Real Catholic Blog

It’s no secret I’ve become a big Michael Voris fan. It’s hard not to be. He’s bold, he’s aggressive and he’s right. He’s not afraid to confront the evils facing The Church within and beyond its walls. If he seems to focus on the former it’s because it’s the greater threat, as it is with any force trying to bring down an institution.

This week, the founder of RealCatholicTV.com started a series on progressives within The Church and goes into detail about their history, their aims and their motivation. They’ve already brought certain Christian denominations into irrelevancy, thus the schism we’ve seen in the Episcopal Church and the flight of many to the Evangelical movement. Now they want the Catholic Church to turn into nothing more than a social or community club that mires itself in moral equivalency.

For another lane on the same road, read George Neumayr’s piece in the latest issue of The American Spectator. It reveals the media and the political left’s assault on The Church and the Pope. 

Please watch the first two parts of the series. Think about what he says. Then, let me know what you think.

In the begining . . . . Progressives were innocuous.

Now, they have infested themselves in The Church for the purpose of ending it as we know it.

RealCatholicTV.com founder Michael Voris continues his series on the corruption of the Faith by those who would use the Church in America as an extension of a political party or movement. Rather than focus on souls and Biblical Truths, too often we find Church leaders involved in social justice issues to “accommodate” the secular world.

That is the exact path taken by many protestant liturgical denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, which suffered a schism in North America last year (in one of the most important and under reported events of the decade). It happened primarily because it ceased to stand for the Truth and allowed “truth” to become relative among its dioceses, its parishes and even unto its parishioners. Truly, card or bowling clubs are more grounded in principle than some denominations.

But the Faith isn’t about accommodation. It’s about Truth and spreading it for the salvation of souls. “Social justice” is great, but there are several ways to achieve solutions to secular social issues — not the one-size-fits-all-big-government “fixes” unfortunately adopted by too many Church leaders. Not that they should even take sides. Besides, how is “global warming” a social justice issue?

If our Bishops only stayed quiet on these types of matters it would go a long way to furthering the Truth in that they could focus on the issues that have only one solution, such as protecting the unborn and traditional marriage. These are the Scriptural Truths we are called to defend.

Mr. Voris doesn’t mince words. He is on, and to, the point. He is worth listening to. What do you think?

Michael Voris doesn’t hold back. The leadership of the American Catholic Church runs the risk of emulating the disintegrating protestant liturgical denominations.

There continues to be a lot of discussion on the acceptance of married Anglican priests into the Faith, as well as Anglican laity, who want to enter full communion with the Church. I have become fast friends with someone recently before she revealed to me she has left the Episcopal Church and now attends a traditional Catholic parish. She is in deep prayer and discernment over whether to make the complete commitment and transition. The Vatican’s recent announcement has plunged her into deeper thought about her current “orphan” status. She says she’s not the only one, either. So, here’s another video report on the issue, this one from Rome Reports.

Cardinal Levada speaks about the process for Anglicans/Episcopals, priests and laity, to enter the Church.

In 1995, Jeb Bush,the former Florida governor and the younger brother offormer president, George W. Bush, converted to the Faith from the Episcopal Church, and has been a steadfast and public defender of the Faith ever since. Because of he and his brother are very close, and the former president’s close relationship with many Catholic lay and clerical leaders, as well as his clear defense of life and marriage, many have suggested the possibility that he may become the next high-profile American public figure to convert (see Newt Gingrich). But it’s not likely.

At Communion and Liberation’s annual Rimini Meeting last week, Jeb Bush said his brother is “pretty comfortable with his Methodist faith.” Despite that, during his presidency, it was clear that the former president has a true affection for Catholicism. He took time out to attend both Pope John Paul II’s funeral as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s investiture Mass. He and Pope Benedict had a visibly warm relationship as was seen during the Holy Father’s unforgettable White House reception. Who knows? Perhaps one day. After all, faith is a journey. For some, it takes a bit longer.

As for Jeb Bush, he described his conversion this way, from Catholic Online via The Deacons Bench blog:

Bush said what primarily attracted him to the faith were the “sacraments of the Catholic Church, the timeless nature of the message of the Catholic Church, and the fact that the Catholic Church believes in and acts on absolute truth as its foundational principles and doesn’t move with modern times as my former religion did.”

A former Episcopalian who was received into the Church in 1995, Bush said, “In the United States many people think that to keep your faith, you need to put it into a safety deposit box if you’re an elected official until you finish your service as a public servant, and then you can go and get it back. I never thought that was appropriate.”

That’s a great testimony to the everlasting Truth of the Faith as well as the necessity to live that Truth and Faith in your life, no matter as a public official or a private citizen.

An Episcopal priest and 10 nuns from the Episcopal order Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor, all who reside in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will be confirmed into the Church at September 3 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, according to the archdiocesan paper, The Catholic Review. The nuns will continue their ministry. The priest, Warren Tanghe, is discerning the priesthood. 

According to the article, found via Catholic Online:

Orthodoxy and unity were key reasons the sisters were attracted to the Catholic faith. Many of them were troubled by the Episcopal Church’s approval of women’s ordination, the ordination of a gay bishop and what they regarded as lax stances on moral issues.

The nuns strove to be a “witness for orthodoxy” within the Episcopal Church, but Mother Christina Christie, the community’s superior, said that by not doing anything more than that they sent the wrong message. They resisted pleas to stay as well as their own thoughts of joining the more orthodox Anglican American church, newly formed in a much publicized schism with the Episcopal Church over issues of orthodoxy, such as the consecration, in New Hampshire, of the openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson.

In the end, however, the Holy Spirit directed them to the Church — for some time, the sisters individually were secretly contemplating Catholicism. When they realized this, the decision was easier to make. Said Mother Christina:

This is very much the work of the Holy Spirit.

There was some earthly help, too, although, of course, the Holy Spirit was working there as well: As it turns out, the nuns greatly admire Pope Benedict XVI.