As a former atheist and now studying for the priesthood I have run into many interesting characters in the Catholic Church. Online Catholicism is not any different. One will find all kinds of crazy egomaniacs who let power and envy get to them. I just saw in my Facebook inbox a message from Mallory Hoffman. He claimed that my posts were not in the "spirit of the Catholic Church." I found this odd because I have been in the group for years and have had no issue. In fact, many there have praised my posts and have even followed me on other networks.
I questioned why he felt my posts were not in the "Catholic spirit" and reminded him that I actually live and work for the Catholic Church and that he was insulting my intelligence. How can a layman question me about the Catholic spirit when I am a quasi-representative of the Catholic Church?? It makes no sense. I guess this hurt his pride and he removed me from the group. I immediately blocked him as I saw him typing via the inbox feature of Facebook which shows when another person is typing. He was clearly looking to insult me or start an argument. As a Catholic and mature adult, I try hard to avoid those scenarios. While I love to argue, I do not like to argue over trivial things. Argue science, philosophy, religion, politics, video games, books or sports yes, but not over silly things like what Mallory wanted to argue about. I am above that. This is his Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/malloryhoffman
Here is inbox. Notice my messages complaining about Mallory to other moderators on the left |
I messaged other moderators to see what they say. It is sad that some Catholics do not practice humility and let Satan control them. I even told Mallory that I would pray for him and advised him not to let Satan win his soul. Catholic laypeople who run groups on social media should have more respect for clergy, religious and seminarians who are on their networks.
I am not sure what is going on with Mallory; perhaps he was envious that my posts were garnering attention or maybe he felt using the group to boot seminarians gives him some false sense of power since in a real parish he has no authority? Who knows!? In any event, I write this to call attention to this vicious behavior so that others who engage in it or have experienced it realize that it is unbecoming of a Catholic Church. Not even the Catholic Church herself is excommunication-trigger happy, so to speak. We must be more mature and not overreactive and immature like Mallory who resorts to aggression rather than relying on Christian values to remedy a situation.
What Mallory Hoffman represents is not the spirit of the Catholic Church. It is pride and lack of charity. Hopefully, he will fight the demons in his life which may be responsible for his anger. Please pray for him and his soul.
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