FAQ

Questions readers have asked, with my best attempts at answers. If yours isn't here, please write to me and ask.

Faith ⁊ the Church

Are you Roman Catholic?

I was received into the Roman Catholic Church on September 20th, 2025, receiving baptism, confirmation, first communion, and the anointing of the sick within a single hour. I am grateful to Rome for my initiation into the Christian faith and her mysteries, but after an experience I'd rather not go into, I began to explore independent expressions of Catholicism. By formally adhering to schism as a member of the Independent Catholic movement, I am excommunicated latae sententiae.

Why remain an Independent Catholic instead of returning to Rome, or becoming Protestant?

I remain an Independent Catholic because it is the tradition closest to what I understand to be the message, theology, and practice of Christianity. I oppose Vatican I, and I find the Papacy's infallible ex cathedra proclamations of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary to be obstacles to ecumenism, and, at least in the case of the former, fundamentally incompatible with an Eastern hamartiology. Further, I was initiated and catechized into the Latin Rite of the universal Church, and I am Nicene, Chalcedonian, episcopal, and Franciscan in my spirituality. I believe in the real sacramental presence of the Eucharist; I believe in Marian apparitions; I believe in the communion of the saints.

I find the Mass of Paul VI a beautiful expression of the Apostolic liturgy, though admittedly I align more with the 'Reform of the Reform' interpretation of the Novus Ordo, and with the restoration of, if nothing else, the proclamation of the Last Gospel. I have no shortage of love and affection for Catholicism, including Roman Catholicism, and I love the Pope. I consider myself something like an Anglo-Papalist in an Old Catholic context: an 'Utrechtian Papalist,' if you will.

As for why I don't simply become Protestant, given that I am not in visible communion with the Pope, the reason is simple: I am Catholic, not Protestant. Though I feel kinship with the via media approach of Anglicanism and the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Methodism, my theology is Catholic through and through, and I find it lamentable that the entire epistemology, ontology, and teleology of Catholicism should be reduced to a single issue: Ultramontanism.

Are you a priest or clergy?

No, I am not a member of the clergy, nor a theologian, nor am I presenting myself as either. I am just a laywoman reading the Bible, engaging with the tradition of the saints and the writings of biblical scholars, while attempting to use my God-given capacity to reason to understand the will of the Spirit and the letter of the law.

What gives you standing to write about theology?

I don't write about theology; I write theologoumena. Everything I post is my personal theological opinion rather than the Church's official teaching. None of what I say here is intended as dogma. Take what you agree with and toss the rest. My goal is not to catechize my readers, but to offer y'all some food for thought and share some reflections on how I've come to see truth.

Do these views speak for your churches, or only for you?

My views speak for me, and me alone. And depending on how much time has elapsed, it is possible they no longer do even that.

Do you believe non-Catholics, or non-Christians, can be saved?

Absolutely! The great commandments are to love God and to love one another. We are not commanded to have all the right theology, to attend Church every week, to say the right prayers, or to never doubt. We are commanded to love.

Politics ⁊ Economy

What are your politics?

I am broadly on what's considered the historic and modern political left, with a streak of the radical center. We need fundamental reform of our institutions, but change is built through affirmation rather than negation, and we cannot afford to be wedded to any particular brand, faction, school, ideology, or -ism. In the end, the Sermon on the Mount is the only manifesto I need. The Manifesto's ideal is a high-trust society, where every neighbor is a friend, the person is irreducible, and a state of justice is ruled according to a higher law of love.

I am a child of the Renaissance in my commitments: liberty as non-domination, self-government, the rule of law, the common good, civic virtue and participation, popular sovereignty, and mixed government. I am also a child of the Enlightenment, committed to representative democracy with multiple viable political parties and universal suffrage; to the separation of powers into distinct branches of government, including an independent judiciary; to the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society; and to state-guaranteed protections for the human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms of legally equal citizens. And I am finally a child of Modernism: a wayfarer searching for the metaphysical center even as we experience its collapse, witnessing the death of the old world as the new struggles to be born.

Aren't you just dressing your politics up in religion?

No. It is impossible to fully separate politics and religion, mine or anyone else's, and they're mutually reinforcing; the dialectic is never resolved, it just continues to spirate.

Me ⁊ the Writing

Is "Ruby" your real name?

Yes and no. My friends call me Ruby, so in the way that matters most, it is.

Why is the blog called Coinherence?

Coinherence is the most concise way to describe my worldview and my goal. We are embedded in a web of webs, but every node of that web remains a unique and irreducible person: totally united, totally unique, and totally unrepeatable. You can read more here.

What will I actually find here, and who is this for?

You will find here an assortment of jotted scrawls from a sinner and a fool, on a variety of topics. It is for everyone and no one, but principally it is for me.

How do your faith and the Rocky Horror shadowcasting world go together?

An important part of Christianity is seeing that our species and our world are damaged, and yet both are still beautiful, not just in spite of that damage but in part because of it. Our resurrected bodies keep their scars and imperfections, but perfected and glorified, like kintsugi. The message of Rocky Horror is similar, and the parallels run deeper: there is a shared liturgical character between the Church and shadowcasting, and both have their origins in misfit counterculture. For me, there's no contradiction.

What's with all the Latin?

I like Latin.

Florilegium ⁊ Marginalia: Florilegium literally means a gathering of flowers, and metaphorically a collection of the choicest extracts and excerpts; marginalia are the notes and comments jotted in the margins of a manuscript. The masterpieces and the sketches, so to speak.

Avē, viātor, et pāx tēcum: Hail, traveler, and peace be with you.

Nōli timēre tenebrās nam artifex sōlem dēpingit: Fear not the darkness, for the artist paints the sun.

Practical

Can I share, quote, or translate your writing?

Please do! All the writings in this digital library are offered under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Feel welcome to share them, quote them, translate them, and build upon them, provided you credit the source, do not sell them, and keep your own version as freely open as this one. Ideas are meant to be held in common!

Can I write to you?

Yes! You can write to me at [email protected]

Can I send physical mail to you?

Not at this time. In the future I might get a PO box for readers to send things to.

Do you read what readers send?

I do my best to read every letter a reader sends, and I appreciate your feedback more than words can say!