Historian Roberto de Mattei has been fired from his broadcast at Radio Maria for being critical of aspects of this pontificate.
This follows on the heels of Radio Maria firing two long time hosts, Mario Palmaro and Alessandro Gnocchi, for a similar infraction after a critical article at the height of the papal interview parade last fall.
So this is how it is to be now. The Pope commands us to shake up the Church. Shake it up, but don’t step out of line.
Well, actually, you can step out of line as long as you step to the left. An entire Episcopal conference can be in open rebellion and that is tolerated because they are stepping away from long held Church teaching. You can openly ridicule the head of the CDF and you will be tolerated.
If you step the other direction, you will be squashed. Just ask Mario Palmaro, Alessandro Gnocchi, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and now Roberto de Mattei.
Welcome to the open Church where nobody judges anymore.
February 14, 2014 at 7:11 pm
There is plenty of judging going on. It seems that Pope Benedict could be and still is criticized and no one bats an eye hardly but this is a new era and it looks like strong Catholics are going to be in the hot seat and taken out where possible. Let a priest deny communion to a practicing lesbian and it is all over the internet news. Let a bishop's conference thumb their nose at Church teaching and….nothing. Let evil agendas run the show like in New York state for example and maybe a meow after the fact from the Church leaders. The saints are the ones most often persecuted.
February 14, 2014 at 7:53 pm
Palmero put it best in his 'cri de coeur' back in January of this year:
"We are all completely de-legitimized, and any bishop, priest, theologian, director of a diocesan weekly or politician of the Catholic-democratic-type can shut us up with that “Who am I to judge”. We would be riddled with shots like a farm pheasant in a hunting chase….
The problem is our Mother Church, who has decided to abandon us in the jungle of Vietnam: the helicopters have taken off and we have been left where we’ll let ourselves, one at a time, be spiked by the “Vietcong relativists.”
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-advance-of-abortion-homosexual.html
Take heart, faithful Catholics, there is a bright side to all this: we are being presented with opportunities to show our love for Christ in extraordinary ways that merit a place in His kingdom. Lots of folks gathered for the loaves and fishes, and to lay palms in His path. Only a few stuck around when the nails where being pounded.
February 15, 2014 at 2:11 am
Yes, it was the pained cry of all faithful Catholics who will not be bullied into saying what was evil yesterday is good today, and what was good yesterday is evil today. The disorientation is truly diabolical.
February 14, 2014 at 8:33 pm
Perhaps this is too insider baseball for me. Do we really parse everything done with respect to hirings and firings as indicative of the abandonment of doctrine and dogma?
February 14, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Sherry
I am not sure I understand your question. I am talking about a systematic purging of those who critique papal programs. This is the culture now. The same culture that gives a pass to the German Episcopal conference while the FFI are crucified.
February 14, 2014 at 11:20 pm
Okay, so the problem is with Radio Maria and its particulars it would seem, who have a bias and a template they wish to create. Is that different from Guadalupe Radio or EWTN? I'm saying, perhaps this fault lies with whoever is the general manager or the head of this particular vehicle of programing, rather than a systemic mindset that permeates the whole of Catholic broadcasting.
February 14, 2014 at 11:21 pm
I guess I want more information to get a fuller picture.
February 14, 2014 at 11:24 pm
That's just how progressive/post-moderns work. It's all about dialogue when we have the upper hand. It's all about force when they have the power. Just look and the history of Whig/Labor v. Tory politics. The game's rigged because they made up the rules.
We need good bishops to marshal their faithful. You can't expect the "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff" to know the situation everywhere and to give all the orders. The Church is suffering from a terrible leadership vacuum. The Pope should not need to be the only voice of Authority in the Church. The Church is asking too much out of one man. We got very spoiled after JPII and BVI. We can't expect every Pope from now to Kingdom Come to be both as gentle as a dove and as wise as a serpent.
February 15, 2014 at 1:39 am
"Ubi Petrus, ibi Ekklesia." I'm not moving.
February 15, 2014 at 2:08 am
Dr de Mattei's response is beautiful – he is going to maintain his allegiance to the unchanging Deposit of Faith and the Papacy. He is a hero of the a Church, and for the Church. All truth-speakers are being disappeared. Don't give in to the intimation. One is supposed to have jettisoned one's reason and allegiance to the unchanging doctrine of the Faith because there is a new Pope. Thank you Señor de Mattei for standing firm in upholding the unchanging Faith.
February 15, 2014 at 3:54 am
Why is it a problem? The Church doesn't own Radio Maria. It's akin to Fox firing a contributor for saying things they disapprove of.
February 15, 2014 at 4:34 am
Buddy, you're getting a little ridiculous. That is a private radio operation, not an official Church establishment. They can fire whoever they want, and you can be upset about it, but they are not "The Church," old or new. I'm starting to get the feeling that you're the sort of guy who would sense a conspiracy theory if I saved your dog from a runaway car.
February 15, 2014 at 11:48 pm
RM is a very large part of Carholic Media.
February 15, 2014 at 10:35 am
Scuzie there Andrew. The culture inside of the Church begins with priests, bishops and goes all the way to Rome. The laity follow the leadership and exercise it in the pews.
