Apparently Church Militant finds my comments problematic because lately they just keep removing them or editing them to keep the parts they like and remove the parts they don't like. Go figure. Here's how it happened...
First, on July 5th with their "SSPX Superior Isn't Primarily Seeking Reunion with the Catholic Church" article. There were only about 8 comments last I had checked and left the following comments (which were removed and then the comments area closed completely). I left this comment:
A Church Militant moderator responded...
so I responded with...
The EWTN article is HERE. And then they shut down the comments and removed all comments. I truly have no idea what happened there. Church Militant didn't leave any explanation on their website, so it's any one's guess. Second Incident
Now today, I left a comment to another person on the Church Militant website in the "Rome Be Damned" Vortex area, about Fatima and the Consecration to Russia. Here is the exchange...
To be clear, my comment was about the Consecration not being done properly, hence Sr. Lucy saying it was not done right 3 times! More on that coming up. I then commented...
To which the Church Militant moderator responded to me...
And this comment:
To which I responded in an honest attempt to explain myself further and not offend anyone...
Apparently not liking that response Church Militant responded by this comment...
(**Just a little side note here on "causing doubts". I find this a bit ironic because of all the "doubts" caused by the "off-the-cuff" statements made by the pope (which EWTN addressed and Michael Voris rebuked them for), yet I have not yet heard CM say a word about those doubts caused by the pope to the laity. No concern for the confusion among the laity when its caused by the pope? I don't understand that, I really don't.)
...and then they edited my entire long comment above to these two sentences-which I guess they liked ;)
:) LOL That's really a far cry from my original comment that goes into detail using the links they provided to explain myself! I told Church Militant that editing my comment in such a way was deceitful and to please remove my comment completely. They did.
So, I still really don't understand what I did wrong or who I was causing "to doubt" when I quoted the EWTN link provide BY Church Militant. *shrug* That said, I don't want to trash talk the good folks at Church Militant. We are all in the same boat and we all want the same thing for our Church, we just have a different approached. This isn't a punch CM in the nose post, its just me having my FULL say on what happened here on my own blog, because Church Militant won't allow me that privilege (it's not my right- which the moderators will be quick to remind you) on their site. So there it is, make of it what you want.
As is my custom, I watched today's episode of Church Militant's 'The Vortex' and found myself talking back to Michael on my computer screen (I do that with the television too) and really getting sort of ticked off with him.
He was dashing my hopes and dreams of a pope who has any influence at all in righting this ship. What *I* got out of today's Vortex (and I do hope others found something more encouraging) is "it ain't in the pope's power to fix the Church so don't bother hoping in this pope-or any pope in the future because the power is all with the Bishops. The pope has zero authority, influence or ability to fix the problems in our Church."
How freaking depressing! I gotta say, I felt the hope get sucked right out of me listening to today's Vortex. I'm sure that isn't what Mr. Voris intended but there it is.
The Vortex began with Mr. Voris once more scolding Catholic bloggers (and EWTN) who say anything negative about the pope's statements that too often cause chaos and confusion among the laity.
quote: "The problem any pope faces, has faced or will face for the foreseeable future is that no matter what he does or doesn't do, the spirit of disobedience and rebellion rampant in the ecclesiastical ranks isn't going anywhere. The danger of always pointing to Rome, always saying the Pope is a heretic, the Pope is confusing, the Pope is this, the Pope is that, is that the Pope isn't the problem — just an easy target. When outfits like EWTN start talking about confusing things the Pope is saying, the question needs to be asked: Where have you been all these years when hundreds of bishops have let the Church deteriorate and rot on the vine? Is that just a case of chest pounding to act all tough now because they have tested the winds and realize that their audience doesn't like some of what the Pope says?"
Seemingly, Mr. Voris wants to put all the blame on the Bishops and tell us that no matter how much a pope tries, he simply can not control these bad Bishops and the Church will forever be corrupted because no pope can get the Bishops under control.
Horsehockey!
I simply REFUSE to believe that. And I am NOT placing the blame alone on our current pope. Any pope who won't TRY or attempt to stand up against evil or corruption in the Church SHOULD be called out and put on the spot. The Pope is our shepherd, we are the flock.
Right now the flock are walking around with little to no direction because THIS pope is rambling on about climate change and turning off air conditioning, while Bishops fight for immigration reform with nations, priests attend gay pride parades selling "who am I to judge" t-shirts and nuns work for birth control and abortion. What the hell is that all about?
