> "according to a leading Roman Catholic apologist,"
Leading? Give me a break. You are citing a blog in which your own post is making that accusation. You don't even bother to name him or state what qualifies him as a "leading" apologist. I expected better from you.<
I wish I could say that I expected better from you, but this is not the first time you have rashly mase a false accusation. It was not simply my post that is making those charges against JP2, but Robert Sungenis, who is named as the subject of the blog of the 2nd (dated) source link and whose name you would have seen if you had read it much, and in which you will seen the material from which i compiled my list.
And which blog provided the 1st link which i gave as the source, which was to a page of the authors web site, www.catholicintl.com, but which page is now dead. My error was assuming i also had actually listed the author myself, and not checking the link i had copied some time ago, to see if it was working.
But in the blog post you will see that Sungenis makes the following charges as one paragraph, which i list here by line for easier reading, and that the material corresponds to my list.
I didn’t invite pagans to pray to their false gods. I condemned it for the last 10 years in numerous articles and lectures.
I didn’t shuffle pedophiles and homosexuals from parish to parish. I wrote a plethora of papers against it.
I didn’t give them safe haven at the Vatican. I wrote several papers exposing the Vatican sin‐sanctuary.
I didn’t exonerate Luther and allow the Luther‐Catholic Joint Declaration, signed by a high‐ranking Cardinal, to explicitly state that “man is justified by faith alone.”
I wrote a book against it titled Not By Faith Alone that has a Catholic imprimatur.
I didn’t go against the tradition by putting women in leadership positions and dispensing with head coverings.
I wrote papers against it and sent them to the Vatican. I didn’t disobey the Fatima request to consecrate Russia.
I wrote papers exposing the cowardliness of the last few popes who disobeyed heaven on this point.
I didn’t protect Bishop Marcinkus and his entourage of financial hoodlums in the Vatican. I exposed it.
I didn’t accept the tenets of evolution. I exposed it for the fraud it is.
I didn’t make it appear as if God has given man universal salvation by using ambiguous language in my writings, and I never suggested that hell might not exist. I wrote papers saying that the Catholic Church has one task, which is to preach the Gospel of the Last Four things – the same Gospel our tradition preached.
I didn’t kiss the Koran,
or suggest that the Jews still have their Old Covenant,
or write a catechism that contained theological errors and ambiguities.
I didn’t change the canonization laws,
or the marriage laws,
or the capital punishment laws,
or laws about women’s roles,
or any law. I wrote papers showing that our tradition and our Scripture were against all of these novelties.
I didn’t watch scantily clad women dance while Mass was being said.
I didn’t marginalize and ignore the pleas of a bishop who was merely trying to preserve the tradition (Archbishop Levebre) but instead threw Assisi in his face.
I didn’t fail to excommunicate heretical bishops and priests who were spouting heresies. I decried their heresies.
These and many more aberrations happened by express order of John Paul II, yet Mr. Dejak condemns me for pointing them all out.
As this link is not working, and given your accusatory nature demonstrated in the past, you may charge that this is a fabrication. However, here http://www.catholicintl.com/index.php/component/content/article/54-pastoral/268-another-failed-attempt-to-defend-assisi-and-other-scandalous-events-in-the-pontificate-of-john-paul-ii- he says these or like things (my list on left compared with above source)
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1. Invited pagans to pray to their false gods. |
Whether it was kissing the Koran; |
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2. Looked the other way while his clerics raped his children, and ordained faggots to say his Masses |
praying with animists; |
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3. Shuffled pedophiles and homosexuals from parish to parish, even giving them safe haven at the Vatican. |
refusing to allow a statue of Our Lady at Assisi but allowing a Buddah statue; |
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4. Subjected those Catholic who dare protest to droning quotes from Vatican I and Lumen Gentium about “submission” |
discouraging Catholic proselytism toward other religions; |
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5. Watched scantily clad women dance while Mass was being said. |
praising Martin Luther as a great theologian but apologizing for past popes of the Inquisition; |
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6. Suggested that hell might not exist.
7. Suggested that the Jews still have their Old Covenant |
allowing a cardinal to sign the Lutheran/Catholic Joint Declaration that said “man is justified by faith alone;” |
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8. Kissed the Koran |
giving communion to non-Catholic politicians |
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9. Made it appear as if God has given man universal salvation by using ambiguous language in official writings |
harboring bishops involved in the pedophile scandal or ignoring accusations of pedophilia and homosexuality among his clerics; |
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10. Accepted the tenets of evolution. |
removing the excommunication of Masons from Canon Law; |
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11. Wrote a catechism that contained theological errors and ambiguities. |
saying the Old Covenant was never revoked; |
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12. Changed the canonization laws: marriage laws, capital punishment laws, laws about women’s roles. |
condoning the idea that Scripture contains historical errors; |
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13. Went against the tradition by putting women in leadership positions and dispensing with head coverings. |
having “holy” cow dung placed on his forehead in honor of the god Shiva; |
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14. Failed to excommunicate heretical bishops and priests who were spouting heresies. |
allowing Voodoo witch doctors and snake charmers to pray to their false gods; |
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15. Protected Bishop Marcinkus and his entourage of financial hoodlums in the Vatican. |
honoring the Dalai Lama; |
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16. Ignored the pleas of a bishop who was merely trying to preserve the tradition (Archbishop Levebre) |
wearing the religious garb of pagan religions; |
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17. Exonerated Luther |
downplaying traditional Marian doctrines and interpretations of Scripture applying to her; |