One cannot point out wrongdoing or even crimes against children or you are slandered, bullied, blacklisted or even fired. It's always been this way.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
February 15, 2014 at 5:10 pm
I am always going back to that comment by the late Jean Madiran (1920-2013) who said, most eloquently:
"We are irrevocably bound to the apostolic succession and the primacy of the Roman See: but not to the caprices and defections of its incumbents, who are not dispensed from the application of the principle that it is better to obey God than men."
The quote is found here, among other places:
http://theeye-witness.blogspot.com/2014/02/mass-from-time-of-christ.html
February 15, 2014 at 6:08 pm
I wrote to thank Professor de Mattei for his faithfulness. Yes, the radio station is not the Vatican but indicative of the prevailing winds coming from there. The Professor also submitted about 8000 signitures in favor of Fr Manelli and his FFI. But perhaps he is not persona non grata and even thousands of signitures will be thrown in the trash? There is mercy for atheists and heretics but not so much for those embracing the whole of the Catholic faith, including her Traditions. It seems to me there should be a place for that. There is a place for a new liturgy for the neo-catechumenal way, why not a place for the TLM? And, no, it was not just "internal conflicts" orchestrated within the FFI….the Mass is at the heart of it all as is Our Lady. Notice that Marian shrines and Marian apostolates have been suppressed here too. What does that tell you?
February 15, 2014 at 6:19 pm
Dear Andrew, Nan, and Sherry – the peace of Christ be with you always.
It is easy to identify evil in retrospect many years after the fact and say under one's breath "we should have never allowed that to happen." But how do you think evil proceeds in the world? Do you think it is one fell swoop? Almost never. How is that you woke up one day and found sodomy given the protection of the state and equated with marriage? That orphaned little boys can be legally handed over to perverts to be groomed and abused? That homosexual priests can log onto chat sites at this very moment and arrange gay sex hookups for themselves right under the very noses of the Vatican and nothing be said or done about it? That the most fundamental principles of Catholicism are not understood properly by a large majority of its members, and when they are understood they are rejected? How do you think we arrived here?
By small, seemingly innocuous actions piled one top of the other. A thousand decisions a day on who will be corrected and who will be allowed to remain; who is hired and who is fired; what is said, and what is left unsaid. Thousands of Catholics in positions of authority, clerical and lay, that are in open rebellion to Church teaching are allowed to remain in their positions unchallenged. When they are challenged, it is the voice raised against evil that is silenced. This is a clever trick two-step trick by the enemy: in the hierarchy itself and in mainstream Church organs (lay organizations, radio shows, websites, bishop's committees, chanceries, etc.) orthodox voices are silenced, removed, or pushed to the margins. Then, when these orthodox voices re-emerge in venues where there can't be silenced, they are dismissed for "being out of the mainstream" or "extremist", or just plain loony. People will ridicule them for their wild "conspiracy theories", perhaps unaware of what has been going on.
Keep this in mind: evil does not need to conspire with itself. One termite does not confer with another, it simply knows it's job is to chew wood and bring it back to the nest. The firing of Mattei may seem as trivial and unremarkable as bug with piece of something in its mouth crawling across the floor. It is only later, in retrospect, when the damage is done and the house has crumbled that we wonder how it happened right in front of us. Unless we wake up – or Christ Himself intervenes – a generation from now, Andrew, Nan, and Sherry, you will look back in stunned amazement on how it was that the Church could crumble as it has.
February 15, 2014 at 7:26 pm
God save us! *sigh*
February 16, 2014 at 1:16 am
Well Patrick now can you see why many conservative Catholics like myself are wary of Francis? Look what happened to Cardinal Burke for his comments on EWTN back in December. See how many magazine covers he is on this new Super Pope Everybody loves. There must be an agenda.
February 16, 2014 at 4:15 am
Of course, as reported in Catholic World Report, the actual affair with the FFI is complex and, well, boring—a matter of bureaucratic oversight and accounting irregularities. That doesn't really make for much in the way of political theater, it provides little fodder for those who wish to make real events into morality plays in stark chiaroscuro.
As for Mattei's firing—it in no way involves the Pope, but of course, really, the Pope oversees absolutely everything in the Catholic Church and done by all lay Catholics.. Jack Chick says so, and would he lie about the Catholic Church?
Do try and start interacting with the world like grownups, hmm?
February 16, 2014 at 11:07 am
The article by CWR on the suppression of the FFI has been shown by a great many to be false. Even Fr Volpi, the commissioner has admitted there was no financial wrongdoing, and in any case, that initial smear was made only after his appointment.
February 16, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Ahhh..whose ox is being gored now? How well do I remember all of the right wingers telling us to "become Episcopalian" if we didn't like the policies of Pope Benedict XVI. So gratifying to see the shoe on the other foot. Live by the sword, die by the sword…
February 17, 2014 at 11:51 pm
So "gratifying to see the shoe on the other foot" ? Is this uncharitable remark have anything to do with your screen name of cathdem? I live in progressive "Democrat" Madison WI where similar uncharitable remarks are the mainstream. I pray for all who care more abt the dem then the cath. Why? Because I am a Catholic, period. I do not subscribe to a party equally with my faith. I'm sorry that you do.
But alas, the other shoe here in " ultra-progressive Democrat Madison an orthodox " is that the Church, in Her wisdom sent an orthodox Bishop, Robert Morlino who is truly a shepherd, teacher and protector of the Faith. Ironic, isn't it? Btw, he is hated here by Catholics who call themselves Democrats. And…he is a Jesuit. God love you. I will pray for you aand I hope you will pray for me as I,also have a problem with charity.