditional Catholic.  I find this an interesting perspective, so I am looking forward to your contributions.

Thanks for the welcome. I identify myself as an "old-fashioned" Catholic because I just try to live by what I saw growing up in my own family and parish. The Church is passing through a terrible time as it has on other occasions in the past but I believe that God is in charge of the situation and will reward those who remain faithful to Her and who do their best to persevere with patience and humility, as most of us try to do.

I've noticed that there are some, a small minority to be sure, who identify as Traditionalists but seem to have little love for Holy Mother Church. They have constructed some sort of adolescent purity fantasy in their heads in which the Church and its members and clergy must measure up to their own standards of perfection, forgetting that God works with and through sinful and fallible beings.

Unfortunately this small minority has an outsized presence on line and in the eyes of many has come to represent traditional Catholicism to the rest of the world.

They would be scornful or outraged to see me choose Father Patrick Peyton, one of the most visible faces of Catholicism in the mid-twentieth century, as my avatar.

 Hopefully we can continue this conversation on other threads.

[FamilyRosary]

Welcome.

Have you read E Michael Jones' Slaughter of Cities? Its thesis is the ethnic cleansing/disruption of Catholic neighborhoods starting circa WW2.

I'm aware of Jones's central argument in that book and there is a lot of truth to it, but post-War America was a complicated place full of conflicts and contradictions, many of them papered over in an understandable urge to return to "normalcy" after three decades of industrialization, economic depression, and devastating world war.

I've noticed a lot of parallels between the Catholic community and the Black community in that same time period. Both seemed to be coming of age after the war, gaining respectability, economic power, and a media presence. Both wanted to preserve what was special about them and yet be integrated thoroughly into the larger American culture of prosperity and patriotism. And both would suffer a precipitous decline in values and purpose starting in the mid-1960's.

There is a lot to talk about here. We are still living in the aftermath of those changes.

[Jayne]

Welcome to the forum.  I suspect it is unusual to lurk for such a long time before starting to post

I think a lot of people read these forums without ever signing up. I started reading Fisheaters and Catholic Answers in 2003, and this forum since its inception. If you look at the number of members logged in at any one given moment versus the number of visitors, you see that the number of visitors is usually much higher than the members. Some lurkers feel that their views are already represented, and more articulately than what they could do, by other posters. Others may be scared off by the some of the more radical and opinionated posters, and others may simply be too lazy to join up and start posting.

You are probably right.  Lurking is just so foreign to me that I find it hard to imagine doing it for a long time.  I can't even listen to talk shows because I find it almost painful not to add my opinion to the discussion. 

[FamilyRosary]

I have strong opinions on a lot of subjects too but I've put my foot in my mouth so many times I've learned to keep it shut.

Posting on this forum is kind of like going out on a limb for me.

[Jayne]

I've put my foot in my mouth many times too.  You must be a faster learner than me.   

[Heinrich]

I've put my foot in my mouth many times too.  You must be a faster learner than me.   

That's bad English. I hope your grammar students don't read 'dis.