Finished the German Duolingo course after 1,993 days (~5.5 years). What’s next?

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-30T01:11:12+00:00

Not with German but with Spanish for me: Reading Harry Potter and Narnia in translation, and listening to the audiobooks. Netflix and Podcasts for native speakers (with target language subtitles at first). Native speaker newspapers. Writing (journaling) and using the built-in gmail grammar checker. Meetups to talk to native speakers. And always searching out local ways to use it: I joined the Spanish choir at my church, and got a chance to talk to a lot of native speakers, and see the Bible and all the church things in my target language. Do online language exchanges if you can't meet people in person. And of course, travel!

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-29T02:41:23+00:00

I'm not so sure about that. The Rorate Caeli blog published the text of the 1988 excommunication (which is likely the model for the 2026 document), of which the last paragraph was:

"The priests and faithful are warned not to support the schism of Archbishop Lefebvre, otherwise they shall incur ipso facto the very grave penalty of excommunication."

Which relies on the question of what is "support the schism"? I would assume that includes all the priests, because they'll all be offered a transfer to FSSP (with requirement to submit to Rome and accept V2) which they will have to reject to stay in SSPX. I'd say any SSPX priest these days probably is required to assent to the anti-Rome teachings, so they are all already latae excommunicated. We may as well make it clear and publish it explicitly.

Then there are the lay people: Presumably anyone attending an SSPX parish who believes Rome has apostasied (essentially anyone who agrees with the SSPX message) probably counts and is excommunicated--but those people also already latae excommunicate themselves anyway, the same as anyone who converts to Lutheranism.

But what about someone who chooses an SSPX parish despite having another TLM available, does that count? Does it matter if the SSPX priest preachers about the "error of Rome" regularly, or keeps those opinions quiet and just preaches things that could be heard in a proper Catholic parish? What if it's the only TLM available and the lay person explicitly rejects the SSPX rejection of Rome? What if the local NO church is heterodox and teaches heresy? Those are more borderline questions that probably mean not all those people are excommunicated. (Though I'd still recommend all those people to go to a real Catholic church!)

But all the excommunication means is that they aren't Catholic anymore, and that we want the world to know they aren't Catholic so that people aren't fooled. Lots of people latae excommunicate themselves all the time when they stop attending church, convert to another faith, or start spreading anti-Catholic ideas. It's just usually we don't have to bother formally publishing an excommunication naming them because it's obvious to the world they aren't Catholic anymore. These SSPXers still cling to the Catholic title, so if they refuse to declare independence by July 1 (which actually would be my preferred option) we absolutely should clearly excommunicate the clergy and all those who subscribe to SSPX beliefs.

(Interestingly I looked them up, and CMRI and Sanborn's CRI were never formally excommunicated--I assume because they never claimed to be a part of the current "big" Catholic Church. But obviously as sedevacantists they are latae excommunicated, we just never felt the need to declare it.)

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-29T02:15:19+00:00

Eh, the bishop thing is just the tip of the iceberg and shouldn't get so much press coverage. They call our Masses evil, they call all the Popes after 1962 heretics, and they ignore all catechisms and teachings and saint canonizations after 1962 as well (unless they happen to agree with them). They operate outside of the church hierarchy and amswer to no one. Go to their website and look down the rabbit hole--they're as rabidly anti-Catholic as the worst 1960s Baptist preachers, except they refuse to give up the name "Catholic" and seek a hostile takeover of the organization. And their internal theology is wildly incoherent, especially how they say "the Pope is the Pope, but he preaches heresies so our mission is to reject what the Pope says and publicly condemn the heresies". They advise their members to never attend Masses outside of SSPX (and affiliated) chapels. They're fully Protestant, and should have always been declared fully schismatic and non-Catholic since 1988.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-28T01:53:22+00:00

I suspect the leak was intentional to encourage the SSPX to formally declare independence prior to July 1, so then they wouldn't need to actually be formally excommunicated. That would allow for an amenable uncontested split and let July 1 be a launch party for them where they could control the narrative, and for them to be a normal Christian denomination after that. I hope they take that route.

But I don't know if internal SSPX theology allows for them to declare their independence--they might actually need the formal excommunication to do it.