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18. Allowed the Luther‐Catholic Joint Declaration, signed by a high‐ranking Cardinal, to explicitly state that “man is justified by faith alone.” |
failing to consecrate Russia; |
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19. Disobeyed the Fatima request to consecrate Russia. — http://www.catholicintl.com/articles/Response%20to%20John%20Dejak%20of%20The%20Wanderer.pdf (now dead) http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2011/04/sungenis-alone.html |
seeking to redefine and lessen the primacy of the papacy for the sake of ecumenism; |
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having scantily clad women perform dances at his masses, etc., http://www.catholicintl.com/index.php/component/content/article/54-pastoral/268-another-failed-attempt-to-defend-assisi-and-other-scandalous-events-in-the-pontificate-of-john-paul-ii- |
Moreover, it is easy to establish that Sugenis made such attacks, and was known for so doing, and was defended by some but condemned by others for so doing. In regards to the debate between Sungenis and Mr. Dejak which is where the catalog of papal offenses appears, a leading Catholic web apologist, Dave Armstrong, in lamenting the radicalism of Sugenis, provides many of his words here http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2011/04/robert-sungenis-embraces-radtradism-and.html:
The sadder fact is there exists circumstantial evidence that he is personally culpable, either in allowing his bishops to shuffle incriminated priests from diocese to diocese or in the whisking away of these same bishops to the Vatican for safe haven (e.g., Cardinal Bernard Law who was given sanctuary at the Vatican before he could be prosecuted by the civil authorities in Boston). By and large, John Paul II seems to have turned a blind eye to the heinous sins occurring against little Catholic boys. The recent case of Fr. Marciel Maciel Degollado, patron of the Legionaires, speaks for itself. Maciel was a personal friend of the Holy Father, but had been molesting little boys for decades as well as fathering children from several different women. . . . While the homosexual/pedophile scandal was taking place on John Paul II’s moral doorstep, the promotion of what seemed to be raw paganism was occurring at his Assisi interreligious prayer meetings.
There are problems and excesses in almost every area John Paul II touched (his appointing of liberal and doctrinally suspect bishops; his novel Theology of the Body; his ambiguous statements in certain encyclicals that seem to lean toward universal salvation;
his tendency toward collegiality; his campaign against capital punishment by confusing it with the abortion issue; his promotion of the excesses of the charismatic movement; the perennial problems with World Youth Day, etc.). In the end, the only good things I am proud to say John Paul II accomplished was his resistance toward Liberation theology in the early 1980s; his stand against communism; and the writing of his apostolic letter in 1994, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which barred women from being priests. The world loved John Paul II, but it was not because he was heroically faithful to the Church’s tradition. They loved him because of his captivating charisma, but they know nothing about the moral and doctrinal problems that plagued the Church during his pontificate...
If you grasp all the deviant theological and moral aberrations of John Paul II listed above and end up calling me a “false prophet” for pointing them out, then the delusion is yours, not mine. I find it amusing that Mr. Dejak goes to “St. Paul” as his authority to condemn me, but wasn’t it St. Paul who upbraided Pope Peter for hypocrisy and perverting the Gospel (Galatians 2:11‐21)? Wasn’t it St. Paul who warned the leaders of the Church not to fall into idol worship and apostasy from the faith (1 Cor 10:1‐12; 3:1‐17; 2Thess 2:1‐11)? St. Paul is my model, not Mr. Dejak’s..
Unfortunately, from what we know of the modernistic tendencies in the theology of Karol Wojtyla, it is not unimaginable that he did accept the contents of the Koran as another means to God. . . . It’s not often that a person overtly denies the essentials of the faith, (provided we are agreed on what those “essentials” are). John Paul II did not come out and say “I deny the existence of God” or “I deny that Christ was God and man,” or anything of that material nature. Instead, he couched his language so that the meaning could often go either way. . . . This is just one small example of the same kinds of problems in many statements from John Paul II...
Not once in 26 years of speaking and writing did John Paul II tell these non-Christian adherents that they would be judged and sent to hell if they did not convert to Christianity. In fact, he suggested that hell may not even exist. That was “the faith” of John Paul II. . . . John Paul II was certainly a “great threat” but it wasn’t against the forces of evil and unbelief. More immorality and doctrinal confusion was unleashed in the pontificate of John Paul II than any other pope in history. . . .
The reality is, John Paul II was one of the worst popes we’ve ever had. Immorality is a terrible offense against God, but when that is compounded by a perversion of the Gospel, then the sins cry out to high heaven for judgment, and that judgment is coming very soon.
As regards Robert Sungenis being a “leading” Catholic apologist, that is a matter of debate depending on opinion of contemporary Internet apologists (that context being assumed), and what kind of Catholic you are, but he may at least be referred to as among the most well known by those who follow such as Hahn, Staples, Keating, Mattics, Shea, Akins, Armstrong, Madrid, etc. As one publishers promoted him, Patrick Madrid teams up with leading Catholic apologists Robert Sungenis and William Marshner... http://www.goodcathinfo.com/NoApologyApologetics.htm
He is the founder of The Bellarmine Report, renamed from the Bellarmine Theological Forum in 2011, and the president of CAI (Catholic Apologetics Int.) Publishing, and author of over 20 books.
However, like some RCs here, he increasingly felt that the reforms brought about by Vatican II were steps away from the traditional teachings and values of the Catholic church, and in the above blog post, (Nov. 2011) he stated that “I no longer consider myself an apologist for the modern Catholic Church. When compared to the Catholic Church of tradition, I have resolved that the modern Catholic Church will be required to stand on its own, for I simply cannot defend it any longer. There are simply too many doctrinal aberrations and moral laxities in today’s Catholic Church that are indefensible.”
He also is charge with having degenerated into anti-Semitism (he says he is against Zionism, but that he is not anti-semitic), and today is considered too radical, but nonetheless he is still popular and active in an SSPX type way, and can be said to be seen by many Trad RCs as a leading Catholic apologist for their cause.
