Friday, July 8, 2016

Michael Voris - Doubling Down On Denial Of Serious Papal Problems

Generally I've found Michael Voris and his Church Militant TV apostolate to be very informative and helpful through the years - particularly the Vortex series.  Regrettably though, he's evinced denial of the serious problems that Pope Francis continues to pose for the Faith.  When these episodes have presented themselves, I (and others) have seen it necessary to refute them for they are full of logical flaws.  Indeed, it is only the utilization of flawed logic that would cause one to deny evidence that repeatedly presents itself to the public.  If logical fallacies aren't the root causes of the denials, the latter might be engaged at the request of a donor.  It's one or the other; I don't know which.  At any rate, see here, here, here, herehere

As I did in most of those previous posts, I'm going to analyze the lack of logic posed in this Vortex.  I may not necessarily go in the same order as the script of this Vortex.
  • In the first paragraph, Voris acknowledges the problematic and even harmful nature of the pope's repeated erroneous remarks.  As he states, a blind person can see the glaring problems.
  • In the second paragraph, his train of thought starts to jump the rails.  He talks of this "industry of blasting the pope for his confusing conflicting statements".  Industry?  First, we are kept busy addressing the confusing statements, but that's because they issue from his mouth non-stop (especially when he's aboard planes).  Second, let's be clear that "addressing the confusing statements" is NOT equivalent to "blasting the pope".  I truly believe that a donor is feeding this script to Voris.  Then he talks of a notion that "everything that's wrong in the Church can be solved by the pope".  That's not a correct picture of the papacy at all.  He does have the sacred charge of safeguarding the deposit of faith.  Unfortunately these "conflicting statements" have had the effect of endangering the deposit of faith.  Is it too much to ask that the pope not pose a danger to the faith?
  • Later on, he talks of the rebellion of many bishops against the faith.  That's true.  Where was the current pope five years ago?  Was he in the ranks of those rebellious bishops?  Read this article that details Cardinal Bergoglio's "spit in the eye" to Pope Benedict after the latter delivered his Regensburg address.  What would Voris say of that???  This puts in an ominous light the allowance by Pope Francis to Muslims for praying to their idol in the Vatican gardens.
  • Further down he opines that Pope St Pius X tried to stop modernism but then says he "accomplished nothing".  I beg to differ.  Pius actually had the modernists scurrying to hide.  True, the modernists are quite open now, but that's only because the reforms instituted by Pius weren't continued.
  • He talks of the delusion of being a "more friendly, accommodating Church", but doesn't acknowledge that Pope Francis is aboard that bandwagon (Amoris Laetetia talking of admitting adulterers to Holy Communion, etc).
  • He complained about EWTN addressing the confusion that is being caused by the pope (is a donor at the root cause of that complaint?).  I presume he's kvetching about this excellent video by Raymond Arroyo.  In the past, EWTN has been silent about misbehaviors by errant bishops, for which the Vortex has rightly chided them.  But this Vortex and that recent EWTN clip almost cause me to think that EWTN and Church Militant are switching places when it comes to facing and acknowledging the damage being caused by the pope.
  • Moving on down, Voris says that "Years before the controversies around Pope Francis, before he was known anywhere outside of Argentina, Church Militant was saying the problem in the Church is unfaithful bishops, weak bishops, career-minded bishops and ignorant bishops."  They certainly did so.  Now where does CM think that then-Cardinal Bergoglio fit into that mix?  Let's look at some of the Masses celebrated by Cardinal Bergoglio, shall we?
  • Then Voris follows that with these questions: "What if the Pope came out tomorrow and said no more Holy Communion in the hand, no more altar girls, no more heretics speaking at the L.A. Archdiocese Religious Education Conference, no more cardinals leading parades with gays, no more horrible catechesis being taught in schools (provided he would even know any of this) — what if he came out and did all this? >Do you really think your local bishop in your local diocese, or the national conferences of Catholic bishops in all sorts of countries, would give it the slightest attention?"  These questions are absolutely irrelevant.  They constitute no justification whatsoever for lack of proper papal action.
  • I don't have time right now to go through this whole mess, but I will close with a look at this blooper: "Well, all the problems in the Church are local — and it's the bishops. It's the bishops. It's the bishops."  Not so!  Doesn't the word "Catholic" imply "universal"?  If Voris really believes this nonsense, then by what logic can he oppose giving autonomy to local bishops' conferences?  Ubi Petri, ibi ecclesiam.  (I hope I have that Latin right)  Again, who/what is force-feeding this nonsense into the Vortex?
He closes by saying the real issue is the "disobedient bishops".  Well, might one of these "disobedient bishops" be the Bishop of Rome (as he likes to call himself)?  I hope this is the last time that I have to go through this analysis, but if the occasion presents itself again, we faithful Catholic bloggers will be up to the task.