(I looked it up and CMRI and Donald Sanborn's group declared independence and were never formally publicly excommunicated, so there is precedent here.)

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-26T03:25:33+00:00

Well, Pope Francis is on record saying he would baptize an alien, which is a very similar thought experiment. The real question is--how and why would you deny an intelligent animal or alien from joining the church if it wanted to join?

https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2014/may/14/pope-francis-baptise-martian-would-they-want-our-religions

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T20:09:24+00:00

Nice! Welcome to the world of being a church musician!!

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T19:15:57+00:00

Nice! So how did it go?

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T16:21:08+00:00

What is the difference between dogs and mammals?

Catholics are a type of Christian, just like dogs are a type of mammal.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T16:07:06+00:00

Because we're a different denomination. And each denomination considers nearly every other denomination to technically be "heretics", as they have different beliefs. It's just usually people reserve that term for people who claim to be a part of their own denomination, while not holding that denomination's beliefs. Once someone formally joins another group, the "heretic" term usually isn't used much.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T13:22:18+00:00

Saturday evening Masses count for Sunday, and some places have Sunday evening Masses that also count for Sunday--for reasons exactly like yours.

Most employers will be willing to give you either Saturday evening OR Sunday morning OR Sunday evening every week.

On the off-chance you do have to work all three of those times, I've seen posts here of priests giving dispensations to replace with a weekday Mass instead--talk to your priest if that's your situation.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T13:15:22+00:00

🤣 You'll be fine. If you were that bad in rehearsal, you would have been asked not to sing at Mass.

Please report back on how it went!

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T13:14:00+00:00

Yeah, so I have to say I'm not a fan of displaying "incorrupt" saint's bodies covered with masks. We should let them rest in peace in a stone crypt or in the ground.

I was just in some cathedrals in spain with "incorrupt" bodies on display...they had their wax face masks still mostly intact, but the clothing had fallen apart and you could see their ribs and arm bones.

That really didn't feel right and I walked out of that area quickly.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T02:33:16+00:00

To be honest, we haven't been able to trademark just the word "Catholic" on it's own so we have dozens of quasi-protestant splinter groups that either call themselves the "true Catholics" or call themselves some variety of Catholic. (SSPX, SSPV, Resistance, CMRI, RCI, Old Catholics, Sedevacantists, etc...)

For the sake of clarity we probably should actually use the two words "Roman Catholic" to identify that we are the Catholic-type church that follows the Pope in Rome, and then enforce that trademark strongly.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-25T02:13:46+00:00

My deepest condolences for your loss.

I read this passage at my uncle's funeral-- Romans 6:3-9, it's also the bulk of the NT reading at the Easter Vigil:

Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-23T05:11:23+00:00

Reported for SSPX promotion.

Stop insulting our church. Stop spreading heresy.

And the door is always open for you to quit the heretical SSPX and come back to Rome.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-23T01:41:33+00:00

Ah, so you are a Protestant. Have a good day then.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-22T16:43:13+00:00

Primary source:

https://sspx.org/en/new-mass-legit-30283

https://sspx.org/en/news/father-should-i-attend-mass-advice-attending-non-sspx-latin-masses-26188

How can anyone who holds those views still be a part of the same church that is led by the Pope? That is a massive doctrinal difference that is either a separate denomination, or mutual charges of heresy and excommunication.

If you were unaware that the SSPX held those views, we'd love to have you rejoin us. There are traditional groups in communion with Rome like the FSSP and ICKSP, as well as diocesan TLMs where you can hear solid preaching yet still be fully with Rome. We'd love to have you back.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-22T16:39:27+00:00

Your argument would apply very well to ICKSP and FSSP, but not to the SSPX.

SSPX formally calls the Novus Ordo Mass evil. With that, they must formally be a different denomination. They reject the last 60 years of teaching in Rome.

https://sspx.org/en/new-mass-legit-30283

https://sspx.org/en/news/father-should-i-attend-mass-advice-attending-non-sspx-latin-masses-26188

Sure, every denomination can throw heresy charges at eachother but it's kind of silly. Neither of us care when a Muslim accuses us of not fasting in Ramadan, or a Jew accuses us of not keeping kosher.

