Weigels's Sinful Suggestion To Play The Three Monkeys

First let me share with you a little gem that I read this past summer.

Now that you've taken a stroll through that diatribe, I'd like to point out a few things.  There is, of course, the socialistic kvelling about the "gap" between the wages of CEOs and their employees.  In the right-hand column she asks, "what will it take to bring executive pay under control?"  My reply to that would be another question: "under the control of whom or what?"  Well, you get the drift..

This thing reads like coursework from "socialism 101" or maybe the Pravda.  But it isn't, as you see in the top and the bottom.  I was at Maryland's eastern shore this past summer.  That area lies within the Diocese of Wilmington and the clip above is from the Diocese's official newspaper, The Dialog.  Moreover, you see at the bottom that this article came from the Catholic News Service, the official propaganda arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  One would hope that a Catholic newspaper would be printing things designed to encourage use of the Sacraments or meditation on the Last Four Things: in other words, matters pertaining to our eternal salvation, for the salvation of souls is the Church's mission.  Sadly its dereliction of duty is not the exception, but the rule.

And that, George Weigel, is why we bloggers and - how did you so eloquently define us? - "hysteria-mongers and propagandists" must continue our work.  We have to counteract the communist codswallop (such as the Dialog piece above) and advise our fellow Catholics of the true dangers that threaten our Church, many of those dangers being inflicted by the current pontiff.

As another "case in point" regarding the absolute uselessness and even dishonesty of the "reliable Catholic news" that Weigel lovingly extols. recall the horrific way in which Father Marcel Guarnizo was treated at my parish almost eight years ago.  This was in the Archdiocese of Washington and much of the thuggery that he endured was at the hands of the DC chancery, then headed by Cardinal Wuerl.  Neither the Catholic Standard or Our Parish Times uttered one peep over that disgraceful incident, although in the secular outlets, it was broadcast world-wide.  The two Catholic publications in the area, by their silence, not only showed themselves to be utterly useless but patently dishonest as well. By the way - I understand that George Weigel resides in Montgomery County MD, within the Archdiocese of Washington.  I just tried to google anything that he might have written about the matter, but my search yielded nothing.  If any such work exists, please advise via the combox.  Otherwise, I might find such absence to be quite telling.

The LifeSiteNews piece gives a summary of Janet Smith's rebuttal of Weigel.  I think it is excellent, but I do have one minor disagreement with her.  She writes, "those who are excessively troubled by the relentless revelations should lmit themselves to reading only safe sources".  No.  For one thing, what constitutes "safe"?  Those sources that paint happy-clappy pictures of Church situations sin by dishonesty.  Moreover, I would challenge those "excessively troubled" to stop playing the wimp, to stiffen the spines, thicken the skins, harden the noses and just plain grow up.  We are the Chuirch Militant, not the Church Mellow nor the Church Miserable nor the Church Milquetoast.  We are to fight for the Church, not take flight and run.

Mainstream Catholic Media - Their Sinful Disregard For The Truth

Last year Greta Van Suserten interviewed Sarah Palin.  Both agreed that the mainstream media had become partners of the Obamanistas by covering up their dangerous derelictions of duty.  I'll post the video and below that, I have some words for the Catholic mainstream media.



What these ladies said goes double for the Catholic mainstream media.  By that, I mean the Catholic News Service (arm of the USCCB), all the diocesan media outlets (our own Catholic Standard leads the pack in mediocrity).  I regret that I must add EWTN to that group; were Mother Angelica of decent health, I'm sure EWTN would never have devolved into a "church of nice" brown-nosing outfit.

I started this blog because the Catholic Standard would not address real issues facing Catholics.  Most notably at the time, they wouldn't address the terrible disobedience to Canon 915 that was demonstrated by Cardinal McCarrick, then Archbishop of Washington.  Until that time, the Standard at least had a "letters to the editor" section.  At that time, the section was permanently discontinued.

Then, of course, there was the incident two Lents ago, at my own Church, when a priest at my parish actually obeyed Canon 915 and was promptly thrown under the bus for it.  Remember Father Marcel Guarnizo?  The incident made international news.  Not one peep was mentioned in the Standard, nor was it mentioned in Our Parish Times, published by the Catholic Businessmen's Network.  That is nothing short of dishonesty by omission, and a complete disregard for standards of journalism.

So if the "lamestream media" (to coin Palin's term) won't do their job, it's up to us -the laity to do it for them.  Hence the existence of this blog and many others (some on the right tool bar).  That is one of the points made in yesterday's Vortex.  We need to be talking about these matters.  We need to shine the light on cockroaches and to do so relentlessly.  We are the Church Militant, not the Church Mellow nor the Church Milquetoast nor the Church Meelymouth.

Ora et labora!

Catholic Mainstream Media - Thoroughly Corrupt

I've known for some time now that the mainstream Catholic media is nothing more than mouthpieces for the US bishops.  About 10 years ago, Cardinal McCarrick caused much rancor when he made plain his disdain for Canon 915.  Hundreds of people wrote letters to the Catholic Standard (archdiocesan paper) to protest.  At that time, the Standard abandoned its "letters to the editor" column.  It was that decision (among other factors) that impelled me to start this blog's sister website and to start shining the light on nonsense occurring here and elsewhere.