Don't tell me the pope has NO authority to do anything! Sorry Michael, I do not buy that. I won't believe that. To allow myself to believe that would be to fall into despair and hopelessness.
The fact is we need a STRICT BY THE BOOK pope who ENFORCES the Faith. If a Cardinal/Bishop shows any sort of wavering in the faith or rebellion he is removed from his position for a time(give 'em a chance to repent), and sent to uncomfortable accommodations (somewhere hot with no AC -that the pope is so concerned about- no more plush accommodations) and given ONE shot to make it right, if he refuses he is EXCOMMUNICATED PUBLICLY for the scandal he may have caused. Do that to a few dozen Bishops and see what happens!
There is NO reason for THIS pope to continually remove good authentic Cardinals/Bishops from prominent positions in the Church and replace them with Cardinals/Bishops who hold heretical progressive beliefs (and Michael knows who they are he talks about them all the time on his shows) other than those are the types of men the current pope wants in leadership positions.
Michael paints a picture of popes waving the white flag to corrupt Bishops and saying "Oh well, they win, I lose, game over!" What sort of mentality is that for a Catholic to hold?
Voris goes on to say:
quote: "What if the Pope came out tomorrow and said no more Holy Communion in the hand, no more altar girls, no more heretics speaking at the L.A. Archdiocese Religious Education Conference, no more cardinals leading parades with gays, no more horrible catechesis being taught in schools (provided he would even know any of this) — what if he came out and did all this? Do you really think your local bishop in your local diocese, or the national conferences of Catholic bishops in all sorts of countries, would give it the slightest attention?"
Yes! What if?
Imagine that! A pope being pope!
What if only a quarter of the worlds Cardinals/Bishops did as the Pope said? Would that not be an improvement? A turn in the right direction? Why can't the pope-any pope(current or future) say these things?
And let's dream bigger! What if HALF the Bishops in the world insisted on Holy Communion on the tongue, no more altar girls, no more heretics speaking at any institute with the name "Catholic" in it? What if?
Is it too much to dream of half the Bishops in the world listening to the pope if he said those things? Let's take it back to the early Church.
If it's too hard to think that we can't find half, then how about a dozen faithful Cardinals and Bishops in the Church who would listen to the pope and do as he says? Would not even the number of the Apostles have an effect on the Church? But of course it would! Look what the Apostles were able to do!
I truly don't understand Mr. Voris today. What he seemed to be saying is we can't even have the hope of "what if" because all hope is lost if you place it in a pope to fix things, because no one will listen to the pope. That is the message I received from watching The Vortex today and I am pretty sure that wasn't the message Mr. Voris was trying to send.
Any pope doing the Will of God can do anything...even if he only has Twelve faithful men listening to him. I truly believe that and I hold hope in that.
Voris has declined to say anything publicly about this pope, but I know he and his staff aren't blind to the shuffling of authentic Cardinals and Bishops with liberal progressive Cardinals and Bishops so that the heretical Cardinals/Bishops are in positions of power. They've reported these changes at Church Militant. And they know it happened and is happening under the authority of this pope.
Pope Francis (and all popes) has the authority to place Cardinals and Bishops where ever he wants and he decides what sort of Cardinals and Bishops he wants in what places.
He has the authority to decide the focus of his papacy...saving souls...saving the planet...converting sinners or leaving them where they are.
The pope is responsible for the direction the Church is taking right now, under this papacy based on his decisions. The direction we have seen thus far is progressive- that is why the world adores him so much. The overwhelming message the world has heard from Pope Francis is mainly global warming and 'who am I to judge'.
He has chosen a more progressive and liberal leaning Church, and to accomplish that he has demoted more orthodox conservative Cardinals/Bishops and replaced them with progressives.
That is how this pope has chosen to lead the Church and laity along with the Bishops, who are following his lead as they work diligently to fight global warming and reform immigration laws around the world. They are following our popes lead, so clearly the Bishops ARE listening to Pope Francis.
The problem is not that Pope Francis is our pope. The problem is we have a pope who is leading us in a war against global warming and immigration reform while telling the world he does not wish to convert people to the Catholic faith.
The Bishops are hearing that message loud and clear and like good little soldiers following the lead set before them by Pope Francis.
We can't ignore the facts.
Michael asks, 'what if'?
Yes, Michael, what if the message were different? How many would follow? Half? A quarter? Only a dozen faithful men?
