I get lots of mail, some of it supportive, some of it, less than supportive.
This one is from an unsatisfied and yet cowardly, anonymous reader using a fake email address.
Why do you insist on covering up for all Francis’ heretical and blasphemous attacks on the true faith. You are no better than some 2 bit novus ordo cleric.
Spineless and very disappointing Fr Z. I will never recommend your site to anyone for your betrayal. You just go with the flow don’t you
To which I respond….
That’s right, I just go with the flow. I never go against the grain, or the current, or the tide, or whatever it is. I never write or do anything controversial or edgy. And, I admit, I do say the Novus Ordo. As a matter of fact I have said Mass with the Novus Ordo 3 times since… last October, I think.
What way to win me over to his side.
Then there’s this fellow, another fake email address, whom I suspect to be a reader of the Fishwrap judging from the comboxes over there:
Arrogant conservative **** ******
Really? Is that all you have?
This anonymous guy, another coward, fake email address, who reacted to my upholding the Church’s teaching about homosexuality:
*** YOU AND YOUR STINKING HATE FILLED SACK OF *** LIFE, YOU STINKING FILTHY MONSTER.
Then there are the types who send me photos of where I live.
On the other hand, I also get this sort of thing… and this was signed by the sender and sent from a real email address:
Fr. Z- just a quick note of thanks for what you do on this blog. I went to confession for the first time in 14 years yesterday, my marriage is being convalidated on Saturday, and my wife is being received into the Church on Sunday. The details are unimportant here, but your blog has played an influential role (along with others, Catholic radio, a couple of really, really good local priests, and of course–ultimately–the grace of God) in my journey home. Thank you for your vocation and for your eternal impact on my soul and my family.
I get more of this, by far, than the other kind. This sort of thing makes it all worth it.
UPDATE:
And then there is this!
I have been a long time reader of your blog and as of three weeks ago I am hooked on the Extraordinary form. I have been wanting to email you with a word of thanks and your recent post about the mail you often receive was the impetus to do so. There are a number of reasons why I was cautious about attending the Extraordinary form but eventually my curiosity won out, thanks in large part to the encouragement I received reading your blog. THANK YOU! I have never seen anything as beautiful as the Extraordinary form of Mass, save perhaps the first time I laid eyes on my children. There is no other way to describe how I feel other than astonished. Astonished that this gift has been hidden, astonished that it took me so long to find it. I felt myself transported to the time of Moses for the Asperges, than transported to Calvary before being taken up to glimpse Heaven. There are so many words to describe what took place and yet none that will suffice. Thank you for your vocation. Thank you for your work for the Kingdom. Thank you for leading me to the TLM.
My work here is done.
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It was my impression that you were fully 64-bit compatible.
[Well played!]
The best thing that I think I can say to you Father is that a young priest I know told me back when he was a seminarian that at his seminary the “young guys,” as he referred to the seminarians of his age cohort, all followed your blog. They found it a useful source of news and comment.
As a layman I also find it a useful source of news and comment on the Church. So let me just say thank you for all of the effort you put in. Not all evangelization happens in person. Not all ministry happens one-to-one or face to face either. I continue to hold you in my prayers. So once again. Thank You.
You’ll always get the haters. God love ’em.
Fr. Z., you are inspiring lots of people to go to confession. The devil hates this, and will inspire some to make foolish remarks or send threatening emails. You are doing the right thing. Thank you for your blog. I have you in my prayers. God Bless!
Isn’t it funny that the ones who accuse you of being “hate filled” use the most hateful language?
I always enjoy reading your hate mail, Father Z. Surely you are doing something (anything?) right. The opinions of priests and mothers are not much welcomed in our times are they.
Hey Father you helped me to get myself into the Confessional for the first time in 20 years and to keep going back regularly for the first time in my life. Thank you for that.
[Very cool. Thanks for that!]
I haven’t remembered to thank you lately for all that you do, your vocation, your defense of the Church and especially for this blog which has personally help me out tremendously over the past few years and has helped me to be a better catechist.
The old saying “You can please some of the people some of the time …” is as true today as it was when Abraham Lincoln first coined it. A wise person knows to neither ignore all public opinion and does whatever he wants, nor whimper or chase after every stray opinion, but instead builds his house upon the Rock of Christ, his Church, and his saints.
If they don’t condemn you (nothing in your writings warrant this), by what authority can these posers claim to condemn you?
Thanks Father. I’m regularly strengthened by realistic, but not grimly so writings on the Church.
Having my own blog, albeit related to Amateur Radio, I also get some nasty comments and e-mail, from time to time. I don’t mind the content so much as the lack of a name and/or e-mail from the complainer. You don’t like my opinion? Fine!