There is another bi-monthly publication by the Catholic Business Network that focuses on parishes (and advertisements for its members).  It's called Our Parish Times.  The CBN has always had permission to distribute OPT in parishes and as bulletin inserts.  In the beginning, they were definitely a grade or two above the Standard.  They weren't afraid to tackle some of the real issues facing the church.  However, once Bob McCarthy's column (the best one) disappeared from OPT, it because another milquetoast happy-clappy rag just like the Standard.  I might point out that when Father Guarnizo was treated so shamefully by the Archdiocese of Washington two lents ago, neither the Standard nor OPT saw fit to utter a peep about it - although the incident made international news.

Below the jump break I post two Vortex videos that detail just how pervasive is the corruption of mainstream Catholic media - and why we bloggers are desperately needed.

First Part Of Attacks On The Vortex

When I put up the Mic'd Up post yesterday, I didn't realize that I was posting only the second part of Wednesday's two-hour broadcast.  My apologies for any confusion.  Below is the first part.

Attacks On The Vortex Apostolate (And On Others Like It)

On Wednesday evening Michael Voris did a live broadcast discussing the repercussions he (and some others) have experienced for exposing corruption within the Church hierarchy.  If you missed it then, here it is now.  Please watch.  It's long but worth the time.  As you watch, consider that this blog and its sister website were created in order to side-step the silence and stonewalling of the Catholic Standard in regards to Cardinal McCarrick's refusal to obey Canon 915 and his habit of hob-nobbing with pro-abortion big-wigs.

How Mainstream Catholic Media Facilitates Rot Inside The Church

Yoo-hoo!  Catholic Standard and Our Parish Times!  Please take note!

UPDATE - If you're visiting this blog for the first time because of The Tenth Crusade's excellent post, permit me to properly introduce this blog.  The title of it will indicate that I'm located in Montgomery County MD, within the Archdiocese of Washington.  It (and the earlier sister website) was started to address real concerns that many of us have with the governance of this archdiocese AND because of the silence of the Catholic Standard.  The latter is the official news organ of the archdiocese.  For some time it had a "letters to the editor" section that was at one time rather fair about printing our letters.  That feature immediately ceased when understandable controversy arose because of Cardinal McCarrick's refusal to obey Canon 915 and his abysmal habit of cozying up to pro-abortion public figures (most notably the late Ted Kennedy, John Sweeney and Sr Carol Keehan).  I inaugurated our earlier website with this open letter to Cardinal McCarrick and have been publishing ever since.   I hope you find this, and the other linked material, to be useful.  Thank you.

Mainstream Catholic Media - Aiding And Abetting The Culture Of Death

In today's Vortex, Michael Voris touches upon a key reason why this blog and its sister website were created - to do the job that the Catholic Standard refused to do, and still refuses to do.  We originally sought to put Catholics in the MD/DC area (meaning the Archdiocese of Washington, Archdiocese of Baltimore and Diocese of Wilmington) in touch with realistic information regarding the Church and the culture at large.  We still have that goal while realizing that we can serve the larger Church as well.

Voris is spot-on as he describes the "careerism" that has infected the minds of so many "officials" in various Church enterprises, including the media.  I congratulate him for naming names in the second half of the presentation.  I will say a word about EWTN, but solely in Mother Angelica's defense.  It has only been after her illness and subsequent infirmity that EWTN went "squishy" on us all; pray for Mother as this must pain her greatly.

Of course I'd add to the list the Catholic Standard and the paper sponsored by the Catholic Business Network called Our Parish Times.  The latter is a paper that originated maybe ten years ago.  At one time it did deal with some hard issues honestly, mostly through one columnist.  For reasons that I can only imagine, that columnist no longer appears, and now the Times joins the Standard in featuring happy little photo-ops and maybe some pieces approved by USCCB or other such organs.  For an excellent "case in point", recall the situation with Father Marcel Guarnizo at St John Neumann during Lent 2012.  You saw it on this blog.  You saw it in the Washington Post and other secular outfits.  It was in fact international news.  However, neither the Catholic Standard nor Our Parish Times uttered one peep on the matter.  Such silence on the part of supposed journalists was downright dishonest.

Mainstream Catholic Media Mess

Michael Voris of the Vortex nails this right on the head with L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's own newspaper.  Not only did it deliberately disobey Vatican instructions by releasing snippets from the Pope's new book, but it has made brainless claims such as the Simpsons (that's a cartoon, folks!) being Catholic and praising Michael Jackson and the Beatles.

Actually, there's quite a list of Catholic mainstream media that needs some cleaning up.  Certainly the Catholic News Service and the National Catholic Reporter have some progressives spewing forth nonsense.  Sadly, many of the archdiocesan newspapers suffer the same maladies.  To the extent that they are directly controlled by their respective chanceries, the staff of those newspapers may have reduced culpability - but not completely eliminated.  I speak of those publications that insist on praising pro-abortion Catholic bigwigs and being utterly silent about doctrinal matters such as contraception, etc.  Yes, the Catholic Standard is included in that mix!

The statements above, and this Vortex video, make achingly plain why alternative sources for Catholic news are needed - such as this blog and those listed on the right tool bar and the Vortex itself.  Click here if you can't see embedded video.