That of course that is her prerogative but not specifically what I am calling attention to in this post.
Instead, I am commenting on what Catholic in Brooklyn wrote in her comment area of yesterday's post about (of course) Michael Voris.
Mary the author of Catholic in Brooklyn declares on her blog that if you disagree with Voris "he will be the first to tell you" that "you are not a faithful Catholic and probably on your way to hell" -what? Does anyone actually believe this slander?
She is dead wrong and she's gone too far.
How do I know this? Because I have and sometimes do disagree with Voris and write about my disagreements on this blog (here and here) yet I am fairly sure from my emails with some of the folks at Church Militant TV that they haven't judged me as an unfaithful Catholic or on my way to hell.
How can 'Catholic in Brooklyn' speak for what Voris believes about those who disagree with him?
On Friday (November 14, 2014) Michael Voris’ “The Vortex” (entitled
The Razor’s Edge) was once again devoted to clarifying their position on Pope
Francis and the fear running rampant among the faithful because of what is and
isn’t coming out of the Vatican.
I am assuming (perhaps wrongly), this Vortex was done because the faithful are
still contacting Church Militant TV with their concerns about the Pope and
their possible confusion over where exactly Church Militant TV stands on the too often controversial hot topic of Pope Francis and the direction of the Catholic Church under his
pontificate. Here is "The Razor's Edge" from The Vortex:
I listened to and read this episode of The Vortex over a
half a dozen times – I do that quite often with what Church Militant TV
produces because I respect them and want to make sure I am clearly hearing
exactly what is being said- or in some cases NOT said.
In “The Razor’s Edge” Voris gives his opinion of only two
opposing sides of Catholics (the traditional leaning group who are running in
fear over what Pope Francis says, does and seems to allow with his blessing)
and the “Church of Nice” crowd- who refuse to admit anything is wrong at all. Overall, Voris makes excellent points with what he says, my point in writing this is more with what he didn't say and about another side of opposing Catholics who don't fit in the groups he mentions.
Voris says: “As of now, a
careful middle seems to be being carved out – indeed, NEEDS to be carved out -
amidst the flurry of hysterical responses from both extremes of the Catholic
world – those angry mean-spirited Catholics who populate the ranks of so-called
traditionalists – but, and this is VERY IMPORTANT – do NOT, repeat do NOT speak
for the vast majority of faithful Catholics – even though they think and act
like they do – AND on the other end of the spectrum – those Catholics who
simply refuse to report on anything troubling – like recent affairs at the
Synod, sugarcoating everything. Battle lines
have been drawn between a subset of traditional-minded Catholics who write and
publish venomous screeds against the Pope, and those who pretend Rome is
nothing else than a valley of lilies where everything is perfectly fine –
denying the reality of what Bishop Athanasius Schneider has rightfully termed –
the fourth great crisis in the life of the Church. Both sides are
wrong in their reactions because they each fail to take into account the
DIFFERING damage they inflict on various individual Catholics. Neither
approach is – quite frankly “catholic”, meaning universal enough.”
Here I disagree with Voris in two respects. Yes both sides mentioned are causing
damage- though I think the damage they are causing is rather low. Admittedly, I could be completely wrong on this. I am sure the folks at Church Militant TV pay far more attention to many of these groups than I do. Yet, there is another opposing side of Catholics Voris failed to mention. Catholics who are not in the least bit tempted by the "subset of traditional minded Catholics who write and publish venomous screeds against the Pope" to leave the Church or the Church of Nice Catholics who bury their heads in the sand. There are Catholics who believe the Pope is a legitimate valid pope, though not a very good one- so far at least (we still hold out hope things will improve). Why do we feel this way? Because we believe it is Pope Francis himself causing the MOST damage - not the hardcore traditionalists or even the Church of Nice crowd- though it is Pope Francis himself who strengthens the Church of Nice crowd when he says things like "Who am I to judge?".
It is Pope Francis’ OWN WORDS AND ACTIONS that are
panicking people. The hardcore
traditionalists have been beating their drums for decades and the “Church of
Nice” crowd has remained silent on anything and everything for just as long.
The difference now is, the Pope himself.
Suddenly, the Church of Nice crowd have a pope leading their way to more progressive points of view INSIDE the Church (look at Cardinal Dolan and the upcoming St. Patrick's Day Parade- this is another direct effect of our current Pope on the Church). The Pope’s words and actions are now lining up with many of the
warnings the hardcore traditionalists have been warning about for decades. It's causing some Catholics to contemplate whether or not these hardcore traditionalists are right or not (their not).
