Cult of Church Militant treading on thin ice above Malebolge

The Vortex of Hell

Malebolge is Dante Alighieri's Eighth Circle of Hell. There're nine circles of Hell in The Inferno, the ninth being the dwelling place of Lucifer eternally trapped in ice, therefore we can say that the Eighth Circle of Hell is the destination of wicked souls far down the ladder of evil who have willingly participated in egregious sins. Malebolge itself is a funnel-shaped cavern described as a VORTEX. You get the drift.

A few days ago I posted a lie "an inaccuracy" Christine told on Church Militant's Spotlight hit-piece on the Wyoming Carmelite Monks. For this particular "specific error" I corrected Niles by giving her a simple anatomy lesson all children know by the age of three which is that the neck and chest are two different body parts and not the same thing. Ms Niles is, by far, above the age of three yet pretends that the neck and chest are the same body part while stating that she was educated at Oxford and Notre Dame!

Among the comments LesFemmes received is this, printed below in full, which shows the other side of the coin that Niles and Church Militant deviously refuse to acknowledge.

what said...

I personally know Fr. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified, and I can tell you right now that the insinuations of permitting homosexuality or sexual perversion of ANY KIND in his community which Church Militant and Augustine Inferrera HAVE DONE DEFINITIVELY are absolutely baseless

and

COMPLETELY CONTRARY TO THE MIND OF FR. DANIEL. This is coming from someone who is in a position to know Fr. Daniel's explicit mind and formal policy on this subject, and I would give sworn and detailed testimony to it.

Inferrera and CM are treading on a THIN ICE above the pit in Hell reserved for the slanderers and the calumniators.

Someone please convey this message to them directly if it is at all possible.

I wish them luck at their particular judgments if they never reverse PUBLICLY what they have insinuated about Fr. Daniel.

With that comment in mind, just think: people pay money to be Premium Subscribers to the cult of Church Militant in order to be sucked down into their particular vortex.

Now let's look at comments left by Nick on Church Militant. The first comment is from a past Vortex episode that apparently I missed. Nick's remaining comments address Niles' Spotlight muckraking episode.

Vortex episode

Nick

I'm not sure if I missed anything from the video but from what I've heard, there was only one man that went to that monastery and he said that he was choked or something by a monk with known anger problems. He also said that the Monks had a lot of money and decided to give some of it away to their diocese. Is that all that was spoken about the monastery in that episode or was there something else? Did I miss anything? I was told about this episode by one of my fellow parishioners, since they knew that I was in that community for a time. I was not there at the time of this man so I can't witness to the choking or the threatening with a mason's trowel. 

I have a really hard time believing this ever happened, or if it did, he probably was being a danger to himself or others or speaking impiously about Our Lady or something of that sort. The monks aren't wimps, they are tough men of action and probably would get physical if the situation called for it. The only possibility I see is righteous anger on behalf of the monk. The community was not that large and I've gotten to know every monk very well. There is no one that fits this description.

As for being rich, yes, the monks do make a lot of money from the coffee business which is sometimes run by only a few monks every day. Those few monks work their butts off along with the rest of the community. There is a difference between having money (being 'rich') and spending it. The monastery is being built for future generations and the quality materials, tools, and elaborate stonework glorifying God are part of that package. This is what the money is being saved for. The money isn't spent on comforts. Most of the monks sleep on straw mattresses on top of bed frames they built themselves out of 2x4s. There isn't a padded chair in the whole place except for maybe a few chairs for the monks that have broken their backs from working too hard (yes, there is more than one there).

I had only one set of clothes to work in and one habit to assist at Mass and Choir in. The clothes I put on every day to work in got washed once a week. They were disgusting. If you remember Pig Pen from the Peanuts comic that was pretty much what it was like - I literally had dust clouds that would form as I moved around in my clothes. I'm not saying that the community is perfect - I don't think there is a single one that is. But I don't think they are being treated very fairly in this Vortex episode. 

