“Through a certain indiscreet zeal they [spiritual beginners] become angry over the sins of others, reprove these others, and sometimes even feel the impulse to do so angrily, which in fact they occasionally do, setting themselves up as lords of virtue. All such conduct is contrary to spiritual meekness.” ~ St. John of the Cross.
I fell into this trap myself. In 1999, when the Lord saved me from the gay lifestyle and porn, my conversion was lighting fast – similar to St. Paul being struck off his horse. Feverishly, and with little humility, foresight, or guidance, I rushed from one Catholic devotion to another; one parish to another; and to one missionary priest to another. Finally, I settled somewhat down in a Latin Mass community. Although the priest was extraordinary kind and open to me being around him, I became rather intransigent and uncharitable in my judgments of others: the priest at that parish is too liberal; or that priest doesn’t know how to offer the Mass correctly; or that person is very irreverent in church. I became an incredibly ugly person. When I rushed off to join a secluded religious community on the East Coast, though they knew little of my past, the small group of faithful that attended our services were less than welcoming. When they found out I was a recent returning Catholic, that had attended UC Berkeley, they immediately looked upon me with suspicion. Now, I knew just how closed minded and judgmental I had become. When I came back to California, I returned to the same Latin Mass community I had been attending. The parish had grown, but so had the vitriol. I went back a few times, then never returned.
In my experience, people who revert to the Church, after a prolonged period of wandering, or those who have a conversion towards a more orthodox interpretation of Catholicism tend to become rather reactionary and hypercritical. They foster a bunker mentality of “true” Catholicism versus the bastardized liberal majority. They become clickish, looking with cynicism on outsiders and newcomers, and endlessly bash the reported heresies and sacrilegious actions of certain bishops and priests. They spew particular amounts of venom towards lapsed Catholics, liberals of any sort, and homosexuals. I often heard condemnation towards these groups, but never a prayer offered in their names. What I ended up doing was switching to a parish, with a far less beautiful liturgy, but little to no gossiping before and after Mass. For, when I go to Mass, I am there to worship the Lord. I have made the conscious decision to focus in on my own personal faults and shortcomings: pray for the Lord’s guidance, depend upon His strength, and Love those who are still lost within the mire of ignorance and sin. Because, the Lord has helped me to see who I once was – in the faces of the perverse, the proud, the confused, the outcast, and the obscene. How can I be less charitable towards them, than the Lord was towards me?