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D r a g n e t
How to be a public nuisance.
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 11
 November 1994 
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The National Catholic Reporter, in
its October 28 issue, ran an article about Catholics using the Internet.
Thomas C. Fox recommended several e-mail lists to the liberal
readership of NCR. We recommend those same lists, but for
a different reason. By signing up you can counter the self-satisfaction
of the heterodox for whom these lists are intended.
This is a fine way to engage in long-distance apologetics. You need
have no worry about receiving unwelcomed visitors at your door or
strange missives in the regular mail. In each case, when you subscribe
using your e-mail program, leave the "subject" line blank.
When writing your name, do not include the square brackets.
Vatican2: Sponsored by the Association for the Rights
of Catholics in the Church, an extreme left-wing group. To subscribe,
write to listserv@vm.temple.edu. In the message area write
subscribe vatican2 [your name].
Sister-L: Fox describes this list as dealing with
the "history and contemporary concerns of women religious,"
which means the usual concerns of radical feminists. To subscribe,
write to listserv@suvm.syr.edu. In the message area write
subscribe sister-l [your name].
WATER: This is sponsored by Women's Alliance for Theology,
Ethics and Ritual. Radical feminist Mary Hunt is the director. (For
more information about Hunt and WATER, you should see Don
Steichen's Ungodly Rage). To subscribe, write to water-request@his.com.
(Irony: Notice that the address is his.com, not her.com!)
In the message area write add water [your name].
WMSPRT-L: This is a forum for "people interested
in goddess spirituality, feminism, and the incorporation of the feminine/feminist
idea in the study and worship of the divine," says Fox. To subscribe,
write to listserv-@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu. In the message area
write subscribe wmsprt-l [your name].
AmerCath: This is described as a "discussion
of the history of American Catholicism and how it relates to modern
issues"--but with a properly trendy and heterodox bias,
no doubt. To subscribe, write to listserv-@ukcc.uky.edu. In
the message area write subscribe amercath [your name].
If you engage in this cyberspace apostolate, please drop us a line
and let us know how you fare. Inquiring minds want to know.
At quite a different portion on the spectrum
was the 1994 Tridentine Rite Conference, held October 13-15
in Hyannis, Massachusetts. For some years traditionalist groups have
been at odds with one another on various issues, and they have undergone
the splits one normally associates with Protestant denominations.
This conference was intended in part to be an "ecumenical"
event at which traditionalists of varying persuasions would meet to
make common cause.
Attendees report two universal themes among speakers: a strong preference
for the old Latin Mass (often known as the Tridentine Mass), sometimes
to the point of discounting the validity of the Novus Ordo
(the rite instituted by Pope Paul VI and used almost universally today),
and adherence to the strict interpretation of the doctrine "No
salvation outside the Church."
The holders of this interpretation are commonly, but somewhat misleadingly,
termed "Feeneyites," after the late Fr. Leonard Feeney
[1897-1978], who was most closely associated in the public mind with
the interpretation that says that one must be a formal member of the
Catholic Church to be saved and that there is no such thing as "baptism
of desire," as that phrase is usually understood.
Among the speakers and honorees were Fr. Paul Trinchard,
formerly a columnist for The Wanderer, a conservative weekly,
and now a columnist for The Remnant, a traditionalist paper
that rejects the Novus Ordo and parts of Vatican II, and author
of a just-released book called All About Salvation (a defense
of the strict interpretation); Brother Joseph Natale, O.S.B.,
from Most Holy Family Monastery in Berlin, New Jersey (a traditionalist
monastery that has not been approved by the bishop of the Camden Diocese,
in which it is located); Gerry Matatics, a convert to Catholicism
from Calvinism, who gives talks at parishes and at traditionalist
and other conferences and whom some consider to be, along with English
layman Michael Davies, who was not at the conference, the
most effective speaker among those who promote the Tridentine Mass
and Fr. Feeney's interpretation; and Brother Anthony Mary,
a tertiary of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, one of several
religious groups that claim to be the successor to the organization
Fr. Feeney headed.
