Statement Regarding "Real Catholic TV" and its Name [Don't use the word "Catholic"]

The Church encourages the Christian faithful to promote or sustain a variety of apostolic undertakings but, nevertheless, prohibits any such undertaking from claiming the name Catholic without the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority (see canon 216 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law). For some time, the Archdiocese of Detroit has been in communication with Mr. Michael Voris and his media partner at Real Catholic TV regarding their prominent use of the word “Catholic” in identifying and promoting their public activities disseminated from the enterprise’s production facility in Ferndale, Michigan. The Archdiocese has informed Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV, RealCatholicTV.com, that it does not regard them as being authorized to use the word “Catholic” to identify or promote their public activities. Questions about this matter may be directed to the Archdiocese of Detroit, Department of Communications.

The Archdiocese is in the right about this. Even if Voris is a good guy, it is a matter of an implied affiliation.

There are several ways to deal with this. A simple Real TV for Catholics will do the trick. Or, don’t capitalize, and maintain that it is “real catholic tv” as in “universal”.

But yes, under these standards, both the National Catholic Register and the National Catholic Reporter should either have an official connection with the Church, or change the name.

For some time, the Archdiocese of Detroit has been in communication with Mr. Michael Voris and his media partner at Real Catholic TV regarding their prominent use of the word “Catholic” in identifying and promoting their public activities disseminated from the enterprise’s production facility in Ferndale, Michigan. The Archdiocese has informed Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV, RealCatholicTV.com, that it does not regard them as being authorized to use the word “Catholic” to identify or promote their public activities. Questions about this matter may be directed to the Archdiocese of Detroit, Department of Communications.

The phrase "Taliban" is still up for grabs, however.

What he means by web-based McCarthyism is what John L Allen (of the National Catholic Reporter) calls the “Catholic Taliban”.
Allen’s explanation of this term was recently spelled out to an audience at the University of Texas. It was necessary, Allen said, to strike “a balance between two extremes”. This is how he described these extremes:
“On the one extreme lies what my friend and colleague George Weigel correctly terms ‘Catholicism Lite’, meaning a watered-down, sold-out form of secularised religiosity, Catholic in name only. On the other is what I call ‘Taliban Catholicism’, meaning a distorted, angry form of the faith that knows only how to excoriate, condemn, and smash the TV sets of the modern world....
....Singled out for special attention was RealCatholicTV.com, which, accused the paper, is “hunting for ‘traitorous’ nuns, priests or bishops throughout the American Church”. “We’re no more engaged in a witch hunt than a doctor excising a cancer is engaged in a witch hunt,” said Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com and St Michael’s Media. “We’re just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith.”
-- from the thread Attacks build up on the ‘Taliban’ and the ‘McCarthyites’ of the Catholic blogosphere
Michael Voris is the favourite talking head of the Catholic Taliban, that motley crew of traditionalists who believe in way-out stuff like “abortion is evil” and “Jesus rose on the third day”. He runs his own online TV station in Michigan and has hair so unreal it could be miraculous....He became a viral sensation after he posted a video arguing that democracy had been corrupted by the stupidity of the voters.
-- from the thread America's conservative Catholics are on the warpath. Republicans should be courting them.

I’m glad that we don’t have to deal with this sort of muck in the Eastern Catholic eparchies.

The bishops have become excessively politicized and despiritualized in the years since Vatican II.

I know that’s why a lot of Roman Catholics attend our parishes.

My current parish is about 50 percent former Latin rite, including the pastor.

I praise God for people like Michael Voris, for not mincing his words.

Gotta agree with you. Better to have honest gadflies. Whether he is more abrasive than everyone likes, we are better off for having those more interested in the truth than gloss. The diocese of Detroit didn’t care for things said. I can understand that. On the other hand, what about, as others have mentioned, the National Catholic Fishwrap, whose pages aren’t fit to line birdcages? What about Nancy Pelosi and the other CINOs that get a pass all too often? Sibelius at HHS? I’ll take an honest man whose opinion I don’t always share over any of those, any day. At least he stays within the teachings of the Church.

And really, why did a Catholic Church, of Our Lord’s founding, have a marquis that said anything BUT Merry Christmas? That IS ridiculous.

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