Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Beware of the Usual Suspects


Just when you thought it was safe to change the channel from EWTN ...


Get ready, the mainstream liberal media will be bombarding the airwaves, internet and blogosphere with the rantings and ravings of the heterodox spin doctors and dissident pundits once B16 lands on US soil.


Dan Rather may be retired, but CBS, ABC, NBC, and of course CNN will go to their usual pool of Catholic malcontents, miscreants and recalcitrants to offer their 'balanced' view lest anyone suspect for a moment the secular media would give Pope Benedict or the Catholic Church a free ride. The shrinking minority of the so-called 'loyal opposition' (a true oxymoron) will be given free air time during the papal visit as has been done in the past during the reign of JP2.


Sister Joan Chittester, OSB, who opined that the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI was the equivalent of a 'spiritual tsunami' will be the most conspicuous 'expert' consulted by the social progressive, secular humanist media elite. Then of course, Father Thomas Reese (everyone's favorit Jesuit) and Fr. Richard McBrien (who will mysteriously find and wear his clerical attire while on camera, but just on papal visits, mind you) will be given a chance to spew their 'side' of the story. American media thinks it is being 'fair' when they give equal time to theological dissenters just as if this were the Democratic response to the Republican President's State of the Union Address.


There is no such thing as 'loyal opposition' when it comes to TRUTH, be it doctrinal or moral. Science does not tolerate contradiction. Either 2 + 2 = 4 is true or it is false. It CANNOT be both. Either the Pope and Magisterium are correct or they are false. Since the dissenters contradict the authentic teaching authority of the Church, they oppose God, the source of Revelation. They oppose the Son of God Who founded the Church on Peter and the Apostles (and their successors the pope and bishops in union with him)


Voice of the Faithful and We Are Church and every Tom, Dick and Harry lapsed Catholic will find a microphone and camera, just wait and see. You won't find many reporters interviewing Mother Angelica, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, or Karl Keating (Catholic Answers). We will see ex-priests, ex-nuns and ex-Catholics complaining about no women priests; no married clergy; no abortion; no contraception; no gay marriages; etc. Will the cameras, however, show you the YOUNG and HAPPY women in large numbers who wear traditional habits like the Poor Clares at EWTN or the Nashville Dominicans? Will we see the growing numbers of seminarians in dioceses where the bishop is orthodox and where the sacraments are celebrated reverently and correctly? No, they will show you the decaying and dying vestiges of the infamous 'spirit of Vatican II' church. Priests and nuns in street attire, not wearing ecclesiastical garb; and usually old, grumpy and obnoxious throw-backs to the 1960's besides.


Pollsters will tell us that a 'majority' of Catholics disagree with the Pope and Magisterium. Even if it were true, SO WHAT? Does the vox populi determine reality? When everyone thought the world flat, did it make it so? But I question the veracity of those figures. Who pays these bean counters to crunch the numbers? If the majority of Catholics renounce Catholic doctrine and discipline, why do they stay Catholic? Why is Catholicism still the largest religion on earth with over one BILLION members? Why are converts still coming into full communion with the Catholic Church every Easter Vigil around the globe? When 3 MILLION young people came to Rome for WYD towards the end of Pope John Paul's pontificate, the news media barely covered the event. Had three of those youth got drunk and turned over a Fiat, it would have been a breaking news flash.


Buckle your seat belts, boys and girls, it is going to be a bumpy ride, at least from the perspective of the secular media. On the other hand, watch the coverage on EWTN and you WILL see and hear what is really out there; a Catholic RENAISSANCE, begun by JP2 and continuing with B16.



13 comments:

Mary said...

I hope cablevision in the Paterson, NJ area gives EWTN full air time vs. the 8 hours a day it normally gives it, the rest goes to TBN. I will have to suffer through the secular media's coverage of it.

Christine the Soccer Mom said...

Dearest Father, that is why I will only watch EWTN when my beloved Holy Father comes!

Wall-to-wall orthodox coverage without any dissenters! It's going to be the biggest homeschool unit of the week!

God bless you, Father. :)

Brandon said...

Absolutely. But Father, how much do you want to bet that they'll dig Rather up and put him back on as an expert?