Spotlight episode

Nick 

As a straight, army infantry veteran, mechanical engineer, traditional Catholic man and former postulant at this monastery for four months, I hope that Church Militant will let me speak my peace and perhaps consider taking a different perspective on what they are reporting on. I’m not 

calling Augustine a liar but just want to state a few facts:

1. The professed monks are completely anti-gay. A gay making an advance on any of these monks would likely result in some “violent behavior” alluded to in this spotlight, behavior much more violent than what Augustine experienced, perhaps even fatal. I say “professed monks” because there may always be a gay postulant that doesn’t get weeded out until a week or two after they 
enter.

2. I grew up poor and in the country doing hard manual labor for my parents and relatives, worked a construction job in high school, and served for 6 years in the army infantry and the work or difficulty of the life at the monastery was not anything out of the ordinary to me.

3. While I was at the monastery, we prayed the rosary 99% of days as a community (and if not as a community than were told to do so in private). We assisted at Mass every day. The monks that were clerics (choir monks) said the entire office every day. Monks that weren’t clerics (lay brothers and postulants/novices) prayed Paters in place of the office according to the Rule of St. Albert. Our entire monastic life was a contemplative prayer. Two hours of mental prayer time everyday in your cell while you haven’t even finished construction of a chapel to say Mass in, doesn’t seem prudent to me.

4. Brother Joseph “the violent and jacked monk” works so hard to build a beautiful monastery for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel that he practically has no body fat. He works so hard for Our Lady that his body is in continual pain. He wouldn’t do so himself, but only under holy obedience does he take a few Ibuprofen every day, which only helps him a little. He doesn’t work so hard because he is forced to but out of love for Our Lady. He oversees all the construction work. I’ve only ever seen him try to care for the safety and well-being of all those working under him, even if he had to go out of his way to do so. I miss him most of all the monks.

5. While I was there the monks were on a no meat (except fish) diet. They took bodybuilding supplements so they wouldn’t waste away to nothing while doing manual labor. Only a few monks used the gym. The rest were just as physically fit from doing their normal manual labor. Staying healthy is important in monastic life so you don’t become a burden on the community.

6. The showers had curtains on them. The monks in the novitiate are only given one minute to shower quickly before Mass after manual labor. To get everyone through in time, you stepped out for the next guy before taking another minute just to dry yourself off. You typically stripped out of your work clothes (which were filthy) before entering the bathroom because there is not enough room in the bathroom to store your filthy clothes and the habit you will wear to Mass. On top of showering, all these guys needed to shave and brush their teeth, which you did in a towel or your underwear before leaving the bathroom to put on your habit. Being in the army infantry and high school sports, I found nothing unusual about these practices.

7. Only one of these troubled youths from the youth ranch visited the monastery for a few hours in the four months I was there. This youth had been in and out of juvenile prison and the youth camp for years and he was allowed by the prior to come as a last ditch effort to turn the kid around, hoping that the kid seeing the joy of the monks amidst their penitential lifestyle and poverty might be able to turn the kid around.

8. The monks only use Holy Apostles as their seminary because they have online courses that can be taken from the monastery. I don’t think any of them every physically went there. The prior, even if he did go there physically before monastic life, if you met him, would be the least likely person to be gay. He was a somewhat legendary boxer in the area and before becoming a priest had the some of the most attractive girlfriends in the state of Wyoming.

9. During manual labor, the monks couldn’t be wearing work habits. There was no material strong enough to stand up against the physical conditions. Any clothing I wore there while working was turned to Swiss cheese in a matter of weeks. Time would have been continually spent hand-sewing new habits and mending old ones. New habits aren’t bought on Amazon.

 

Nick

I also want to say that I had the opportunity while there to go a greater distance from the monastery during my ranching duties. I’ve personally come across a couple grizzly bears and a mountain lion in fairly close proximity. I’ve come across fresh bear, wolf, and mountain lion tracks even more often, both while on foot and on horseback. The stories the monks tell are not scare tactics. You really do need to carry a gun out there. Guns aren’t reserved to only the older monks as a form of superiority. Knowing that I was in the army infantry and knew how to use one, they gave me a gun on day one before I was even technically a postulant. It is understandable that if you’ve only ever been close to the monastery you would never have seen things like this and might think it is a hoax.

