The whole Matatics thing is sad and depressing. I have heard many of his tapes and he is undoubtedly a biblical expert and he is undoubtedly very bright and he is undoubtedly highly motivated - but to what end?
What does it profit a man to gain great biblical knowledge and, apparently, triumph over the Church and garner a great reputation as a "traditionalist" if in the process he loses his soul?
Among the extreme traditionalists there exists a limited, and limiting, understanding of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus (along the lines of Feenyism)which makes their own position vis a vis the Church so dangerous yet they never seem to dwell on that, or even notice it.
The problem appears, for many, to be in their Will, not their intellect. Arguements don't seem to penetrate their intellect. Probably only prayer can penetrate the Will - which, in many traditionalists, is zealously guarded by the sentinel of Pride. And so I pray for Mr. Matatics. What good works he could accomplish were he to put on the cincture of obedience and the sack cloth of penetential humility.
"What does it profit a man to gain great biblical knowledge and, apparently, triumph over the Church and garner a great reputation as a "traditionalist" if in the process he loses his soul?"
So Gerry Matatics has lost his soul, according to you? The sin of rash judgment and detraction can also be mortal. Perhaps an evaluation is in order???
Are you for real-blanketing the antisemitism label on those that hold fast to tradition and dont subscribe to the notion that those that reject our Lord as savior are on the same footing as we are? Just because one denounces one who denies our Lord-and did lead him to his death (I know all of the PC sanitized Vatican II version, and the "elder brother" line JPII threw out), but the fundamental fact is we are supposed to spread the good news of Christ and those that deny him-Can not and WILL not be saved. And there are those that are ZIONISTS to this day that hate anything that is Christian and if those who are traditional stand up to these people, and not bend over to them as the Novus Ordo do-are they "anti semitic"? No-they are courageous defenders of the faith, something the Novus Ordo know nothing about allowing sacrilige after sacrilige to take place. Sell our Lords body on e-bay? Sure why not. Communion in the hand? Sure why not. Kneel? Never!
It is the Novus Ordo who are full of pride and are the wolf in sheeps clothing. The traditionalist only practices Catholicism as it once was always taught and not a watered down version that is pleasing to these false faiths
God bless
Bingo. I know good trads who you can't even talk to on this issue. You bring up St. Emerentiana, the holy Martyr catechumen who was never baptized--"Oh, but she *must have been baptized* before death!! Someone must have done it before she died!"
*Sigh*. Very sad.
Very well stated. And worth repeating. There exists a *will* to schism among some of us, and that I find far far more insidious than any academic discussion on the validity of the New Mass.
It is a danger all we sons of Adam subject to, liberal and trad alike.