u/Dagoth_uriel

I want to preface by saying that I deeply appreciate this Subreddit’s existence, and all the efforts made by the mod team and all the thoughtful contributors. This place has greatly helped me grow in my faith, and I enjoy the differing perspectives from a diverse amount of people.

I do, however, feel compelled to talk about a strange overreaching sentiment that seems to pervade in online Catholic circles, and in this sub in general. Everything seems to skew very much towards legalism and rigidity, almost to the extreme. A lot of people on this sub seem almost obsessed with sin and its consequences, to the point that it isn’t surprising that we see so much despair and scrupulosity - another phenomenon I don’t see nearly as much in the “real world”.

It’s also concerning that we as a collective seem to exhibit a level of tribalism, and view “outsiders”, ie protestants, non-Christians, and atheists as untrustworthy strangers, rather than fellow children of God. In this vein, the constant obsession over the “liturgy wars” is quite tiring. Liturgy is of course very, very important, but the amount of mental energy dedicated to it here borders on the excessive, especially when compared to the amount of attention it gets outside of the internet. It gets to the point of a lack of charity and even borders on disobedience in bad case.

I’ve had the great privilege of belonging to multiple different parishes, and knowing different priests and religious whose views range from progressive to more traditional. There seems to be such a disconnect in all that I’ve seen between the way Catholicism is taught and practiced in the “real world” versus what it looks like in this sub, or other online places. I’m curious what you all think. Do you notice this too? Do you see it as some sort of issue, and if you do is there anything that can be done to address it?

God bless all of you.

Share your best (fun and good natured) jokes that only a Catholic would understand. I’ll start:

-What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?

-Sometimes it’s possible to negotiate with a terrorist