So the Pope himself is sending people into the arms of
religious groups OUTSIDE the Church.
That is the problem that *I* see and I believe the Vortex
has not (and probably will not) address.
Voris has always made it very clear, that he and the folks
at Church Militant TV have a deep concern over a SINGLE Catholic leaving the
Church because of any sort of confusion or fear.
Because of this Christian concern, Church
Militant TV does their best to tread carefully in what they say and do.
That is commendable and why I have such respect for them.
This Vortex was no different in that respect. Voris again reiterates the need to STAY IN
THE CHURCH regardless of what we see and hear.
I agree completely- though I am very vocal in my distrust of
our current Pope (see my sidebar for more on that- specifically those entitled "My Issues with Pope Francis: Part I and II").
One problem is, it is natural human nature to RUN when we
feel fear and panic. Most of us like our
comfort zones and get very antsy when we are pushed out of it.
Sadly, Pope Francis IS pushing us out of our comfort zones-
and not in any good way that I can see (I truly hope that perhaps one day I see
things differently, because I don’t like the fact that I dislike and distrust
my own Pope). The result is fear and
panic and for some a hasty exodus from Christ's Holy Catholic Church to something that LOOKS like what they believe is Christ's Holy Catholic Church.
I was not raised a “cradle Catholic”. I came from outside the Church and personally
KNOW how being on the outside has little to offer compare to the fullness of
being inside the Church. There is no man
on earth, pope or not, who would make me look outside the Church for anything. There is only ONE Church that Jesus Christ
created on earth- there is no other. In
the words of our first Pope, St. Peter “To whom shall we go?” (John 6:68)
To whom indeed? There
is nowhere else to go. Hold fast to what
Jesus has given us, don’t allow fear to chase you from where our Lord wants you
to be.
We have a “flight or fight”
instinct, yet right now too many are in full “flight” mode. Stop.
Fight back that fear with the trust in our Lord. He has not abandoned us- he won’t. It is us who are abandoning Him when we leave
His Holy Catholic Church for anything else.
I get it.
Faithful
Catholics are seeking comfort, stability and that homey feeling the Church used
to give us, but is too often these days lacking. I feel it too, but I won’t give in to it by
abandoning the gift of the Holy Catholic Church from Christ to us because I don’t
particularly like who the current Pope is.
It is MY problem to get over those fears. It is MY cross to carry, not dump on the
ground and go running for something outside the Church that gives me the “warm
fuzzies”. I belonged to the “warm fuzzy”
Protestant denominations once upon a time, and I left that for a good
reason. There is no substance to those “warm
fuzzies”, the true substance is with staying inside the Catholic Church no matter
what. Don’t be shaken. Stand firm and trust in Jesus. Period.
Voris goes on to say: “This is the
position of ChurchMilitant.TV. We have never said the Pope, or more
importantly his prudential decisions or misstatements or off the cuff personal
thoughts are beyond the realm of critique.
What we consider simply out of bounds is the name-calling, Pope-bashing
response of SOME, important distinction there – SOME, a few, in the more
traditional minded crowd. Here’s the
bottom line. Unless he is speaking directly on a question of faith or
morals and makes it binding on all the faithful, whatever the pope says, or for
that fact, ANY pope says, or sometimes doesn’t say, carries with it no
guarantee of infallibility whatsoever. THAT is why
there exists a reserved set of circumstances in the first place for him to
speak infallibly. If he isn’t speaking in that very narrow set of
circumstances, then it shouldn’t be regarded as infallible.”
Personally, I think Voris is dead wrong here.
The “bottom line” isn’t about the Pope
speaking infallibly – the entire world would know if the Pope was speaking
infallibly- that would be clear news.
The “bottom line” in my opinion is “WHO is driving people into a panic
so awful that they are abandoning the Catholic Church for 'hardcore
traditionalist' groups outside the Church?”
In my opinion
that is Pope Francis himself.
It’s never
(at least in my mind) been about infallible teaching…it’s been about the words
and actions of this Pope.
The ripple
effect of “who am I to judge” and washing Muslim women’s feet during Holy week
and horrible interviews and his removal of orthodox Bishops from positions
inside the Church only to replace them with liberals and so on. These actions speak VOLUMES to the “bottom
line” problem Catholic laity are suffering now and it all points back to Pope
Francis himself.