CM

Thank you for your perspective. What is your name? When were you there? Why did you leave?

Nick

Hi CM! Thank you very much for allowing me to speak and showing interest in another perspective. Many of the monks there spoke positively of Church Militant when I was at the monastery in 2019 and would be grateful to you. Brother Agabus Mary did an excellent Michael Voris impression in his Irish accent. When I was there Brother Agabus Mary was very much loved by the entire community and was the life of recreation time. He had a great sense of humor and would have taken jokes about his frame very well. He was thin even before manual labor so it may have been the monks way of showing concern about him.

I don’t know when Augustine went on his first retreat but I may have met him for a few minutes while I was there. I can’t imagine its changed so much in that amount of time.

Only God knows why I left because I liked it there. I can’t even explain it myself, only that I hit a point where it was clear I didn’t have a vocation there. I didn’t get kicked out, I made the choice, they bought my flight home. The monks wished me the very best and were charitable to me right out the door and said so many heartfelt things to me that I will never forget. When a postulant leaves it sends a shock through the community and can disturb the interior peace of some of the younger monks. They try to make these partings quick and abrupt for that reason, not out of a lack of charity in my opinion. Carmelite nuns would probably advise the same. Because I was there so long, they let me stay for a day more in the monastery after I chose to leave.

Father Simon Mary is only in his 30s, not much older than other postulants and novices. His cell is in the novitiate to be closer to the postulant/novices during their formation. He is frequently woken up at all hours of the night by the postulants/novices for spiritual direction. There is a window to the outdoors in his cell and the door to his cell is so thin that every postulant/novice can here muffled talking through it, similar to sitting in a pew just outside a confessional. Father Simon Mary sleeps in his underwear on a lumpy mattress made of straw. He is disturbed at all hours, day and night, by postulants/novices for spiritual direction. He got very little sleep. If he was woken up in the middle of the night and wanted to quickly go back to sleep after spiritual direction, he might not bother to put on clothes.

Since his cell was in the novitiate and he being tasked to observe all the postulants/novices, he would shower in the bathroom nearest his cell. Postulants/novices can behave badly when their novice master isn’t around. I don’t think it would be appropriate if they had a “safe zone” in the novitiate bathroom where they could do or say whatever they wanted to with no repercussions. Father Simon Mary would use this time to discover hidden faults and unusual behavior, perhaps to weed out homosexuals.

I don’t know Sister Anne but I did know Joseph who seems to have reached out to her for assistance before entering another community. Joseph was appreciated by the community and they hoped he would have stayed longer there to give it more of a shot. To be fair to the community, let’s consider that Joseph was there for less than a week and may not have gotten the whole picture after such a short time.

I met the bishop while I was there. He liked the community and I thought he seemed very fatherly, despite my apprehensions about his close ties to Cardinal Chaput. I thought a traditional community might be in his crosshairs. The monks just want to survive when contemplative life is so much under attack. If they contribute funds to the bishop, my guess is so that he just lets them have a traditional monastic life, not a bribe to cover up disorders.

Knowing the monks, I think they don’t respond to Church Militant because it is contrary to their charism which is one of hiddeness and complete detachment from the world. They have been offered interviews by National Geographic and many more famous media outlets but they have declined.

CM

Thanks for the response. You didn't tell us your name.

Nick

I’d give you my full name and you could interrogate me as much as you want but I would first want to sign some kind of agreement and I’d want you to retract a few things if you discovered that nothing was seriously wrong here. I’m not saying that this community and the leadership don’t have their faults but I’d say that every traditional community has their own particular problems. If this monastery wasn’t for me, that is my own perspective but many balanced young men find happiness here and it isn’t right to turn people away from that based on the perspective of a few people that have spent only a short time there and may have not gained an understanding of why certain things are done the way that they are. Some things seem odd at first but you really have to live a day in the monks shoes to know why it has to be that way.

 

CM 

Augustine had the courage to come out with his full name. So did the novice who backed him up.

Nick

While CM is Catholic media, you are still media and I know how this thing works. I don’t lack courage but I’m not an idiot.