Posted on 04/07/2011 9:45:42 PM PDT by verdugo
In this discussion I will not employ such terms as "traditionalist," "conservative" or "neo Catholic" to distinguish different "strains" of Catholicism in the post conciliar Church. As useful as such terms may have been in the past, the ecclesial crisis has advanced to the point where one must speak frankly of who is, and who is not, adhering to the Roman Catholic religion in its integrity. This is also necessary because the proponents of New Church have not hesitated to render judgments on the Catholicity of those who have held fast to Tradition during this crisis, denouncing these faithful Catholics simply because they will not embrace the unheard of novelties of the past forty years.
For the good of the Church, this absurd situation must be corrected. As Holy Scripture warns us: "Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." For too long EWTN and other "mainstream" aiders and abettors of the post conciliar revolution have been allowed to adorn themselves with the cloak of respectability, while they impugn faithful Catholics who defend Tradition and refuse to follow them down the path of compromise. The cloak must come off so that the truth about these people can be revealed not for their disgrace, but for their own good and, above all else, for the good of the Church.
For as I will demonstrate here, whether or not they understand subjectively that they are Modernists, this is what EWTN and the other post conciliar purveyors of novelty are, objectively speaking. It is, therefore, they, not traditional Roman Catholics, who are theologically suspect. It is they, as the evidence to be presented here will prove, who are advancing novelties that are objectively contrary to the Faith, sacrilegious, scandalous and even offensive to good morals. It is their "new" version of Catholicism, not the perennial practice of the Faith, that ought to be condemned. It is the proponents of New Church, not the adherents of the Catholic Church of all time, who should be examined for their views.
Let me emphasize at the outset that this entire discussion presumes, for the sake of charity, that those responsible for EWTN's Modernist content do not subjectively intend to depart from the Faith. They may even think in their distorted view of the situation – a view which leads them to condemn faithful Roman Catholics as I extreme traditionalists" that they are actually defending the Faith. Some may even possess that state of mind Our Lord warned His disciples would be that of the Pharisees: "yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth a service to God." (John 16:2) But if they are acting in good faith or out of blindness at present, they will have no excuse for continuing in their course of conduct once they consider (or if they refuse to consider) with an open mind the evidence presented here in this book; and they will no longer be entitled to the presumption that they do not understand that they are promoting Modernism.
In any case, justice, the good of the Church and the good of souls demand that Catholics who are only endeavoring to practice the Faith without alteration not allow themselves to be framed by the accusation, so often leveled by EWTN and other New Church organs, that they are "extreme traditionalists," "disobedient" and even "schismatic." It is time for the accusers, not the accused, to stand trial. For as the evidence will show, it is the accusers, not the accused, who are implicated in the collapse of faith and discipline in the Church since Vatican II.
This book is divided into three parts. In Part I, I lay the groundwork for an understanding of the current crisis in the Church, which the late John Paul II described as "a silent apostasy." I show that this crisis is essentially a resurgence of the Modernist heresy condemned by Pope St. Pius X early in the twentieth century a heresy that seeks to alter the very meaning of Catholic doctrine and dogma according to a process of "evolution," to overturn the Church's dogmatic faith and liturgical tradition, to attack the very identity of the Church, and indeed to destroy the very concept of objective truth itself. Others have referred to this process as a "creeping apostasy," which by slow degrees induces Catholics to accept corruptions of the true Faith under the pretense of authentic Catholic teaching "updated" for the times. This, we will see, is the dominant tendency of EWTN's content. In Part II, I discuss in considerable detail EWTN's role in contributing to this Modernist crisis since Mother Angelica's coerced departure. The evidence will show:
First, that EWTN promotes, defends and advances the "New Mass" and all the other "officially" approved reforms" of the liturgy which have broken with Tradition in precisely the ways demanded by the Protestant rebels of the sixteenth century, and practically destroyed Catholic worship and Eucharistic faith over the past forty years, as even high ranking Cardinals have admitted;