Pope Francis is the author of this
storm we are all trying to weather.
With each news day more panic and fear is poured out to the
faithful by way of off the cuff comments, liberal priests or heretical speaking
Bishops. See it for what it is…the Church
is under attack. This isn’t new or
news. But it is troubling- especially
when the terror rippling across the world is seen as coming from the Vatican.
When our Holy Father FAILS to comfort his children (and let’s
face it Pope Francis himself is too often the epicenter of the problems) the
fear grows.
We want a Vicar on earth who will comfort us against the
storms, not a Vicar who IS the storm.
The problem with that way of thinking is that good and bad
Vicars come and go. It would be
WONDERFUL to again have a Vicar of Christ who kept us in our comfort zone,
where we felt safe and protected against the evils in the world. Pope Benedict did that for me. And because he did, I naively thought ALL
popes did that. I was wrong. Our comfort should be in our Lord
himself. Jesus sent the Great Comforter
to us who will protect His Church against ALL the storms –inside and outside
the Church.
Stop running OUT of the Church seeking the Comforter, you
won’t find Him there. He is INSIDE the
Church- in Her Truth and official Teachings.
Find your comfort in the ONLY place it truly exists, inside the Holy
Catholic Church with Jesus Christ himself.
You won’t find that anywhere else. On that, Michael Voris and I will always agree.
From listening to Voris for years (Vortex+teaching videos) I
personally believe Voris was as unhappy with Pope Francis as the rest of us
from at least Holy Week [Voris has been VERY outspoken against women feet
washing etc]. I’ve never spoken to Voris
personally, so this is just my personal opinion from what I know of him through
the Internet.
What people have to know is that deciding to NOT publicly
call out a pope is NOT the same as supporting all a pope says or does. The message (months back) posted on Church
Militant's website was clear. Voris
would not publicly rip apart the Pope, as he does with other Catholic
clergy. That was HIS line in the
sand. People need to respect him for
that.
How much HARDER it must be for him to keep his mouth shut if
he feels as so many do about Pope Francis?
I wouldn't put myself in that position of suffering (and
believe me it WOULD be suffering for ME to keep my mouth shut!), but Michael
did and I believe it was because he didn't want to cause panic among the
faithful. [Previous post I wrote on this
HERE]
If HE, Michael Voris, caused wide spread panic through his
Church Militant TV apostolate and he ended up being wrong, that would fall on
him and he knows it. Voris is not an
idiot. He is concerned not only with his
own soul but the souls of others. He knows he has the ears of thousands of people
through the Internet and he decided to
use caution and drew a line in the sand for himself. I respect that. I have no such patience or self control when
it comes to the Pope [or anyone else inside the Church] and for that *I* may
well spend a very long, long time in purgatory.
Voris has thus far shown MORE concern for the Catholic faithful that
a great many of our own Bishops have and certainly many Catholic bloggers-
myself included.
I don't believe Voris is happy with much of anything coming from the Vatican these days - how could ANY devout practicing Catholic be? And perhaps one day Pope Francis will go 'too far' and Voris will call him out on it. If that day comes, it will be over a MAJOR INDISPUTABLE BLASPHEMY done -which we might all see in 2017 with the "celebration" of heretic Martin Luther and how the Pope (be it Francis or another) participates in that blasphemy. I don't think even Voris would hold back in such a situation. Time will tell.
Voris' videos this week clearly show he is exhausted, not
just physically but I believe exhausted in the way a soldier is after years of
combat – weary, but in no way finished fighting the battle.
I hope
his “Retreat at Sea” revitalizes him because the Catholic faithful need more
Michael Voris’s – especially in times like these.
Holy Thursday foot washing in the Catholic Church according to the “rules”
– (that is the rubrics of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church) state that only the feet of MEN are to be washed. For years people in the Church (clergy and laity) seem to be baffled by this concept and need to be reminded every year. (The Vatican says one thing and the United States Bishops say the opposite.)
The confusion was made worse when Pope Francis in 2013 did the very thing the Church had publicly been battling against for years. He washed the feet of women... and non-Catholics. He broke "the rules" of the Holy Catholic Church and left more people (clergy and laity) baffled as to what to believe and trust. Do we have to trust and keep the Rubrics? If the Pope breaks them can we all do the same? What's the point of Rubrics if they don't need to be followed?