But at least have the cajones to include your name or an e-mail. Don’t knock on the door, throw in a stink bomb and then run away like a 5 year old. [Right. And then there are the voicemails left at my Skype numbers made with one of those machine/artificial voice gizmos. Puerile.]
Sometimes Melville’s Confidence-Man shows his true face.
Invite them for dinner!
Iacobus M wrote, “Isn’t it funny that the ones who accuse you of being “hate filled” use the most hateful language?”
That’s been my experience – especially with liberals/progressives.
See you at the range, Father. Perhaps we’ll run into some Swiss Guards there, too. [It would be fun to shoot with them. And, indeed, I need some range time. I got a .40 to 9mm conversion barrel for my Glock 22. I’d like to give it a spin.]
I love hate mail, it always picks me up when I need a laugh. Might I suggest a “Fr. Z’s Hate Mail Hall of Fame”?
If you’re not ploughing through flotsam, you’re not under way.
For physicians, oft times the on-line rating does not correlate with how good of a job you are doing for your patient, in that you tend to shade the truth to buff your rating.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaifalkenberg/2013/01/02/why-rating-your-doctor-is-bad-for-your-health/
Obviously the same applies to priests. Continue to tell your online flock what we need to know, not what we want to hear. Thanks for all you do.
Oh, how ironic those people accusing Father of “hate” are themselves so hateful. [The irony is pretty thick, isn’t it.]
Keep going Father, this German appreciates thy blog! :)
Father Z,
I thought the only time someone could enter the Church was at Easter.
My wife, raised a High Anglican, attends with me regularly, but as we are Snowbirds cannot attend RCIA.
Could you please explain when one can be Christened into the Church?
Thank you,
Alan.
[No, Easter is not the only time. People can be received into Holy Mother Church at any time. However, in most places people are forced into RCIA groups (even though most of them are already baptized) that aim at the Easter Vigil in the following year. However, private instruction and other options are also available. I, for example, had private instruction and then was received into the Church just before Christmas. My 1st Communion was at Midnight Mass.]
The hate mail is from their consciences’.
Just reading this strengthens me in my own life. I get “hate mail” all the time, and it causes me to wonder if I’m what they say I am – a hate monger, seriously calloused and wrong – just for living a Christian life.
Today is one of those days especially, when, in holding strong to what I know is right, I am facing a great deal of painful opposition. I feel reading this post of yours is God answering my prayers.
I am honestly sorry that you are getting that kind of mail, but it really helps me to know that I am not alone – or wrong. Thank you for standing up for what’s right and true, and for writing about it – including writing about what happens when you do!
You are in my prayers.
I always enjoy your blog, Father Z. There is a prudent edginess and catechises to your commentary which serves your readers well.
>>>Then there are the types who send me photos of where I live.
I hope you are turning these into the authorities to see if they can trace them down to who sent them.
I’ve been defriended on FB by two people that know me well, because I posted pro-marriage content. As Michael Voris says, “it is not charitable to hide the truth.”
I haven’t thanked you recently for all you do so I thought I’d thank you as well. :)
Keep up the good work Father Z!
Don’t let the puerile, infantile and unbalanced hate filled monsters get you down. [HA! Fat chance.]
Just keep going… you are doing more good then you know.
THANK YOU.
Thanks Fr. Z for your service to God and us. Also for your time to this blog which has deepened my faith. I learn a tremendous amount from you as well as your readers which is a good sign of the quality of this blog.
After years of hearing nothing but fluffy stuff that sent me out of the Church for 10 years, I appreciate that you tell the truth. You’ve helped me stick with it this time, and I don’t have a whole lot left, being in the chronological solution age group.
Father Z, I am a former Evangelical Pastor and musician. Three years ago while finishing my degree at seminary I had to take church history. This got my thinking about the Catholic Church. One of my papers in Seminary required me to visit a different denomination and was assigned the Catholic Church. I decided then that I would start reading and studying the Catholic Church from good Catholic sources. That is when I found your blog. I have been a faithful read for a couple of years now. You have been instrumental in building my faith. This past Easter my wife and I were received into full communion with the Church. Keep writing.
Fr. Z, what I love about your site is that you keep me grounded. I will never swing over to the left with the liberals, but I do have a tendency to swing over too much to the right and start listening to the sedevacantists. You restore my balance and sanity.
beati estis cum maledixerint vobis et persecuti vos fuerint et dixerint omne malum adversum vos mentientes propter me. gaudete et exultate quoniam merces vestra copiosa est in caelis sic enim persecuti sunt prophetas qui fuerunt ante vos.
Father. Thank you for your truly prophetic ministry. Ad multos annos.
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)
You’re in good company, Father.