For a few weeks now I've blogged about chicken little Catholicism; the sky is ALWAYS falling and NOTHING is good in TODAY's Church unless someone does something that agrees with ME. Catholic blogging, on balance, has done oh so much to evangelize and promote the faith. It has also been used by others to rail against the Church, EVERYDAY. To hear some on the internet, there must no longer be the guidance of the HOLY SPIRIT, or JESUS on the throne and the MAGISTERIUM must always know less than the blogger and the Church will FAIL. WOW! We have to be careful to elevate the chicken little proclaimers as the voice of authority for the ONE TRUE FAITH ESTABLISHED BY CHRIST, who promised that THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST HER.
And the Church will not be brought down by these internet bloggers, even those who do a pretty lame Bill O'Reilly imitation, spinning pencil and all.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about that makes me happy. But we might as well call this out. One individual layman, Michael Voris, who leads a ministry called Real Catholic TV, seems to have his panties in a wad over the Church post Vatican II. He proports to tell those who listen to his stuff that Catholic masses since the late sixties are mostly clown and puppet masses with nuns reading the Gospel and dancers performing at mass after mass. In the interest of fairness and balance, these things do occur, about 1/10th of 1 % of the time. Where they do; clearly abuses occur. Abuses; one of those things that was happening frequently in the western countries before the start of Vatican II with Masses celebrated in Latin. On one recent video, Voris showed a loosey goosey Mass full of abuses and said look at the Mass since Vatican II. He forgot to tell us that this was a "mass" of a loosely coordinated group of dissidents who were doing their own thing post excommunication. He screams where are the Bishops? My God. Another favorite clown Mass video is a non-Catholic celebration of a group of disaffected Episcopalians, Lutherans and such. But hear tell, it's the norm post Vatican II.
Fortunately, after two recent video's in the last month or so,many, who love the Church, warts and all, without demanding that it be shaped in MY OWN LIKENESS, many are calling Voris out. In one video, he proposes that governments need to be Catholic monarchies; cuz that worked out so well over history and now he claims that priests EVERYWHERE will fold to the ultra-green crowd and promote earth day or save the whales day, or whatever, over the EASTER GLORY. Dear Lord.
Now when sheer foolishness comes from the mouth of a Fr. Phleger or a left leaning Catholic politician it seems easy to call them out and correct them. But this guy Voris presents himself as a Church authority, like his videos carry some sort of impramatur, declaring the sky is falling and it can only be changed if we act like, well pre 1965.
Not once does Voris acknowledge that the Church is a construct of God, not man, and despite our mess ups can not fail. And the other major criticism surely has to be his level of insult, invective and nasty in describing anyone, Bishops included, who dont agree with, well, WITH HIM.
I do not dismiss errors or abuses lightly. I am an ordained member of the clergy. When I assist at Mass I do everything I can, guided by the Holy Spirit, to make sure the Mass is reverent, licit and valid. I guess all those who disagree with Voris, who have traveled the globe, witnessed Masses and Sacraments everywhere and have missed out on clown and puppet Masses, don't have that special connection that makes Voris an expert.
The following bloggers have said it far greater than I could. Please check out:
http://www.patheos.com/community/theanchoress/2011/04/14/the-church-is-not-a-democracy/
http://www.patheos.com/community/deaconsbench
http://markshea.blogspot.com/2011/04/if-catholic-star-starts-entertaining.html
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