Schism of Dissent John Hearn 9 Jan 03
The
laity have from ancient times been on the frontlines of the war against heresy
VOTF
was only "news" as long as Cardinal Law was still around. As far as the mainstream press was
concerned, the fate of Law was "the story", and VOTF was cast as the
"revolting laity" ) The instant that Law resigned, the only thing the
press wanted from The Faithful (tm) was their official reaction; after that,
VOTF was just old news. The whole
problem with VOTF's strategy was that it depended almost entirely on outrage
and glaring headlines. Not
understanding the true nature of the Church and the power of the supernatural,
they made politics their main focus and prayer was just window dressing. Thus, the whole VOTF project was built
on sand, being radically dependant on the power of the fickle press and public
opinion.
I
saw that study that came out about the sexual abuse of nuns and sisters, and although this study
has several serious flaws, the one thing that impressed me, and that no one
seems to have picked up on, is that the overwhelming majority of these women
that reported being abused were abused as young kids by members of their own
families. The overwhelming
problem of sexual abuse is not now and has never been by the Catholic clergy, but
by trusted
members of the abused kid's own families on whom they were dependent for the necessities
of life and love. Now this is old
news, so this horrendous fact was simply passed over by the press and the
public in the heat of the latest scandal.
I think that this fact should give warning to any group that thinks it
can depend on the continued outrage and press clippings to enact its agenda
past the first six months.
So VOTF, not really understanding what they were doing or
with Whom they were messing, and confident nonetheless in their vast worldly
wisdom and manifest talent as shining sons and daughters of BC, have been giving
everyone , who is paying attention , a wonderful lesson on just how not to go
about reforming the Church. In the process VOTF has preformed the vital, if
unintended, service of helping to expose the vast effective schism of dissent
that exists in the Catholic Church in America. This battle has "smoked out"
many bastions of heresy that the bishops have tolerated in the past and will
tend not to in the future. The
real faithful laity has also been aroused in a way that will not pass as
quickly as the outrage at this "situation". In parishes across this land, lay people are waking up to
the mess that Modernism has made of their churches and diocese. This is all part of the "New
Evangelization" that our Holy Father has so prophetically proclaimed, and
this will continue long after the headlines and the press are a distant
memory. The laity have from ancient times been on the front lines of the war
against heresy, and they will support any priest or bishop who has the
fortitude to do his job.
In
Him,
mailto:JohnH@FaithfulVoice.com
P.S. "By the way, have you noticed that The Faithful (tm) has been
noticeably
absent
from the mainstream press lately?"
Isn’t this new "philosophy" something ?
I just took a look at the new "Centrist Philosophy" and I
must say that I was rather disappointed at both its lack of content and its
evident dishonesty. The Catholic
Church is not just some earthly institution that you can trifle with, but the
very Body of Christ and the stakes are as
important
as your soul's eternal destiny. It
is therefore dismaying in the extreme to see this as the guiding principle of a
group that wishes to "Change the Church":
Voice of the Faithful members represent
the "great middle" of the Catholic Church - "the people in the
pews." Our philosophy is "centrist," not extremist. We have
joined together with the aim of restoring trust between the Catholic laity and
hierarchy - and rebuilding the Church, not tearing it down. We are also
"inclusive," as Jesus was inclusive, and we seek to present this
model to the Church hierarchy as an alternative to a closed and deeply flawed
clerical culture. We are committed to providing an open and safe forum for ALL
Catholics to freely and respectfully discuss the challenges of our Church,
regardless of their views on specific issues. We take no position on any sex or
gender issues and have no interest in doing so. Our sole aim is to bring the
laity to the table of governance and guidance of the Church per the moral
imperatives of Vatican II.
Here it is! A "philosophy" that says not one word of what VOTF
really stands for - which people in what pews? And what "moral imperatives of Vatican II?" Are the rubes you wish to deceive not
even to be told what documents of Vat II you are using to justify your power
grab? This is a
very
serious enterprise that you are involved in, when are you going to get serious and stop publishing such
mindless blather on your official web site?
By the way, this is what Jesus said
about "centrists" in His Church: "I know your works, that you
are neither cold nor hot.
So
then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit
you
out of My mouth." (Rev 3:15,16)
mailto:JohnH@FaithfulVoice.com
The
following are message that were refused admission to the message board of VOTF
If
your message was refused , please forward it to
I never
joined VOTF, but I did spent quite a bit of time on this organization's message
board trying in vane to get straight answers to two questions: what faith are
the VOTF leaders willing to keep, and what sort of change do they are they
planning to impose on the Church?
I have no problem supporting victims of predatory priests or of any other sort of sexual predator, these people need our prayers and encouragement on their journey towards peace and forgiveness. But I see little real support from VOTF to these people apart from bland and general statements of support for "the victims" and an implied invitation for them to join VOTF in bringing down the hierarchy in general and Cardinal Law in particular.
What the VOTF leadership seems truly focused on is gaining power in the American Catholic Church (as apposed to the Catholic Church in America) which is the half realized dream of many of the sort of dissenting Catholics that VOTF seems to attract. This "Amchurch" would be freed from the cloying toils of Rome to wander the same vapid frontiers of modern "theology" that have been pioneered by many dieing main-line Protestant denominations.
The “Amchurch” would also
like to end up with much of the real estate currently owned by the CC in A
(given the horrible and sterile architecture of many of the new and
"renovated" churches, this may not be an altogether bad thing) and
many of the churches institutions and organizations. At least that's the idea.
It seems to me that VOTF is seeking to spark this schismatic revolution by taking over the Boston Archdiocese by means of fiscal strangulation and the engendering of an even more strident altitude of disobedience on the part of the Boston "faithful." So how does all of this relate to my questions?
It is my contention that VOTF is being
dishonest to both the Catholics it is trying to influence and the victims of
priestly abuse that it claims to
champion. By failing repeatedly to come clean
about their real agenda, the VOTF leadership is conning the former and
exploiting the misery of the
latter. Any orthodox Catholic who spent any
time on the now closed VOTF message board soon discovered this basic dishonesty
and the kinds of tactics that VOTF was willing to employ in stiffeling any
debate that seemed to be going the "wrong" way. To sum up, I would say that any
orthodox Catholic would be crazy to join this group, and I would advise any
dissenting Catholic to find a group that is at least out front about who they
are and what they wish to accomplish.
Your
brother in Christ,
John
mailto:JohnH@FaithfulVoice.com
Date: Thu Jan 9 20:04:08 2003
To: <message@faithfulvoice.com>
Subject: Message
Board / VOTF
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
noticed you had a line in your last article on your website about
forwarding
refused messages from the old VOTF board to you. Wanted to point
out
I have a bulletin board that is for this topic
http://www.thechurchmilitant.org/forum/
Thanks and God bless , ,j