MennoNet.com

Bootstrap wrote:

lesterb wrote:

Bootstrap wrote:... It sounds like you are implying that I should mention, once, that I can't find any evidence that Plain Catholics exist, then leave it.

That would be the opposite extreme, I suppose. But I think that most people on the board feel that you have been running a vendetta against Max, at least at times. He can hardly make a statement without you jumping on him.

Along with that, I should say that there is reason for some of your concerns. But you've given those challenges so often that it tends to get just as tiresome as Max's constant insistence that the there are "Anabaptist" Catholics.

I don't want that either, of course. I'm trying to find the balance. And for me, finding that balance is hard.

lesterb wrote:I've met plain Catholics, but they weren't part of anything like Max talks about.

Did they call themselves plain Catholics? Can you say more?

They talked about raising their family to be modest and their daughters very clearly portrayed what goes with the term. But it was lower case plain not upper case Plain. It was a family conviction, not a movement, as far as I could tell. They went against what I thought I knew of Catholics, but we enjoyed visiting with them. But I doubt very much that it was anything official. We met them at a convention because they were homeschoolers and we went to a convention in Toronto in a large Catholic center because they wanted us to represent Rod and Staff there. At that point some Catholic schools used the Rod and Staff first and second grade curriculum, or parts of it. So we met other Catholics at those conventions. But other than this family, I don't remember anyone that was necessarily nonconformed. They were dressed tastefully, etc. But this one family even wore head covering as I recall.

It's been 20 years ago so my memory probably shouldn't be trusted totally. I could also note that it seemed more like a mother and daughters thing. The father wasn't along normally, even though they often had a stand at the conventions where they sold smaller items that they made as a family. But the father was at the convention they sponsored, and didn't appear any different from other Catholics.

I did get an email from a family in Drayton Valley, AB that Max had gotten me in contact with. But we didn't really stay in touch. I had no problem with what they said, but didn't really get to know them. They were younger, but I didn't follow through like I probably should have. Drayton Valley is too far to just run up there on a whim, or I would have probably gone to see them.

I should add that I've gotten along fine with Max the times that I did approach him personally. He even supplied me and another person on here with some of the credentials that he has refused to make public. However, they proved impossible to trace or verify. I don't think that Catholics in general believe some of the things Max has tried to tell us. I'm not sure why, and I'd be open to more communication with him on it.

Like I said, I haven't had a problem with him. I went to him privately about the pictures on his website and told him that from my perspective they were plagiarized. He knew the person who had done the site and told me that he would pass my concerns on. I didn't see any changes in the site as a result.

I know that Max is probably reading this! But I'd rather be upfront. My guess is that Max is at least as stubborn as you are, Boot. (Take that kindly, both of you!) So the more you questioned him the more determined he became. I wish Steve and I could sit down with the two of you sometime and try to iron this thing out, but its probably impossible, because of distance and cost. But I always think it's sad when these kind of relationship issues surface.

lesterb wrote:But other than this family, I don't remember anyone that was necessarily nonconformed. They were dressed tastefully, etc. But this one family even wore head covering as I recall.

There are definitely Catholics who wear head coverings and dress modestly - you can read plenty about that on Catholic Forums, and this was considered very important in the intentional community I was part of for 8 years, where 70% of the members were Catholic and 15% were Orthodox.

In the threads about Plain Catholics on Catholic Forums, the Catholics generally respond to the idea by talking about other ways of dressing modestly that don't say "I'm Amish", and are generally a bit puzzled by why a Catholic would wear Amish clothing.

As a new comer, I came on here to connect with Mennonites and would believe that most others do this too. Max is one person that has stated including in his signature that he is Catholic. One person is easy to ignore when someone that comes on here is looking to connect with Mennonites and learn.
However, Boot, when other peoples attention and posts are continued to be drawn towards Catholics it is distracting and discouraging.

Wade wrote:As a new comer, I came on here to connect with Mennonites and would believe that most others do this too. Max is one person that has stated including in his signature that he is Catholic. One person is easy to ignore when someone that comes on here is looking to connect with Mennonites and learn.
However, Boot, when other peoples attention and posts are continued to be drawn towards Catholics it is distracting and discouraging.

This latest controversy spun off via various claims made in the Swiss Brethren thread. I agree that the goal should be to keep the focus on our history and our culture and theology. Let me try to ignore those claims and make a fresh start here: http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=837

I hope we can focus on Swiss Brethren and modern Mennonites and Anabaptists in that thread. If need be, I may use a line like "let's not get distracted by exploring whether claims about Catholics or Plain Catholics are true, let's focus on ..."

Bootstrap wrote: "let's not get distracted by exploring whether claims about Catholics or Plain Catholics are true, let's focus on ..."

This is really good advice...