A cry of the heart towards my friends at CMTV [No longer on the blog]Many insightful comments following the post as well.
And...I have to agree with Tantum. I've thought for awhile that Church Militant TV is over the top in their attack on the traditionalists. The smearing of Catholic Family News, John Vennari, Chris Ferrara, et al earlier this year was beyond the pale. I blogged about it at the time because I thought it was so unprofessional.
I hate to say that because we desperately need truth-tellers who lift the rocks to expose the public scandals in the Church and those committing them. As a good priest once said to me, "If you can't stop a scandal, the next best thing is to expose it." And Michael Voris and his team did it so well in the past. Why they shifted to attacking the SSPX as public enemy #1 I don't know. I've never belonged and have never attended an independent chapel, but I remember the days when the SSPX was formed. I think Archbishop Lefebvre had good reason to be concerned.
We lived in a parish, rather ordinary I'd say, where we had several pastors who committed egregious scandals. The worst pastor ended up leaving to get married. He wore butterfly vestments at my fourth child's First Communion and that about described his approach to the Church. Flit from one thing to another and defy Church doctrine on issues like contraception, abortion, etc. I never once heard him preach what I would call an orthodox sermon; it was all homilymush. During his reign we had liturgical aberrations, nothing but fluff love for sermons, and really bad CCD and RCIA programs. He detested Pope Benedict. I was on the parish council at the time which was filled with liberals. At one meeting all the others were trashing the pope until I piped up quietly saying, "Gee, I kinda like Pope Benedict." They all shut up.
Liturgical abuse was rampant everywhere in those days (1964 on), much worse even than what my parish had. Sex ed was introduced into Catholic schools and doctrine was expelled. That was the environment Archbishop Lefebvre faced. And my understanding is that France was particularly bad. I realize the SSPX Masses are illicit, but they are valid. Confession and Matrimony are problems because priests need faculties from the local bishop to celebrate those sacraments. Nevertheless, my sympathies are with the SSPX who see the serious problems in the Church when many pretend all is well.
Today, I find myself watching The Vortex less frequently and going to the website rarely. I used to post The Vortex on my blog several times a week. Not so much now.
Let's pray that Church Militant TV experiences a revival. We need strong voices in the Church to call for fidelity to Jesus Christ and His teachings. We sure aren't hearing those strong voices from the pope and the bishops for the most part. Just look at the World Meeting for Families with its organizing team loaded with pro-aborts funding Democrats who hate Church teachings. What's wrong with that picture?
While I do not and never did belong to the SSPX, I lived in France and the SSPX was ostracized and depicted as really, really bad and evil people, more like a sect.
ReplyDeleteI was the only girl my age going to Mass every Sunday from my village of a 1000 inhabitants and a class of at least 15 for confirmation...
Before I left France there were 10 regular for Mass. I was told my parish priest never did the red while he said the black, I won't go on listing the abuses.
Even mildly liberal parishes here are more orthodox than the French! Still the SSPX was vilified.
When Pope BXVI lifted the excommunications, the bishop of my former diocese issued a pastoral letter for the diocese were he said he was as shocked as anybody, you would have thought the Pope beatified Hitler!
So I think Mr Voris' obsession with the SSPx is overblown, and reminds me of the allergic epidermal reaction of the French liberals toward incense, latin, bells, and laces.
I don't understand Mr Voris' reaction given the uncannily silent of Bishop Fellay towards this confusing papacy! Have you heard him lately????
So Mr. Voris is left with getting upset with american sspx, which is for me a bit ironic, since it has been his trait lately: complain about the soldiers, but not with "l'état Majeur" ( the top brass)!!!
MaryAnn,"I don’t get that same vibe anymore, what I sense is something darker, more angry."
ReplyDeleteThis happens when reality sinks in that so many of the the Bishops are really just politicians and maybe not even True Believers. Then the realization hits home that the solution is in the hands of the Pope alone because the institutional Church is not a Democracy and our only vote is with our wallets and our feet.
Our Lady was given the ultimate mandate Gen 3:15 and we, as her followers, or "heel" must use the weapon She has handed us.....Her Rosary!
Voris and company will not make one iota of difference no matter how much we fund his business to cover the Synod.It is what it is and they are what they are ,we can only pray that God intervenes and Trust that everything is according to His Will.
Didn't it all start when Voris hunkered down and announced defiantly he would not criticize Pope Francis. Last year's Synod he came close, but did not indite Holy Father as I recall even though many of us agree he was the elephant in the room. With that stubborn commitment, he silenced himself into a corner. I can only guess that the temptation to grow CMTV was too much for him to resist the deal.
ReplyDeleteI remain a premium subscriber but not enthusiastic. There is something terribly wrong. Good men are always in the devil's crosshairs. Remember Corapi and Eutenauer.
I will pray and ask Anne Josephine Voris, his saintly mother, to once again step in for her "straying" son.
Boy, Mary Ann do I ever agree with you on this one!! Wonderful analogy of where CM has seemed to have 'gone off the rails' so to speak, and is completely ignoring the elephant in the room. To tell you the truth, I see it to a 'degree' as something of a journalistic integrity problem. I as well have kind of 'bowed out' in my following of them. Maybe if they loose enough followers they may do some soul searching. The 'crisis point' with me, was a kind of 'spinning' of an interview with Bishop Schneider where they made it look as if he said something he really didn't imply, in regard to the SSPX. I have to say, this is where I drew the line. I am exactly where you are as I have never gone to an SSPX Chapel, nor would I until they are in full communion with Rome, but I do see exactly where they are coming from in their mistrust of the N.O. Church since Vat ll. They have every right to be concerned, as we ALL should be. The abuses and sometimes downright heresies have been rampant in the post Vat ll Church, being at times beyond the pale, and they have all but ripped to shreds the beautiful Sacrifice of the Mass in a significant number of our parishes. To make matters even worse, the downright uncharitable attack CM hurled on the remnant et all for which there was no apology from them, left me cold. I am now keeping them in my prayers and do hop over there on occasion but not daily like I used to. I pray they see the light that they are in reality doing more harm than good in their insistence in ignoring Papal scandals. There is a glaring elephant in the room that CM keeps dancing around.
ReplyDeleteI used to listen to Michael V. on YouTube a couple of years ago and found his approach quite reasonable.
ReplyDeleteThat has changed for the worse. His attacks appear vicious and pointless now. I will continue to pray for him. What he is doing is creating great discord.
I am sure you already saw this:
ReplyDeletehttp://wdtprs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/15_09_01_Francis_SSPX.jpg
Note what Fr. Z says about the bishops in France,
my former bishop is going to be even more shocked than with the lifting of the excommunication!
Ms. Kreitzer, you should check out E. Michael Jones's book "The Man Behind the Curtain: Michael Voris and the Homosexual Vortex."
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