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Hello all,
I’ve been a home aloner for a bit now, here’s some of my story:
Obvious Rupture of New Versus Old
I grew up with the Vatican 2 church and was aware of how things were done “in the old days” and how the older generations acted, and I directly experienced problems that were created as a side effect of some of the “new” things Vatican 2 has allowed, tolerated, or promoted. The issues feel a bit personal as I have seen friends harmed by “theological negligence”, so to speak. For example a lot of the annulments which seem to probably be invalid have disrupted the lives of friends and have threatened the stability of their attempts to commit to marriages. The led me to question when things changed and why, as I noticed the contrast of how different things are today from the past.
Philosophy, Religion, Educational Establishments
At a young age I had some negative experiences in life which allowed me to be a little less interested in “worldly things” (failures, injuries, punishments, etc.) and I developed a some interest in philosophy and religion. I had considered becoming a religious or professor as a result. However with regard to schooling on the practical side, I think the internet has changed education and people can now learn and teach in other ways than through universities today. On the religious side, we have no Catholic universities. The religious life also had no clear path, with the modernist religious institutes seeming both deficient in academic achievement and soundness in religion. Then the “traditionalist” schools had their own set of problems, but ultimately were out because I adopted the home alone viewpoint (after having minor unfavorable experiences with them, but also a lot of the “drama” seemed off putting of different groups going back and forth).
Skepticism, Adopting And Exiting Progressivism
So as a teenager, I started to become skeptical about religion in general, because of conflicts with American culture and religion, hypocrisy of certain people (abuse scandals?), not being taught about other religions that exist and why Catholics don’t believe in them, and so on. So I started to drift towards progressive “Catholic” churches that adopted changes “in the spirit of Vatican 2” which I thought promoted freedom and intellectual skepticism. I found them to not be as free and to kind of take dogmatic viewpoints, just in a progressive direction. Eventually some friction developed where I thought I was supposed to follow certain rules that the progressives denied were necessary to follow or were silent about, causing practical problems for me. I started questioning what was going on and found the Dimond brothers’ material to start, then various “independent chapels”.
“Independent” Churches To Home Alone
I remember initially being unsure if they had the authority to set up “independent” churches but I didn’t know about the issue in greater detail. Geographically I also did not live near these places so it did not seem realistic to go to them frequently. By no means was this a straight path, I tried out going to multiple churches with different viewpoints based on my personal regional options – I tried to talk to a little of everyone to get ideas on which view might be right. I had some minor negative experiences paired with feeling like things were disorganized or lacking a lot of things, so I started to adopt the home alone view.
Questions About Conclavism
From the home alone position, I thought it seemed like we should be able to elect a pope. When I came in to “traditionalism”, I figured either there was a pope or they were in the process of electing one; I didn’t really know how things worked. I was surprised to learn the sedevacantist “clergy” had no such intention of electing anyone, as they view the Church as they see it as “too divided”. But the Church is united as one so I wasn’t persuaded by that argument. So I got interested in “pope” Michael’s viewpoint and conclavism, just like BetrayedCatholics also thought at one time that that would remedy the vacancy. “Home alone” felt like it was denying the Church has the ability to elect a pope for itself; it kind of felt dysfunctional like some of the previous options I tried, so I was thinking maybe we could have a fully functional “independent” church with our own pope. Kind of taking the “independent chapel” idea to a logical conclusion of creating a fully functional “independent” church.
I ultimately ended up rejecting that viewpoint because I think clergy descending from Pius XII need to confirm or participate in such an election. But I found “pope” Michael to have a lot of interesting book suggestions to check out, a genuine interest in the topics, a kindness and lack of “drama” that I experienced with other “trads”, and so on. Basically in my view he didn’t do much to manage people’s view of him that they simply thought he was “crazy”, while in my view he pretty rationally responded to a vacancy by trying to have a papal election. So I regard him as having been mistaken rather than necessarily “delusional”. Many people think “traditionalism” itself is “crazy”. They only thought he was “crazy” because they didn’t read his writing or look at any of his arguments and I think he could have communicated them a bit better. I guess I do feel a bit defensive of him as I felt he was treated unjustly, and we independently drew a lot of similar conclusions about things (while ultimately disagreeing about his claim to the papacy). He recently died which is a bit surprising to me as he was somewhat young, but had health issues I believe. He seems to have left no plan for the election of a successor, which brings some partial closure to this viewpoint for me. Otherwise I still have gone back and forth about the viability of conclavism, or home aloners electing a pope.
Future of Home Alone Catholics
But anyway I have otherwise been a home aloner for some time now after rejecting the “pope” Michael view. I am glad to see the viewpoint growing with this website, and with more people connecting about it. I’d like to see or create some things like suggestions for standardization of a “lifestyle” (rule of life?), the creation of educational resources (list of links to books?), and virtual or in person communities (this site or places around where we live?). Basically within the limitations we have, I would like to live as “normal” a life as we can. So anything I experienced within the Vatican 2 church, within reason, I often think of how I can adapt to this situation.
I hope I have made some of my experience clear of my influences and why I intend to write as I do. I’ve found it useful reading others’ experiences and thinking that “I had the same thought process”. It can be helpful to confirm that we’re not the only one who drew a certain conclusion, or had the same kind of suffering at times.
May God help us to deal with our unique position in Catholic history and to help each other.
Thank you again to the admin for opening up this new forum.
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Hello! I am Mrs. Robert Robbins. I’m usually busy homeschooling, changing diapers, nursing babies, making meals, and now working on writing for a website I plan to start up on homeschooling, but I hope to be on here every once in a while to keep up with the conversation!
I grew up Novus Ordo (pretty much without religion, yet going to church every Sunday). I became a lot more serious about religion when I met Robert, but didn’t know enough about the true Catholic Faith to know what was wrong with the NO. I read EWTN, Catholic Answers, Scott Hahn, Steven Ray, etc. thinking that I was truly learning about Catholicism. But, then our miracle happened and we started reading Lifesite News and started to discover just how bad the Novus Ordo was. After reading countless books and articles, I now feel strong in my faith and secure in my convictions.
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I should introduce myself, but people can get all they really need to know from my BIO page. Let me say this, though, as a reply to Mrs. Robert Robbins: I wouldn’t be Mr. Robert Robbins, nor Catholic, without Laura Robbins. She is the one who helped me onto the long road to conversion to the Faith of Christ. I am still converting everyday by the help of my helpmate and life-partner. It is easy to see God’s grace and work in our lives, as we grow in holiness and understanding through the virtues and graces of Holy Matrimony–a sacrament which is very much open to all, even Home Alone Catholics! Though we are hardheaded sinners both, God is good to us and gives us graces to bear with each other’s weaknesses and stupidity–mine’s the stupidity.
Love you, Mrs. Robert Robbins.
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