While nearly all the speakers and most of the attendees could be identified
as supporters of the Tridentine Mass or of Fr. Feeney's theological
position, not everyone could be described as both. Followers of the
late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated in
1988 for ordaining bishops without papal permission, do not subscribe
to Fr. Feeney's interpretation. (The Angelus, the magazine
published by Lefebvre's Society of St. Pius X, has run articles against
the strict interpretation position and in favor, for example, of the
possibility of "baptism of desire.")
Some of the people at the conference were sedevacantists; they maintain
that the papal throne is empty, and many of them claim the last legitimate
pope was Pius XII. Others in attendance represented Fr. Nicholas
Gruner's Fatima apostolate, which has been at odds with the one
headed by Fr. Robert Fox (an orthodox priest who publishes
the Fatima Family Messenger and is not a traditionalist).
Observers of this and similar conferences say that the traditionalist
movement in the U.S. is growing rapidly and that few bishops and priests
are aware of the extent of the movement. Many of the newest adherents
are young Catholics who have become disenchanted with what they perceive
to be a lack of fidelity within what traditionalists commonly call
the "Conciliar Church."
Some, such as Gerry Matatics, seem to have few positive words for
the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which they believe contains
errors on such topics as salvation. Many avoid the Novus Ordo
whenever possible, and some even decline to attend those Tridentine
Masses (known as "indult Masses") which are approved by
the Vatican and by local bishops, going only to Tridentine Masses
celebrated by priests associated with the Society of St. Pius X, the
Society of St. Pius V (a sedevacantist offshoot of the former group),
or other independent traditionalist groups.
Another offering from the National Catholic
Reporter, this time from the October 28 letters column:
"I honestly knew not what I was doing. Suddenly, at age 50, the
scales are coming off my eyes, and I do not like what I see. I am
so sorry for the world I may be leaving to my children, grandchildren,
and great-grandchildren. And I ask their forgiveness.
"I confess that for 49 years I've been eating meat. In
my name and sometimes with my own hands chickens, turkeys, pigeons,
ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, bison, lobsters, shrimp,
fishes, even snakes and iguanas have been killed and cut up for my
consumption. And just lately I've learned that not only are these
activities devastating to our oceans, plains, mountains, and atmosphere
and destructive to the international economy upon which the majority
of billions of souls who share this planet depend, but this flesh-eating is not even good for our bodies!
"I didn't realize that eating animal flesh is totally unnecessary
for the basically herbivorous creature that I, a human being, am.
I have learned that meat, with its high fat content, its concentration
of pesticides and other dangerous substances, is dangerous, difficult
to digest, unnatural food. . . . It clogs our arteries, slows our
metabolism, puts unwanted pounds on our frames, hastens a whole host
of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer, and probably
weakens our bones and does damage to the genetic structure we are
passing on to future generations. . . .
"Marilyn Chilcote, Oakland, California."
Warning to our readers: Beware of mid-life crises for which cures are sought by reading heterodox papers. You never know what
odd things you might end up saying.
You might, for example, end up talking like
the scholars of the Jesus Seminar, who, according to an October
17 news report, have "determined that Jesus Christ was not born
of a virgin, a decision that likely may elicit an icy response from
mainstream Christians."
Nonsense--no icy response here. Icy responses are incompatible
with rolling-on-the-floor laughter, which was our response to this
latest episode in what is probably the shoddiest example ever of biblical
"scholarship." Jane Schaberg, a professor at the
University of Detroit and a former Catholic, said her research leads
her to believe that "Mary was impregnated during her betrothal
by someone other than Joseph, perhaps by a Roman soldier," said
the report. Schaberg noted that it was "probably consensual sex
rather than rape; marriage to Joseph took away the stigma attached
to illegitimate birth at that time. Why couldn't Jesus be a son of
an unknown and a son of God or a son of a nobody?" she asked.
The Jesus Seminar is a group of scholars, all at the left-wing extreme
of biblical studies, who have been meeting twice a year for ten years.
They determine truth by taking a show of hands. This round, Mary's
perpetual virginity lost--another triumph in the continuing search
for the "historical Jesus," who, to these people, bears
no relation to the "Jesus of faith." (In the authentic Catholic
understanding, they are exactly the same Person.)