30 comments:

  1. Catholics crying out for the spiritual abuse of our loved ones to stop is an 'industry'?

    Absolutely ridiculous.

    Especially coming from a man whose apostolate exposes the errors of bishops.

    I don't think Michael suffers from maladies of logic. My suspicion is this bizarre dog and pony show is put on at the request of a donor.

    Ugh. I can't stand it!

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  2. Pope Francis is a Jesuit. That explains everything.

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  3. One really has to wonder what happened to this guy....he is the Director Comey of the blogosphere.

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  4. Why would a donor request this bizarre dog and pony show?

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    1. It just might make sense if a hypothetical donor were him/herself a "papal pollyanna" who won't brook any criticism of papal words or actions. Opus Dei is one such group that, as matter of policy, won't ever criticize a pontiff.

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  5. Yes. Michael lost it with this one. See the comments on the mentioned CM video.

    Also, see Raymond Arroyo’s excellent interview with Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal on The World Over of 2016-06-23 which tells it like it is without the bias comments.

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    1. And MV is upset for what he sees as a a hypocritical change in EWTN. I would say good for EWTN to go with the right kind of blowing of the wind.

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  6. Excellent article! You have nailed it.

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  7. I think Michael shares a character flaw with the Pope....narcissism. pay no attention to his verbal diarrhea.

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  8. Michael is apparently still experiencing the effects of inverted thinking.

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  9. "He is the Directir Comey of the blogosphere"

    This made me LOL.

    Truth is stranger than fiction!

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  10. I watched this episode. Almost like Michael Voris was saying that the Pope doesn't have much say in what goes on in the Church.

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    1. That was my take too. Like the pope was completely powerless and basically useless when it comes to controlling the Bishops and leading the Church. It was a depressing Vortex!

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  11. I see we both had issues with this particular episode of The Vortex.

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  12. I simply don't understand this logic. Pope Francis regularly throws into doubt and confusion vast swaths of Catholic moral and doctrinal teaching and we're told silence is an obligation of obedience?!

    That's pure nonsense. We are obliged as Catholics FIRST to obey Christ and to oppose those who oppose Him, even if it be the Pope.

    Secondly, the rebellion of Bishops is a red herring in the issue at hand. Pope Francis is shoring up their heterodoxy with his own published errors.

    That's a huge problem for the faithful priests and Bishops who remain. Pope Francis has effectively pulled the rug out from beneath them. Their moral authority has been grossly undermined by statements, policies and documents issued by the Pope himself, who also said in a recent interview he will rid the Church of conservatives who oppose him by welcoming their retirement and replacing them with Bishops who share his progressive, modernist positions.

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  13. Very strange episode, I agree. Voris starts out with facts and ends up saying; 'But the Pope's hands are tied.' (???) Does he not buy the statements coming directly from the Pope himself?? I don't get his logic. The rest of his Vortex was kind of incoherent.

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  14. It's "Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia"

    It's easy to check too. You type what you think it is "Ubi Petri, ibi ecclesiam" into something like Google and you follow the corrections it provides until you get to an authentic Catholic rendition. All in all it takes about 30 seconds.

    Getting something like a well known Catholic Latin quote wrong is sloppy blogging

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  15. Oh...Oh.... you are moderating everything. Someone doesn't like being criticized. A touch hypocritical don't you think

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    1. Ladies and gentlemen, please go to the Vortex and see how this individual has been insulting all commenters who have taken issue with the Vortex. Also notice when he sent his two comments above - after midnight when most folks (including me) have gone to bed for the night. Unless he's completely out of touch with reality (and that is a possibility), he knew it would be several hours before I saw the comments and pretends that I didn't post his comments because I "don't like being criticized.

