Well Bro. Andre Marie:

With your new policy I’m sure my comments will no longer be posted, no matter what they are. In fact, I’m sure that my comments are probably what prompted your new policy. Interestingly enough, many of my comments were not in the “naughty” category, and yet no response to them was ever made.

In any event, your website is no different than any other religious website. You simply can’t deal with any criticism of the Roman Catholic Church in general, or your brand of it in particular. The more educated and literate the comments are the less you like it. In any event, your new rules have only proved what I thought in the first place. Anyone who writes a comment must agree with you. Instead of directly telling individuals you like or don’t like what they have said you come up with the new rules. This is what I expected from religious autocrats. You have proved my point.

I’m sure that in the future I will see nothing but adoring comments telling you how great your website etc. is. I think what really set you off were my comments on Joseph and Mary. Instead of reasoning it out, all you really did was throw doctrine at me. I’m sure you won’t miss me. However, I do want to thank you for proving my point that religion really is a racket. Actually, “racket” applies more to Protestant outfits. The RC Church is more like the Mafia.

Fair enough. I am looking forward to reading your new article. I WILL REFRAIN FROM REFERRING TO YOU WITH THE WORD THAT STARTS WITH AN “A” I’m with you completely on Rule #4, but don’t completely agree with the others. However, I will abide by them.

With that said, Rules #1 and #3 are understandable in the light of the fact that you are, after all, a Roman Catholic organization. I will really have to watch myself carefully on Rule #2. There are all too many groups out there that really are “rackets” of the worst type, and in my opinion they deserve to be bashed. But, I will try to control myself. I do apologize for my comment on RC and Mafia. That comment on my part really was not nice.

In any event, thanks for responding and being up front. I will moderate my own comments in the future. I think I know where you stand now. However, I really do think that some of the comments that are posted tend to be on the “adoring” side. They tend to be sincere, and are “sweet” and all that but just don’t say very much. In other words they do little to stimulate the intellect.

Finally, I look forward to a much improved relationship with your website in the future. Thanks again for being up front.

Dear Br. Andre,

Perhaps you can turn comments off on certain or many articles so that you do not have to spend a lot of time going over each and every comment. Other blogs have this policy and have closed comments on many of their threads. Of course, I do not know how many comments you get and if it is a manageable amount, but that is just my two cents. You may also save yourself from having to read some probably obscene and disgusting language which the Internet certainly is full of and you will have time for writing some more of your educational material.

Hi, Br. Andre,
I love your rules and hope for peaceful dialogs with others on here.
Julie

Let me add just one more thing and then I will “rest my case.” Instead of being overly sensitive to the comments of non-Catholics and others, an open forum (with rules) might help greatly to show others that you are not a hate group.

Don’t forget that you are still on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group list along with Neo-Nazis and Aryan Supremacy groups. That is the real insult, and not some Protestant saying something to the effect that they don’t believe the Pope is always right etc. etc. Or my saying that I think some saint is nutty.

Otherwise, you will continue to be presented to the public as “Radical” Traditional Catholics, and allow yourselves to be fitted into the category with some semi-literate, animalistic (evolution might be true,) dimwits with tatoos, in and out of prison, who don’t even know the name of the current Pope. Of course I am “bashing” those people. Do they deserve to be presented as misguided people who are really sweet underneath all those tatoos and bulging muscles? Maybe you can’t “bash” them but I can.

On that somewhat unhappy note, reconsider what I have said. Again, you are still on the SPLC list, and I really believe that a forum with non-Catholics, non-believers and others would be beneficial for your cause.

Thanks for your consideration, and again, I rest my case. Thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I get the message which is, if I understand it correctly, that you prefer comments by Catholics. That’s understandable. I believe we started out “talking” to each other around April 2009. It has certainly not been dull. I take my leave, and wish you good luck.

Dear Brother Andre Marie:

Thanks. Sounds like an offer I should not refuse, which means I’ll have to keep posting on your web site. I can assure you that in the future I will play by the rules.

With that said, I have a question. I know that Father Francis Talbot (a Jesuit) wrote the definitive biographies on the 17th Century Jesuit Martyrs, Jesuit Fathers Isaac Jogues and Jean Brebeuf. I believe both of these priests are now Saints, along with six others. Quite frankly, if anyone deserves to be a saint these two and the others certainly do. In fact, I have not met any Protestants who don’t admire the Jesuits in the movie “The Mission.” Of course that was in Paraguay in the 18th Century. Most Protestants don’t know much about the Jesuits in French Canada in the 17th Century. There is a novel and a movie about that called “Black Robe” but I don’t think it depicts the lone Jesuit in that film in a very good light.

I guess my point here is that Catholic missionaries were already at work in the New World before the Pilgrim’s landed at Plymouth Rock. By comparison, the Calvinists (in my opinion) failed to missionize the Indians, and in fact sowed discord among them, and prepared the way for future enmity between Native Americans and later pioneers. In fact, my understanding is that the only person the tribes of the U.S. trusted in the 19th Century was another Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Pierre de Smet.

With that long winded comment, can you tell me where I can get a copy of Fr. Talbot’s biography on Saint Jean Brebeuf? I believe it is titled “Saint Among the Hurons.” I know that his biography on Saint Isaac Jogues (“Saint Among Savages”) is available through Ignatius Books, but I still want to read both books.

Thanks for your help, and thanks again for your patience.

Sincerely,Cordially, and Respectfully

Ray Sifdol

Thanks for your generosity on the loan offer. Also thanks for your prompt reply, because I know you are busy. I really appreciate it. I don’t know why I did not think of this before, but I’m going to try the inter-library loan system before I bother you anymore. But just in case, I’m glad you have it, and you can be sure that if I borrowed it from you I would return it.

Thanks again.

Sincerely, Ray Sifdol