A question from Jack Gergurich, Catholic
Answers' controller:
"At a wedding I attended recently, I ran into a man, a nominal
Catholic, whom I hadn't seen for fifteen or twenty years. In the course
of our conversation he asked me where I worked. I told him Catholic
Answers, and that brought up the usual questions. Then, out of the
blue, he said he understood the Church's opposition to abortion, but
not to contraception. I didn't want to get into a discussion (and
a potentially noisy disagreement) at a wedding, but I couldn't let
it go at that.
"One thing I've noticed about those who disagree with the Church
about contraception is that they do not know why the
Church is against it. So I asked him if he knew why the Church espoused
this view. He was startled by the question, hemmed and hawed a bit,
and then sheepishly said he didn't. I asked if he had read Humanae
Vitae, Pope Pul VI's encyclical about contraception, and his eyes
glazed over. He had no idea what I was talking about.
"I mentioned that many of the world's problems he was worried
about, such as crime and unwed mothers, were anticipated by Humanae
Vitae. I told him that if he would give me his business card I
would send him some materials about the subject. He fumbled around,
putting his hands in various pockets, and, reacquiring his wits, said
he `remembered' that his cards were in the car. At that point we were
interrupted, and the discussion ended.
"How should Catholics handle such a chance encounter in a social
setting?" We invite our readers to tell how they handled similar
situations.
With some regularity we read in Evangelical
newsletters or magazines, such as Christianity Today, about
Catholics in Mexico who bully or bruise Evangelicals. On occasion
the Evangelicals are killed, and the Catholic Church is blamed.
We've always been suspicious about these reports. They seem a little
too neat; we long have suspected a certain credulity on the part of
people who spread them. Now we read, in a report on the wire services,
about how VILLAGERS IN MEXICO KILL 3 EVANGELICALS.
At first we thought one of the stories from an Evangelical publication
had migrated to the secular press. Then we read on:
"Villagers killed three Evangelical Christians who returned home
a year after being driven out for abandoning traditional Mayan Indian
ways. The deaths raise the stakes in a decades-old clash between efforts
to protect an imperiled culture and the freedom of belief. More than
15,000 Evangelicals have been expelled from Chamula, often violently,
since the late 1970s." Chamula is just north of Mexico's southernmost
state.
The killings came after the Evangelicals "seized the mayor, Domingo
Lopez Ruiz, during a visit to San Cristobal and held him hostage
for several days. Indians in Chamula have clung fiercely to a traditional
form of government and to a religion that mixes Mayan and Roman Catholic
elements. Village leaders see the Evangelical Christians as a threat
to their culture and power. Evangelicals reject certain Chamula traditions,
such as use of alcohol and payment for village ceremonies."
The news report was scant in its facts, and it didn't say who was
the source for the facts--was it the Evangelicals themselves?
Maybe the government? Probably not the villagers, who live modestly
in a backward and media-illiterate culture.
We certainly don't condone killing anyone over questions of religion,
but note that the Evangelicals do not seem to have been entirely without
fault: They kidnapped the mayor, an act that in some parts of the
world is still considered a capital offense. And note that the villagers
were adherents of a traditional religion, not of the Catholic faith,
even though they have borrowed some Catholic practices or beliefs.
They are no more Catholics than are Haiti's Voodooists, whose religion
is a mix of local animism and Catholic customs.
But you can count on it: Some Evangelical publication will read this
story in terms of Evangelicals-versus-Catholics, with the latter as
the bad guys. Oh, well. This news report has at least one good.aspect:
It makes us even more suspicious about the accuracy of other reports
that Catholics have been going after Evangelicals in Mexico. Yes,
such things may have happened on occasion, as it may have happened
that Evangelicals have gone after Catholics, but we suspect such altercations
haven't happened as frequently as some publications would like us
to think.
The Fall issue of Aid to the Church in Need's
World Youth Report carries an article by Fr. Peter Muller,
O. Praem. It's called FUNDAMENTALISTS IN MEXICO.
Fr. Muller, a friend of Catholic Answers, was approached on the street
by proselytizers who asked him, "Do you know the real origin
of Christmas?"
Of course, they expected him to have no answer, but he said, "Each
December the pagan Romans used to celebrate the day of the unconquered
sun; Sol Invictus they called it." At this point the
questioner was nodding her agreement. "But the Christians, in
a stroke of genius, abolished the pagan holiday to celebrate the birth
of Christ, the true sun that enlightens our hearts."