Second, that EWTN has, under the guise of a "new understanding" of Catholic dogma since Vatican II, helped to undermine Catholic adherence to (a) the infallibly defined dogma that outside the Roman Catholic Church no one can be saved; (b) the closely related constant teaching of the Roman Pontiffs that the only means of achieving Christian unity is the return of the Protestant and schismatic dissidents to the Catholic Church; and (c) the abolition of the Old Covenant in favor of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus, and the consequent objective necessity of Jewish conversion for the salvation of the Jews; Third, that EWTN has promoted and encouraged a Judaizing tendency in the Church not unlike that which confronted the original Jewish Apostles in the first century;
Fourth, that EWTN has excused, defended and promoted sacrilege in Catholic holy places in the name of "interreligious dialogue";
Fifth, that EWTN is contributing to a tendency to replace Roman Catholicism with a common denominator natural religion that deemphasizes adherence to revealed truth as necessary for salvation;
Sixth, that EWTN has advocated a senseless and unCatholic quasi idolatry of the Pope's person that does a grave disservice to the Pope, his office and the Faith;
Seventh, that EWTN is leading the destruction of the traditional Rosary;
Eighth, that EWTN promotes a cult of sexual Gnosticism and "Natural Family Planning" (NFP);
Ninth, that EWTN has generally corrupted the Faith by trying to combine it with rock music and show business in a vain effort to make Catholicism "cool" (EWTN's own word) and appealing to the base instincts of a mass audience;
Tenth, that EWTN attacks and attempts to ostracize from the Church the defenders of Roman Catholic Tradition, and especially those, such as Father Nicholas Gruner, who defend the traditional Catholic understanding of the Message of Fatima and its prophetic relation to the crisis in the Church.
In short, I will show that post Mother Angelica EWTN has become a "moderate" (and therefore more dangerous) Modernist enterprise that presents a corruption of authentic Roman Catholicism passed off as solid orthodoxy, and that as such EWTN is now a serious and highly insidious threat to the integrity of the Faith and a major obstacle to the restoration of the Catholic Church.
In Part III, I will sum up the case against EWTN and New Church in general, in the context of the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI as his successor. And, to conclude, I will suggest ways in which we members of the lay faithful can, with the Message of Fatima in view, work according to our stations in life for an end to the ecclesial crisis over which New Church (including EWTN) presides.
WARNING:
You might like to see what has gone on before.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2697701/posts
I am Catholic, and IMHO, ANY religion on TV is going to be corrupted. With most, it’s about money. With some, it’s about doctrine. But with all, it’s about control.
Need your input.
In this the poster is all hat and no cattle.
I love rock music, but not in church. I always hated the folk masses back in the ‘70s. I was an altar boy and always tried to avoid serving at folk masses.
Church was for worship; I happily went home to listen to Pink Floyd and Boston.
IMO, it was about Catholicism until Mother Angelica hung it up.
BWAHAAAHAAAHAA!!!
Did try to at least read this, but there’s so much wrong with it, I lost it at objection eight.
I strongly recommend that the author acquaint himself with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Surely, it violates copyright law to publish an entire book, still under copyright, section by section.
I dunno about EWTN, but fwiw, verdugo is either a sedevacantist, sspxer, or something of that sort.
Not by any traditional Catholics I know!
Thanks for the heads up.
Not sure what you mean, since I can’t imagine EWTN would ever have rock music in a church or other liturgical setting.
Please don’t trash the SSPX like that. I strongly disagree with them, and recognize a high portion of them to be nutjobs, but there are some sincere Catholics among them, who do not deserve to be lumped in with the sedevacantists.
SSPX recognizes the legitimacy of Pope john Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, unlike Verdugo.
So, when does your line of Popes end? 1958 or 1963?
Relatively new on FR and alien to your bono fidis, I can say that my own first impression is that your tone is one of pomp and very little circumstance. You are I take it hawking sections of your book? EWTN is a marvelous purveyor of conversions. My own for sure, but somewhere in your piece of work I missed your own fruits of harvest, given your fine perch, I was surprised, as well as left wondering that in my life time will you produce a point.
I’m not aware of how I was trashing the SSPX. I was simply saying that a particular poster may be a member of it. If I remember correctly, verdugo said on another thread that he was married in an SSPX chapel.
I just don’t accept the charges being made. I often listen to EWTN in the car. Half of the time they are praying the rosary on the air. How much more Catholic do you want?
Promoting gnosticism? Really????
Just posting my experiences from the Age of Aquarius.
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