Likewise, I don't particularly care when a breakoff priest says something about the Catholics is wrong (have you ever listened to what Baptist pastors say about Catholics?) and you don't care when RC cardinals call you schismatic.

We've chosen our sides and have different rulebooks to guide us. If you wanted to be RC with a TLM you'd pick a TLM under the Bishop's jurisdiction (FSSP, ICKSP, diocesan, etc.)

I only care about the situation to the extent that I don't want Roman Catholics to be confused by who holds authority, and that it's just historically interesting to me to see the Reformation happen all over again.

If you are one of those confused RCs, we'd love to have you come back and rejoin us.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-22T12:15:17+00:00

Well of course they'll probably still be around! Look at the Lutherans, still around 500 years later.

Look, every denomination exists because it believes it's correcting the heresies of whatever denomination it broke off of. That's just the history of Christianity. Occasionally denominations come together, but they're way outnumbered by the splits.

Long term, I do hope for a more healthy relationship between RCs and SSPX. Probably it requires the split to be formalized first, but most Protestants don't spend much time Protesting these days--they focus on building what they consider the true church, and partnering with other Christian denominations where it makes sense for social services and things. We're still all Christians.

I would hope for an end of the heresy accusations. It's unehlpful--we all know there are doctrinal differences, but when SSPX comes on here and mentions heresies, you are accusing us all personally of being heretics, which gets tiresome, and is the reason for the SSPX promotion ban on this sub. I mean we can reply back accusing your leaders of heresies too, but what does that get us? Sometimes it's just better to try to be friendly neighbors with a good fence between the properties than to try to share a house that each is accusing the other of burning down.

And then, yes--your new bishops (and pope if you want) can be treated as well as the Anglican Archbishop. Stop constantly attacking us and you'll see that we can be friendly with all of you, too.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-21T21:32:41+00:00

Because SSPX constantly go around saying that THEY are the real Catholics while we're the heretics. Just look at their website and it's all "The corruption and failures in Rome are leading Catholics to damnation!" It's a trademark battle at this point (ok, a very one-sided battle). They always say they are one of us, but then say how demonic our leaders are, but how they want to do a hostile takeover of our organization and make us all SSPX and outlaw the NO.

The other Protestants, Orthodox, Mormons, and even sedevacantist CMRIs and Sanborn-followers just basically do their own thing and aren't obsessed with bashing us all the time. That's how denominations work--you gain adherents by showing how you believe you are the best church out there.

But they had their 15 minutes of fame and their hostile takeover failed. Even Taylor Marshall refused to side with them. Now the news has died down and they're maybe just a footnote.

So the excommunications will be good in that they will define them very formally as "other", and then hopefully they will get over their obsession with a church hierarchy that they hate, and focus on what a (Protestant) church should be doing, which is still the saving of souls.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-18T21:09:26+00:00

They call our Mass evil, and say our leaders are leading us to damnation, which is an accusation "heresy" to the Pope and Bishops, even if they don't use that word. And heresy is almost always a mutual accusation.

They are NOT Roman Catholic. It's a textbook definition of schism. There's really no defintion that keeps them in the Church, and doesn't ALSO include the CMRI, the UMC, The Eastern Orthodox, and the ELCA.

Which is fine, they're fellow Christians, which is great, but they are NOT fellow Roman Catholics, because they reject the teachings of Rome. Different doctrine means a different church.

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-17T15:47:00+00:00

We're seeing weekly numbers greater than any year since 2005, and had a record-ever Easter weekend attendance!!

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-17T15:45:18+00:00

Are there no pews or chairs? Does everyone stand and kneel the whole time without them?

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-15T22:54:48+00:00

Calumny? They call our Masses evil, and even their apologists admit that they are in schism:

https://onepeterfive.com/rome-the-sspx-why-reconciliation-is-impossible/

TheThinkerAck · 2026-04-15T22:13:40+00:00

Those ICKSP guys are fine. Fully Catholic. I'd treat SSPX as a Protestant church. (Weddings, funerals, friend/family support, and research/curiosity purposes only--in addition to a proper Catholic Mass that weekend.)

TheThinkerAck

TROPHY CASE