Perplexed, the proselytizer continued: "But just where do you
find Christmas in the Bible?"
"I looked at her in disbelief," said Fr. Muller. "Consider
the angels singing `Glory to God in the highest,' the shepherds visiting
the baby Jesus in the manger, and the wise men from the East bringing--what?
Presents!"
Advocates of "inclusive language"
were greatly disappointed on October 25 when the Vatican revoked permission
to use the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (NRSV)
in the Church's liturgy. They had rejoiced in 1991 when the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the NRSV for liturgical use
and began making plans to issue a lectionary based on it for use at
Mass.
The NRSV was the first major translation to use "inclusive language,"
which proposes to correct past "sexism" by stripping the
English language of the generic uses of words such as "man,"
"mankind," and "he" (as in, "If someone wants
to make an omelet, he is going to have to crack some eggs").
Unlike some previous efforts, which sought only to avoid "gender-specific"
terms when they are not used in the original Greek and Hebrew of the
Bible, the NRSV actually changes the biblical text by removing masculine
terms even when they are present in the original languages. It thus
modifies the text to fit a modern socio-political viewpoint.
The decision to revoke permission to use the NRSV in the liturgy was
made in Rome by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF),
which is headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The removal of permission followed the 1993 debacle concerning the
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The translation originally submitted to the Vatican for approval was
faulted on a number of grounds, one of which was its use of the NRSV
in Scripture citations. Cardinal Ratzinger stated that the problems
with the NRSV centered on theological imprecisionss caused by the
use of "inclusive language" in the text (for example, when
a male pronoun is dropped and the Christological reference of a text
is lost in the translation) and in order to maintain consistency in
the Church's liturgical and catechetical language.
The CDF's decision to pull permission for liturgical use of the NRSV
carries the highest authority. Following the announcement of the decision,
Archbishop Geraldo Agnelo, secretary of the Vatican's Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, stated, "From the moment
in which the doctrinal congregation [the CDF] makes a statement, we
cannot act differently." Father Cuthbert Johnson, who
works on English-language projects for the worship congregation, stated,
"The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the last word
on issues like this."
This means that an NRSV version of the lectionary will not appear
in the U.S. and that an NRSV lectionary which has already been used
for two years in Canada will have to be shelved. It also casts a shadow
over a two-volume lectionary using the Revised New Testament of the
New American Bible, which also uses "inclusive language,"
though to a more modest extent. In 1992 the NCCB submitted this lectionary
to the Vatican for approval, but neither volume has yet been approved.
Following the problems with "inclusive language" that emerged
with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the NRSV, it
is questionable whether the Vatican will approve the liturgical use
of the Revised New Testament of the NAB.
Have you ever wanted to meet the Church Fathers
we quote every month in "The Fathers Know Best"? Well, now
you can! A new book by Veralyn Alpha, titled A Heavenly
Journey, lets you meet early Christian writers from the apostle
Paul in A.D. 53 to Augustine in 400. In the fictionalized account,
the archangel Gabriel takes a young Protestant evangelist named Carter
Roberts on a tour of early Christianity.
Included among the Fathers Carter visits are Pope Clement I, Ignatius
of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Jerome. Gabriel
also takes Carter to Peter's grave and an early baptismal ceremony.
To ensure that the teachings of the Fathers are accurately represented,
all of their words are taken from their surviving writings (with the
citations at the end of their speeches). In their final stop before
returning to the twentieth century, Gabriel takes Carter to see Martin
Luther in 1517. His words are also quoted from real history. Through
his trip with Gabriel, Carter is given an introduction to the Catholicism
of the early Church, which contrasts with the Protestant doctrines
he has always accepted.
Those interested in purchasing the 84-page book, which carries an
imprimatur, can order it from the Riehle Foundation at (513) 576-0032.
The cost is $4.50 plus shipping and handling.
Another new offering is The Pope and the
Holocaust, by Fr. John Rader and Kateryna Fedoryka.
