For work we use something called a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) that helps us manage prospective students. It creates "workflows" and "campaigns" so that the "customers" receive regular, templated correspondence to keep them engaged and provide information.
I am in the minority, but I have made the case to my higher ups that people can smell Spam and cookie-cutter emails from a mile away. I know I can, and when I quickly realize something is a mass mailing, I have learned to just disregard it because a) it isn't personalized; b) it's meant to be disregarded if it doesn't pertain to me personally and is trying to sell me on something; c) I don't want fancy borders and professional photography--I just want someone to be honest and not BS me. There are enough marketeers in the world trying to get you to swallow their schtick with slick PR. We live in a world of information and marketing saturation overload, and millennials especially weed out what they feel when they are being sold on something.
I relate all this because we're going through the same thing in the Church today. I don't want your spin. I don't want your press releases. I can smell your phony bs from here in Pennsylvania where we're dealing with the real fallout from this deception and abuse. The victims want the truth. I want the truth. And I'm not alone.
Good priests and bishops and those who care about truth are coming forth and self-sifting from the status-quo. They are honest and forthright in their preaching, their writing, and their humanness. Some have been hamstrung for years and are coming forth with what they know. Many have nothing to gain and may in fact incur suffering for it. All for the truth. We want to follow the truth wherever it leads, however much it might hurt, because if we don't have that in the Faith we have nothing.
I have to be honest, I am with Fr. Longenecker that I don't hold much if any hope of the Holy Father resigning, nor the Cardinals, nor the bishops implicated in this web of deception if it proves to be true. I really think they just want this to blow over, and people with power do not give up power voluntarily. We also are not liberal democrats, democratic socialists, or Antifa demonstrators looking to overthrow the heirarchy. We are Catholics rooted in the truth and we demand the truth, but the truth has a way of coming to the surface in its due season. It cannot be held down, it cannot be surpressed forever. Our Lord said "I am the way and the truth and the life." (Jn 14:6). Our Lord said, "You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32). Why then are we being fed this cookie-cutter crocodile tear slick PR deflection? Becuause those holding it hostage do not want the Truth to come up for air, but to die smothered under a pillow.
What does Paul say? Listen:
You can put the Truth in a tomb. You can seal it up and you can stand guard. But when you least expect it, that Truth will be resurrected in radiant glory and blinding light. One stone will not be left among another. We will know the Truth. And the Truth will set us free.
I am in the minority, but I have made the case to my higher ups that people can smell Spam and cookie-cutter emails from a mile away. I know I can, and when I quickly realize something is a mass mailing, I have learned to just disregard it because a) it isn't personalized; b) it's meant to be disregarded if it doesn't pertain to me personally and is trying to sell me on something; c) I don't want fancy borders and professional photography--I just want someone to be honest and not BS me. There are enough marketeers in the world trying to get you to swallow their schtick with slick PR. We live in a world of information and marketing saturation overload, and millennials especially weed out what they feel when they are being sold on something.
I relate all this because we're going through the same thing in the Church today. I don't want your spin. I don't want your press releases. I can smell your phony bs from here in Pennsylvania where we're dealing with the real fallout from this deception and abuse. The victims want the truth. I want the truth. And I'm not alone.
Good priests and bishops and those who care about truth are coming forth and self-sifting from the status-quo. They are honest and forthright in their preaching, their writing, and their humanness. Some have been hamstrung for years and are coming forth with what they know. Many have nothing to gain and may in fact incur suffering for it. All for the truth. We want to follow the truth wherever it leads, however much it might hurt, because if we don't have that in the Faith we have nothing.
I have to be honest, I am with Fr. Longenecker that I don't hold much if any hope of the Holy Father resigning, nor the Cardinals, nor the bishops implicated in this web of deception if it proves to be true. I really think they just want this to blow over, and people with power do not give up power voluntarily. We also are not liberal democrats, democratic socialists, or Antifa demonstrators looking to overthrow the heirarchy. We are Catholics rooted in the truth and we demand the truth, but the truth has a way of coming to the surface in its due season. It cannot be held down, it cannot be surpressed forever. Our Lord said "I am the way and the truth and the life." (Jn 14:6). Our Lord said, "You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32). Why then are we being fed this cookie-cutter crocodile tear slick PR deflection? Becuause those holding it hostage do not want the Truth to come up for air, but to die smothered under a pillow.
What does Paul say? Listen:
"Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. We will be gathered together to meet Him. But we ask you, Christian brothers, do not be troubled in mind or worried by the talk you hear. Some say that the Lord has already come. People may say that I wrote this in a letter or that a spirit told them. Do not let anyone fool you. For the Lord will not come again until many people turn away from God. Then the leader of those who break the law will come. He is the man of sin. He works against and puts himself above every kind of god that is worshiped. He will take his seat in the house of God and say that he himself is God. Do you not remember that while I was with you, I told you this? You know the power that is keeping the man of sin back now. The man of sin will come only when his time is ready. For the secret power of breaking the law is already at work in the world. But that secret power can only do so much until the One Who keeps back the man of sin is taken out of the way. Then this man of sin will come. The Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth. The coming of Christ will put an end to him. Satan will use this man of sin. He will have Satan’s power. He will do strange things and many powerful works that will be false. Those who are lost in sin will be fooled by the things he can do. They are lost in sin because they did not love the truth that would save them. For this reason, God will allow them to follow false teaching so they will believe a lie. They will all be guilty as they stand before God because they wanted to do what was wrong." (2 Thes 2:1-13)
You can put the Truth in a tomb. You can seal it up and you can stand guard. But when you least expect it, that Truth will be resurrected in radiant glory and blinding light. One stone will not be left among another. We will know the Truth. And the Truth will set us free.
OUTSTANDING. Sharing this widely!
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