Here is an episode of Michael Voris’ The Vortex from March 2012 about the abuse in the Church when Catholic clergy ignore the rubrics of
washing the feet of MEN ONLY on Holy Thursday…
Since Voris has made it clear he will NOT now or ever
publicly ridicule a Pope we can only assume from his views clearly stated here in 2012 what he
thinks of the current pope washing the feet of women and non-Catholics.
Youtube Video notes:Published on Mar 30, 2012As we prepare for the remembrance of Our Blessed Lord's
Passion and Death, there could hardly be a more insulting way to begin this,
than with a major liturgical abuse. But unfortunately, such an abuse has become
extremely common.
As we all know, last year when Pope Francis “broke the rules”, chaos spread
among the Church with everyone wondering just when (if at all) anyone has to
listen to the rubrics of the Church. This year, he’s done it again.
From Rome Reports: “On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 patients with
special needs at the St. Mary of
Providence Center, for the Don Gnocchi Foundation. It's a center for the elderly and people with several disabilities located
in the outskirts of Rome. Their ages
ranged from 16 to 86. Among them
were four women and a Muslim.” –end quote-
So if a Pope has no regard for the rules of the Church why
should anyone else?
What’s the point in making any rules if they don’t need to
be followed? What example is the Pope setting by publicly "breaking the rules"?
Are his actions telling the Catholic world that rules CAN be broken and you are still a "good" Catholic if you break them? Can we all pick which 'rules' (rubrics or not) we want to break now?
Don’t like the rule “No birth control”? Ignore it!
Don’t like the rule “Confess mortal sins before Holy
Communion”? Ignore it!
Don’t like the rule “Catholics cannot support gay marriage”? Ignore it!
Don’t like the rule “Catholics cannot support or participate
in abortion”? Ignore it!
And the list goes on…anything you don’t like, just ignore it
because that is what we’ve learned from our Pope. After all, who are we to judge?
But the question remains... does anyone have to follow the Rubrics of the Catholic Church? Are they rules or merely suggestions? Perhaps the rules don't apply to the Pope only to everyone else? Who will clarify this for us now? Just who and what to do we listen to? Do we believe, trust and listen to the Rubrics or the clergy who ignore them? Can anyone answer that any more?
Mr. Carroll wanted to explain to me why Church Militant TV
will not now or ever PUBLICLY (that is the key here) criticize a sitting
Pope. He shared with me an (at the time)
on going email loop between himself, Michael Voris and a few of the
parties (names withheld) that had emailed Church Militant TV with their concerns
over this ‘issue’. I truly appreciated
their including me in the conversation.
At that point, I sort of thought that would be the end of the controversy
as everyone seemed to have had their say, each clearly defining where they
personally drew a line in the sand regarding the issue of PUBLICLY criticizing
the Pope. So when I took a few days ‘off’
from the blogging world only to return to my email full of emails with the
subject line “Michael Voris” and seeing Church Militant TV’s The Vortex latest
episodes (HERE and HERE) still talking about ‘publicly criticizing or not criticizing the
Pope’ I was surprised the “issue” was still ongoing.
Some people (myself
included) have/had no problem PUBLICLY criticizing a pope (just look in my sidebar), while others like
Michael Voris DO have an issue with it and refuse to go against their better judgment
just to appease protesters.While I don’t
always agree with Michael Voris, more often than not I DO agree with him and I
will defend his RIGHT to stand up for his belief that it is WRONG to PUBLICLY
criticize the Pope.
What would everyone like him to do?
Honestly?
Would you all like him to go AGAINST his own conscience (perhaps falling
into sin) to silence the protesters who are demanding he join the Pope Bashing
Bandwagon? Would that make you happy? Would you really respect him for that? I wouldn’t.
So why DEMAND he do something he is NOT comfortable doing?
Can we say Catholic Bullies?
Let’s call it like it is folks.
If Voris doesn’t cave he will continue to be attacked by
some CATHOLICS and some CATHOLICS are threatening to pull their financial
support from Church Militant TV unless Voris goes against his conscience to
appease them.
This IS Catholic bullying
and it’s not going to get you any place good.
Don’t ask a fellow Catholic who LOVES the Faith and DEFENDS the Faith to
go against his conscience because you have your nose out of joint. Get over it.
He’s got a RIGHT to defend his position on not criticizing a Pope. Quit bullying him for standing his ground and
not being a wishy-washy push over to kiss your butts.
