The perception of the history of western christianity on here really fascinates me because there’s a direct line between medieval and contemporary catholicism—obviously, they’re the same thing—and yet many people with issues with the latter absolutely love the former. you can post ‘I wish I could be a medieval monk’ and get 100 gorillion people agreeing with you, but, like, okay, what’s stopping you? I’ve met benedictines in real life and I’m sure they’d love to have you. and yet, rightfully, most people wouldn’t be too keen on ‘so convert and take holy orders today right now’ as a response because at some point in history ‘the monk’ disconnects from ‘the catholic church’ for a lot of people. I think it has to do with the reformation #mytheory but I’m also not sure that enough people know enough about pre and post reformation religious orders for that to be a hard boundary and I’m not sure how you’d test it. just something I’ve noticed