This short biography (125 pages) covers Pope Pius XII's life from
his time as a boy, though his years as a priest, bishop, and cardinal,
and finally to his reign as pope. The last chapter of the book is
devoted to Pius XII's struggle to save Jews from the Nazis. It debunks
the myth that the Pope stood by silently while millions of Jews were
slaughtered.
This story gained currency as a result of the production of The
Deputy, a 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth. While the play's assertions
could not survive historical scrutiny, its central thesis of Pius
XII's indifference to the Jews' plight has passed into popular culture
and is often repeated by anti-Catholics today. This book is a welcome
attempt to set the facts of history before the public. The book is
available for $10 postpaid from the Family Apostolate, P.O. Box 55,
Redfield, South Dakota 57469.
A woman who goes by the "handle"
WinkieBean left this message on America Online:
"I would like to tell people about my experience with the Catholic
Church. I was raised in a Protestant, non-denominational Bible church.
I went to Christian Bible camps and to vacation Bible schools--the
works. In college I was active in the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Then I married a Catholic.
"I went along for eleven years as a very `Protestant Catholic,'
and then I saw an anti-Catholic video called Catholicism: Crisis
of Faith [reviewed in the May 1993 issue of This Rock],
and that was it. I vowed never to set foot in another Catholic Church.
"A friend of mine said, `Find out what they really believe!'
So I did. I began to pray earnestly for answers. What did I find?
A group called Catholic Answers. What do you know! These guys were
Catholics and could actually argue Scripture with me! I was shocked
at what happened. I found answer after answer. To all of it--the
changes after Vatican II, praying to the saints and Mary, Mary's role
in the Church, statues, traditions, the pope, the different ordering
of the Ten Commandments, the Eucharist--you name it.
"I could hardly believe that the Catholic beliefs were actually
more biblical than my Protestant ones. I had had such a misunderstanding
of what Catholics believe. My `knowledge' up to that time had been
based on what others had told me Catholics believed. Now I was seeing
for myself.
"My special thanks go to Karl Keating, Patrick Madrid, James
Akin, Mark Wheeler--he's the first one I talked to--and all
the folks at Catholic Answers. Also to Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Mark
Miravale, and Fr. Mitch Pacwa."
Thanks, WinkieBean.
From quite a different perspective comes a
form letter from Fr. Daniel Jones, editor of the Sangre
de Cristo Newsnotes and object of a few paragraphs in "Dragnet"
some months ago. As you may recall, we reported that Fr. Jones had
discovered the real pope, a Canadian who otherwise is referred to
by him as "Fr. John." In his letter Fr. Jones responds to
"Beth," who asked, "Why do you follow Fr. John?"
The answer: "It has been evident to me for many years that the
popes of Vatican II have not been legitimate successors of St. Peter.
I thought that Cardinal Siri might have been the legitimate pope in
exile. But he died several years ago, and we have but one witness
who has publicly testified that Cardinal Siri told him he was by law
the legitimate successor to St. Peter. There should be at least two
witnesses, to make a better case.
"Then I learned that it is almost certainly an attack on the
dogma of the indefectibility of the Church to claim that the see of
Peter has been vacant for thirty or more years." (This means,
at least, that Fr. Jones is not a sedevacantist, as were some people
who attended the Tridentine Rite Conference discussed on page 7.)
"If Peter is not in Rome, he is elsewhere. There have been several
claimants to the papacy since 1960: Clement XV in France, Peter II
in Belgium, Adrian VI in Washington, Michael I in Kansas [also reported
on by This Rock; "Pope Michael" lives with his parents
above their store in St. Marys, Kansas], Gregory XVII in Spain, John
Gregory XVII in Canada, and I think Time magazine had an article
on one in Philadelphia. A most probably false mystic in Australia,
I hear, claims he will soon be the pope. Jesus said, `By their fruits
you shall know them.'"
Fr. Jones went to St. Jovite, Quebec, met Fr. John, was impressed
by his spirituality, learned the Third Secret of Fatima, found out
about Fr. John's predecessor, Pope Clement XV (1950-1968) [apparently
he booted out Pius XII at God's instigation], "met [Fr. John's]
chauffeur, Fr. Vincent," and otherwise blamed his identification
of Fr. John as pope on the Fatima seer Sr. Lucy. Whew!
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