I say that the entire Dioceses of Lincoln, Omaha, Covington go and camp out on every news-desk in America.

Hoka2_99 said...

Dearest Father, I have a satellite dish and box for EWTN ONLY, as that is the only channel I wish to watch. Rarely do I watch BBC or the other British channels.
EWTN is my comfort and joy!
I'm looking forward so much to next week. God bless our Holy Father Pope Benedict and keep him safe, always!

Thank you to everyone at EWTN!
Mary

Anonymous said...

I originally read this post on Fr. Z's Blog and followed his link here so I could comment as well.

Well done Father! As I said at Fr. Z's - You just became one of my favorite priests!

BTW, when I 'reverted' 23 months ago, the first book I purchased besides a 1962 Daily Roman Missal was your book - Catholicism for Dummies. I read it cover to cover in a few days.

Deo Gratias,

Mark

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

Now that I have EWTN, it's not leaving the channel.

Anonymous said...

You know what's funny? Liberals who bring up the history of Ratzinger's past when he was a member of Hitler's youth as if they keep reminding us of that. For the fun of it, type in Hitler, Sanger, and Theosophy into the search engine and see what you come up with.

It shouldn't surprise us that the liberal left is crying a river as usual. They know their arguments have no beef to them. When we catch them in a lie they attempt to change the subject. The communistic media continually ignores all the facts that EWTN presents. It is a wonder why you see so many misinformed Catholics beating their war drums for "married priesthood", "womenpriesthood", condoms, abortion, and gay marriages ect.

Sanger would be perching w/ glee if she saw the mess we are in today. Bin Ladin accuses the Pope of "launching a crusade". I had to bit my tongue and think, "we must be doing something right." Sniff, sniff....love this Pope. :D

He's holy, the holiest Pope we've had since Pius XII. B16's pontificate will be long remembered.

Tom Ryan said...

I'm expecting to see a lot more decorum from the crowds than we saw in the JP2 days.

Media acting like fools is expected. But, I expect more from our fellow Catholics

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Father, for the cartoon. It occurred to me that (certainly on this side of the Pond) the "liberal" would probably be the sister in the full habit. Wolves in sheeps clothes and all that. It's long been a tactic of the religious "handbag and hairdoo" crowd in the UK to appear in traditional religious garb ONLY when they want to criticise the Church and the Holy Father. Such dowdy spinsters would usually rather been seen dead than to wear any exterior sign of their consecration to the Lord Jesus!

Anonymous said...

i will never forget watching a bill moyers show on pbs (yuck, i know) documenting the election of B16. they showed joan chitt. and a writer from "the tablet" in the square as the announcement was being made. the writer turns to sr. joan and hisses, "damn, it's ratzinger" sr. joan's face became a mask. it was priceless.
"damn, it's ratzinger" has become the phrase my DH and i use whenever anything great comes from the pen or mouth of our beloved Papa.

Black Biretta said...

I saw that show. It was FRONTLINE. A print reporter for a newspaper was doing a piece on a television reporter covering the papal conclave after JP2 died. Instead of being an objective and dispassionate reporter, the TV person openly showed support for 'liberal' papabili and disdain for the likes of Raztinger. The scene you describe was in the Piazza of Saint Peter's. The TV reporter was interviewing (Sr.) Joan Chittister, OSB. During the interview, WHITE smoke came out the chimney and Sister's face turned dire and disgusted while she uttered a 'damn' with her lips and said, "this soon, it's got to be Ratzinger." The TV reporter cried in disbelief and sadness while Chittester frowned and fumed. Meanwhile, the crowd around them went NUTS in jubilant joy. Papa Ratzinger! Viva il Papa! Screams of happiness and joy from the multitude while the two sad sacks went off camera to like their wounds. I LOVED IT.

The next day, Sr. Chittester said "it was a spiritual tsumani when they elected Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI." How pathetic and how tragic. Talk about sore losers.

Anonymous said...

i've tried to BUY a copy of that show because that scene was so funny and telling at the same time. i've told many friends about and wished i could show it to them.

Tom Ryan said...

Altar girls not withstanding, this visit is shaping up to be more dignified than previous papal visits.

The folks over at WDTPRS seem to agree:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/04/fr-trigilio-on-a-tear-and-he-may-be-right/

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