Posted on 12/13/2010 6:53:26 AM PST by mlizzy
November 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) The internet has provided a means for orthodox Catholics to skirt or otherwise defeat the blockading of an orthodox voice in Western media, said Michael Voris, creator and public face of RealCatholicTV, an internet-based apologetics organization, in an interview with the Associated Press this week.
APs Rachel Zoll quoted John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the liberal National Catholic Reporter, who has coined the term Taliban Catholic to describe orthodox Catholics who insist that the Catholic Churchs hierarchy and administration toe the line of authentic Catholic teaching, especially on life and family issues. Liberal critics such as Allen suggest that these lay pioneers of internet-based alternative media are stepping out of line, attempting to purge dissenters from the Church [which is overloaded with self-excommunicated dissenters].
But Michael Voris told LifeSiteNews.com today that he and his colleagues, as well as a handful of other groups like Austrias Gloria TV, are doing only what they are called to do by virtue of their baptism.
He told Rachel Zoll, Were no more engaged in a witch hunt than a doctor excising a cancer .... Were just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith.
Michael Voris started his career in mainstream television, and after a conversion, started St. Michaels Media, and then RealCatholicTV as a means of spreading Catholic teaching in a Church that he says has given up doing so at the official level. [So say we all!]
He told LSN, We move on the assumption that the vast majority of adult Catholics simply dont know their faith because it never was presented to them. They might have a piece of it here or there, but for the most part they dont understand 90 per cent. They havent been taught.
Voris spoke of his work, from its start just two years ago. We have a circulation that would make any diocesan newspaper envious. When a video has finished its run on Youtube, its been seen maybe 15,000 times.
My hope is that this large group is able to tune in and say I never heard that before.
The project is starting to bear fruit in conversions and reversions to the faith. Voris says that his office constantly receives emails, phone calls and letters from viewers who say they have learned more about the Catholic faith from his work than they ever did from the often very liberal official Church in especially most English speaking nations and Europe.
But his intention has never been to exclude or purge anyone. A bunch of people who want to be dissenters arent going to like it, he said. But its not our goal to squeeze anyone out.
Voris was not so gentle about the Catholic hierarchy, however: Bishops are a different story from the laity who arent catechized.
The current disaster in the Church is the fault of the bishops and the priests who have failed to teach the faith. Lay Catholics must realize that in many cases theyre not hearing the fullness of the truth. And thats the bishops fault. They need to be called out.
Bishops in many nations, he said, have refused to say uncomfortable things about birth control or homosexuality. He pointed to the current move in several parts of the Catholic world to reduce the number of days outside of Sundays that Catholics are under a serious obligation to attend Mass.
The constant stream, the constant message, is that being Catholic is fourth or fifth on the list of importance in life.
The work of groups like RealCatholicTV garnered criticism from Terrence C. Donilon, the spokesman for the archdiocese of Boston, who told AP, The lack of civility is very disturbing. [Can it compare with loss of civilization?]
This accusation of a lack of civility or a lack of charity is becoming common for Catholic officialdom to level at Catholic internet activists. It was reiterated in 2009 by a member of the Vaticans Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
During a Vatican-sponsored conference in Rome last year, Fr. Thomas Rosica, the head of Canadas Salt and Light Television, suggested the creation of some sort of framework or guidelines for bloggers and other internet sites that are pressing for a greater emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy from Church leaders and institutions. There has to be some form of oversight provided by the Church, Rosica said. [First we locate and identify the Church!]
A similar suggestion of authoritarian, top-down control was also made in the UK by the Catholic bishops where a small group of bloggers, made up mainly of ordinary diocesan priests, lay students and housewives, has been a thorn in the side of a hierarchy heavily dominated by the left.
Last June Bishop Gabino Zavala, the head of the U.S. bishops conference communications committee, said that there is consistent agreement between bishops that the orthodox Catholic blogs and websites are most alarming.
We are particularly concerned about blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language. We are very troubled by blogs and other elements of media that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church. Such actions shatter the communion of the Church that we hold so precious. [A replacement for the Communion of Saints, in which we are one with our forebears?]
Those involved in the alternative Catholic media projects say they expect opposition to grow the more they increase their influence in the Church and secular politics through savvy use of the internet.
The Taliban Catholic term was leveled recently by the UKs Austen Ivereigh against the head of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, John Smeaton, who is considered one of the most effective pro-life leaders in the world.
Ivereigh, in the lead-up to the visit of Benedict XVI to Britain, launched a media liaison project that he said would present a more reasoned, measured Catholic voice to media commentators. In an interview, Ivereigh said he had received applications from Taliban Catholics but had weeded them out.
Voris, however, noted the irony of the liberals accusing orthodox Catholics of a lack of charity by calling them members of the murderous Islamic Taliban.
When we say that a person, a public figure, is not living the faith, were saying something accurate about what he is [not] doing. But calling faithful Catholics the Taliban because they want the bishops to be more faithful is a straightforward slur. [Dont knock it! Its high time our detractors were straightforward.]
Were not blowing up buildings, were not murdering women or cutting peoples heads off. Its just an insult, said Voris. [While they revile us they waste no time on reasoned argument. Possible conclusion? Like impossibility?]
[emphasis mine]
Yes, that’s it ... the dead opossum.
Holocaust denier ... yipes!
As to his style, there’s an audience for all different sorts.
Whoa! That’s the real deal and not a rug, right?
Not referring to the possum. :)
Not referring to the possum. :)
possum=opossum
I don't think it's a rug. Looks like he has a nice thick patch on the back of his head, but is bald on top. He must grow the back long, and styles it up over the top to look like there's hair up there. It ain't working.
No hair:
Some hair:
Some hair:
Too much hair:
He looks like a bizarrely gone-to-seed William Shatner.
No guinea pigs or opossums were harmed in the making of this thread.
Rabbit Pelt hair!
No cute bunnies were harmed in the making of this thread.
I had a another friend who was bald on top. One day I said good bye. And the next day he walks in with a full head of hair. After a while he did look better. But what a change in attitude.
I hear there are special farms where they grow the pelts used for Traficant's hairpiece.
That is a big rabbit.
Hairpieces can look okay in “real life,” but they almost always look fake under tv-lighting conditions.
Imagine the size of the pancake!
The size of a large pizza ;-).
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