What is crystal clear to me is that Voris is truly concerned
with the salvation of souls and that his words against a pope MIGHT cause a
soul to be lost. That is abundantly
clear in his statements. I not only respect that, I ADMIRE that. We are warned in Sacred Scripture not to be a
‘stumbling block’ (1 Cor. 8:9 “But take care that this liberty
[right] of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”)
to others because if even one is lost on account of us, we will be held
accountable. Voris seems to keep that
knowledge at the forefront of all he does.
He is equally concerned with the salvation of souls and defending the Faith. God bless him for it!
As I mentioned in my original post “Is it ever right to criticize a Pope” I HAVE publicly criticized the Pope- as I did both Pope John Paul II
(kissing the Koran) and Pope Benedict (allowing ‘liberal’ Bishops and nuns to
run amuck often spreading heresy). I am
a critical person WHEN I FEEL MY FAITH IS BEING HARMED (hence this blog's motto
above). Anyone who reads this blog knows
I do not hold back on ANYONE who claims the title “Catholic”. If you publicly claim to BE Catholic, you’d better believe ALL the Church teaches or you are fair game on my blog. But I am LEARNING
that not all criticism is good for correcting.
I am certainly not correcting the Pope by criticizing his words or
actions on my little old blog- he doesn’t read my blog. What I have been doing is venting MY frustration out
of fear that HE is becoming a stumbling block for many, all the while not recognizing myself
as possibly being a stumbling block. The
old “Let me pull the speck out of YOUR eye while I ignore the log in my own eye.”
(Matt. 7:3-5)
That is not to say that SOME criticism and correction is
never necessary…it might be, though caution is needed when criticizing a Pope
and perhaps it isn’t always needed in public, which I believe is Michael Voris' point.
What Terry Carroll and Michael Voris (and others) said in
the emails I received caused me to pause and really think about this issue
because IT IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE. We all
LOVE our Catholic Faith and we all want the same thing…more Catholics IN the
Church, not running for the doors. I took my time examining
people’s different takes on the issue of PUBLICLY criticizing a Pope and often the word “PUBLIC” is not mentioned on
these blogs, yet it is the key here.Voris
is clear the Chair of Peter is OFF LIMITS toPUBLICcriticism at Church Militant TV.That is NOT to say that Voris or anyone else
at Church Militant TV haven’t PRIVATELY been critical of the Pope or any Pope.That this particular Pope’s “off the cuff”
remarks have caused…deep concern among many is clear to all of us.The fact remains HE IS THE POPE.The Chair of Peter is Pope Francis’ right
now.
Does he speak perfectly?
Nope. Then again, neither did
Moses (he needed Aaron) or Saint Peter our first Pope. Peter was publicly corrected by Jesus
Christ when he was wrong (John 18:10-11) and again very publicly corrected by
Saint Paul (Galatians 2:11-14) when he was wrong. The Saint’s some have mentioned (including
Voris) have PRIVATELY corrected a Pope.
So we have clear examples of BOTH public and private criticism of Popes
in our Church history.
I dug out a September 2013 audio from “Forward Boldly” with
host Christine Niles and guests Terry Carroll (Church Militant TV executive
producer) and Father John Fisher in which the three discuss whether or not it
is the Catholic laity’s RIGHT to criticize Catholic clergy. I listened to see if criticizing a Pope was
ever mentioned- it was not. But Canon Law #212 was. Please listen for yourselves HERE.
After listening to that and the last few episodes of The
Vortex and reading all these emails over again it seems to me everyone is on
the same page in one regard. Fear.
Fear is the one thing we all seem to have in common. Some fear the Pope is a liberal who will
damage the Faith. Some fear that if they
don’t point out these ‘issues’ with the Pope it will damage the Faith. Some fear pointing out the issues will cause
damage to the Faith. Some fear criticizing
the Pope will be a stumbling block for weak or new Catholics. We are ALL worried about the Faith we
love. So why not let Voris do what Voris
is called to do and everyone else follow their conscience and do what they
feel they are called to do?
That’s the part I really don’t understand. Why target Michael Voris because he’s not
marching to the tune you're playing? Why does he have to?
I may or may not criticize a pope in the future, but what I
know I won’t do is criticize or bully a fellow Catholic who out of love for the
salvation of souls is not willing to become a stumbling block to appease
Catholics acting like bullies.
