Fr. Brendon Laroche,  👻but a New Natural Lawyer 🎃

TL;DR: this kind of outreach can only be done on a personal level because an institutional project is inauthentic from the get-go.

If you’re a jock, be a jock. If you’re a nerd, be a nerd. Whatever. But be it while being a priest striving for holiness and they will see that this isn’t a scam. It’s a real thing that you’ve dedicated your life to. And many of them, MOST of them, will respect that.

In my experience, the most important key to working with this age group is being the priest who you are. They means striving to live your priesthood in holiness and truth. But it also means being the man you are, with all your own particular interests, hobbies etc.

And here’s the thing: this also helps me with the ones who AREN’T interested in these things. I might be a nerd, but I own it. I’m not faking it to “score points.” And so they can begin to “get” me and therefore trust me. I fit into their map of the social landscape.

So it has to come from a place of real interest. When I talk comics, or video games or whatever with kids, teenagers or young adults who are interested in these things, it works because I am honestly interested in these things. I might be behind the curve, but I’m not lying.

Why? Because young people can tell when you’re faking it and they experience that as unjust condescension. It’s the same way kids of a certain age feel condescended to when you use “baby talk” with them.

The Patriarch is kinda right here, but not entirely. In my experience, trying to speak to young people using “their language,” for lack of a better term, backfired as or more often than it doesn’t.

Kinda wanna do a thread with an honest response to this based upon my experience. So I’m gonna.https://twitter.com/catholicsat/status/1052168850022834176 …

>defend the consensus position of pre-V2 theologians >get called a modernist >mfw

How do I begin my vacation? 1. Late night anime binge? 2. Game unto the wee hours of the morning? 3. Read all night? 4. Argue in defense of the canonizations of saints to whom I have little to no particular personal devotion?

Reminder that Dante placed Pope Celestine V in Hell, but the Church canonized him as St. Peter Celestine. So maybe our personal opinions on the sanctity of Popes we think are bad can be lacking. Just a thought.

Or own up to being a sedevacantist, which would at least be an intellectually coherent position. Or continue committing blasphemy to own the libs. What’s the worth of your soul compared to scoring points on Twitter dot com.

This would be an error when solemnly instructing the whole Church with regard to morals. The Pope cannot make such an error. Therefore canonizations are infallible. Therefore your kvetching about any particular canonization is, at the very least, offensive to pious ears. Stop.

When the Pope canonizes someone he is stating that it is universally acceptable to venerate them because they possess the beatific vision, the fullness of divine life. If the Pope could be wrong in this, he would be commanding idolatry, the veneration of a creature qua creature.

As such, my suggestion today would be, if you aren’t willing to go full-on sedevacantist, maybe stop casting shade on the saints.

I’m of the opinion that canonizations are infallible, since in them a Pope solemnly declares that someone enjoys the beatific vision (faith) and that it is acceptable offer them public veneration (morals).