Sunday, December 18, 2011

The NICE Catholic bloggers

I'm glad I'm not the only one with serious reservations about Patheos, the home of the Nice Catholic Bloggers.

Dymphna has mentioned it too, and in reference to a friend of ours here at O's P.
I can't stand Patheos. It's like the Borg on Star Trek. It takes fun bloggers and turns them into drones. Being with Patheos has completely ruined the once delightful Anchoress and I just hope that Crescat doesn't change.


Cat is in my baddest of bad books right now after she wrote this piece of drooling, self-congratulatory, politically correct drivel. It was certainly a sign to me that the Patheos spirit of NewChurch compromise has her brain in its death claw.

But she's still someone I respect and like a lot and I've told her many times that her move to Patheos was going to be a disaster.

So I'm going to reiterate my long-time list of Rules To Live By in NewChurch and Modernity, primary among which is

Never join anything.

followed in no particular order by

Abolish everything.

Never found, start, organise or volunteer for anything.

Never trust anything Catholic that is less than 500 years old.

You can't kill people to solve your problems.

Only the real counts.

Reality is conservative. (Thanks Mrs. Thatcher)

No temptation is so great that it can't be resisted by running away.

Old things are better than new things.

Contrary to what everyone thinks, it actually is sometimes too late.



~

15 comments:

Joe @ Defend Us In Battle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe @ Defend Us In Battle said...

Good list... although I don't have a problem with paid blogging, blog "groups" or anything of the sort.

Something about Patheos though...

I have two that I have had to institute locally, maybe it can be an addendum:

1. Sometimes nothing is better than 'something' - eg: "At least it's 'something'..."

2. Let the Dead bury their dead.

BillyHW said...

All you need to know about Patheos is that Mark Shea blogs there.

Ingemar said...

Mark Shea... Mark Shea...

sometimes I think of him as a hissy fit personified and given a terrible beard.

Steve T. said...

Um, I was giving serious thought to joining the Third Order of the Mercedarians. No good?

Mark said...

"Never trust anything Catholic that is less than 500 years old."

wow, I would of gone for anything less than 40 or 60 years old but 500?!? ;-)

Random question here: what do you think of Opus Dei? Any good, negative, weird, experiences with them while in Rome? They get a lot of bad rap from what I hear, but I've been recently approached to join and from what I could gather they appear pretty orthodox.

AMW said...

That's hilarious Mark, you don't get asked to join Opus Dei - from my experience it takes a LONG time of discernment and a lot of banging on doors to be allowed to join but I've certainly found my vocation with them and I'm very happy.

Don't think somehow that Hilary would approve, but there you go.

HJW said...

Appearances are deceptive and it is precisely in opposition to all of the "New Movements" that I installed the first four rules on the list.

Avoid Opus Dei particularly. You don't need what they are offering and especially don't need to get entangled in their agenda. Their appearance of orthodoxy is just that.

HJMW said...

AMW,

Opus Dei certainly does recruit, and very aggressively. If you or someone you know had those difficulties getting their attention it was probably because they were not interested in recruiting you. But if a person is perceived to be of some use to them, they will go after you like a bee to flowers. One of them sidled up to me with a lot of smarmy talk about my spiritual life once at a party. I caught the whiff right away and said, "Oh, are you recruiting for Opus Dei?" He jumped and looked like I had stuck him with a pin and spent the rest of the party assiduously avoiding me, while I stood at the buffet table eating the jumbo shrimp and loudly expounded on why Opus Dei and all the "New Movements" are a sign of the collapse of the Church.

berenike said...

So the bunch of people helping out our poor parishioners should fold if the PP won't pay them?

Anonymous said...

I hate to be the one to break it to you, AMW, but just because *you* had to bang on doors... - Karen

AMW said...

Ok Hilary, whatever.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the things that drives me batty about "new movements" and associated foolishness. Because people are frightened of hierarchy, and when you get right down to it are pretty much levelling egalitarians inside, through what are more or less unconscious and automatic processes. the reality that some people are more important than others gets hidden behind a lot of democratic dreck. Catholics lie to themselves that we do this because we do at least separate the clerical from the lay, but the real and necessary discrimination of persons can't ever be up front and clear, it has to get hidden which leads to abuses or at the very least hurt feelings. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED HOW THIS PLAYS OUT IN HOMESCHOOLING. - Karen

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, a few items on the list are a bit problematic:

* Never trust anything Catholic that is less than 500 years old.

So no Council of Trent or Vatican I or Little Flower or G. K. Chesterton or Cardinal Newman or Thomas Aquinas as a Doctor of the Church? No unified Latin liturgy either (so local variations are okay...even California variations)? But the early writings of Erasmus are okay?

* Reality is conservative. (Thanks Mrs. Thatcher)

Not quite. As G. K. Chesterton (who is younger than 500 years;-] ) pointed out, Reality is neither conservative not liberal. It just happens that conservatives these days are more in touch with reality than liberals, but keep in mind that conservatives are a bit more likely to violate some items on your list (such as the death penalty and encouraging volunteerism rather than have government funding).

* No temptation is so great that it can't be resisted by running away.

Including the temptation of cowardice? :-)

* Old things are better than new things.

Even babies? :-)

Anonymous said...

Mark,

If sadomasochistic practices (having to whip your buttocks once a week, wear spikes around your leg for hours, having to turn over your paycheck and not be told what will happen with your money, etc.) become you, you can't go wrong with the path you're mulling.

-Zoe