      Now Festus, since you mentioned "hypocrisy", I think you exemplified it very well when you sent your last reply to me, knowing full well that all my comments had been deleted from the Vortex (at your instigation?). Not to worry - Disqus did save them so I'll be making them the subject of a later post (along with your email). I'm doing that so that the viewers can see that while comments from Catholics like me are pulled from the Vortex, insulting comments like the ones from Festus (is he affiliated with the Vortex?) are deemed acceptable.

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    2. Festus lives in Ireland, so that may have something to do with the timing of his posts.

      Re Church Militant, their position vis-a-vis Pope Francis is nothing less than dishonest.

      We all know... all of us, including Michael Voris... that if Pope Francis were still only the ordinary of Buenos Aires but saying the things he says as pope and doing the things he does as pope that Church Militant would be stridently attacking him as a "bad" and "disobedient" bishop.

      Everybody knows that. Absolutely everybody. Even the people at Church Militant. They fool no one.

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    3. Even so, he should be well aware of US times. Thus, it still is patently disingenuous to criticize me for not posting his comments when he posted at 5am his time when he knew full well that most US east coast people would be asleep.

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    4. True.

      I would venture a guess, however, that the real reason behind his criticism is the content of what you say about the pope.

      People who think like he does believe that no one can criticize any pope for any reason whatsoever. If someone days, they become Enemy #1.

      Not the sodomite priests, abortion promoting nuns, bishops with boyfriends, heretics of all stripes, blasphemers, adulterers, et cetera.

      You.

      It is symptomatic of major cognitive dissonance.

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  16. Just to add: Takes me a while to digest some of the 'illogical stances' of Voris, but one thing that comes to mind; I recently had an email from CM asking me to 'come back'. I cancelled my subscription quite a while back after he threw Bishop Schneider under the bus for saying positive attributes of the SSPX in an interview with Voris. That was (for me) the straw that broke the camel's back. The invitation to return tells me they are loosing support. Well, if they are loosing support, this is a perfect way to at least get the publicity needed to help drive some back to CM. And....at the same time reiterate his 'hands off the Pope' stance. So....he kills 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

    As far as being the front man for a 'donor'? There is really no other conclusion one can come to logically speaking. He has to know that Jesus didn't give Peter the reigns just to sit there and be a lap dog for Peter's followers. (the Bishops) Voris turns Jesus' words to Peter on its head.

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  17. Do you think Raymond Arroyo saw Church Militant's Vortex rebuking Arroyo and EWTN: https://twitter.com/RaymondArroyo/status/752232329163247620
    ;)

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  18. I too had my " negative " comment regarding that particular Vortex removed yesterday. Shortly there after the "comment section" was closed. Francis's remarks about cohabitation are beyond comprehension.and are inexcusable!
    I had cancelled my subscription to CM previously but joined again to hear the interviews of Bps. Schneider, Gracida and Alice VonHildebrand. Today I'm calling to cancel once again. Unless they hang up on me they will have to listen as to why I'm cancelling.
    This article was spot on.......thank you!

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  19. I did indeed just cancel my premium subscription to CM. I was asked if there was a particular reason for the cancellation. I then proceeded to tell her that when I tried to voice my opinion regarding the Vortex " Rome Be Damned" my comment was " removed." After 10 minutes of dialog and excuses I read her my comment, and asked her to explain its removal. The following is my entire (remove) comment to CM:

    " The issue here isn't what the pope DIDN'T do or DIDN'T say, it's about what he DID say. For any Pontiff to say " some cohabitating couples are in a 'real marriage' receiving the grace of the sacrament" is beyond comprehension! And for you not to call him on it is a travisty. I will take the advice given by Bishop Gracida in your interview with him......."THAT IS NOT TRUE."

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  20. "He closes by saying the real issue is the "disobedient bishops"

    Disobedient to whom? They are not disobedient to the Pope, they are all following in the Pope's footsteps in obedience, just like Voris says they should. So why should he complain about the bishops?

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  21. I cancelled my CM membership last year and I have not seen anything out of Mr. Voris that would make me consider coming back.

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