Are Rome's Apologists Spineless?

This warmed my heart: When Catholic Books Were... Catholic Books from the Catholic Champion website.

There is a section of the book speaking of Protestants in general, which as we know often attack the Catholic Church, strongly opposes their errors. Unfortunately most of today's Catholic apologists have no where near the knowledge or spine to speak plainly as the Catholics of old have done.

"Protestants being thus impious enough to make liars of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and of the apostles, need we wonder if they continually slander Catholics, telling and believing worse absurdities about them than the heathens did?... All these grievous transgressions are another source of their reprobation."

The Catholic Champion does a fine job demonstrating that within the category of those that defend Rome against Protestantism, there is not always an apparent unity or even a real unity. The Champion is correct that if one visits Roman Catholic books from 100 years ago, the arguments against Protestantism were presented in a different (and often harsher) tone. Now, it's not uncommon to find shows like that which is found regularly on Catholic Answers in which the entire program is dedicated to a cordial chat with "non-Catholics."

Recently from the Best Blog Refuting Roman Catholic Apologetics...

...From the Roman Catholic blog that knows it's better to give than receive: More Mark Shea Nonsense: False Compassion:

"As I have pointed out before, I would not recommend learning your faith from Shea. Here is another reason why."

The "reason" has to do with Mr. Shea's endorsement of "a gay guy who lived here in Seattle." Robert Sungenis has also commented on this: Mark Shea: Coming Out of the Theological Closet.

Once again, a very well-deserved hat-tip to the Catholic Champion for his efforts.

Addendum

From Robert Sungenis:

"Mr. Shea is not only wrong about this, he is causing a scandal. It’s one thing not to know the facts, but when one begins his evaluation by purposely avoiding the facts, we have a serious problem. Mr. Shea chose his title “A Gay Man I Consider a Saint” and he broadcast the title and his article to the whole world. Not coincidentally, Mr. Shea positions himself as a teacher of Catholic faith and morals. One only need look at his long list of self-authored books dotting the margins of his blog; or watch him on EWTN to know that disseminating the Catholic religion is not merely his hobby. As such Mr. Shea does not have the privilege to play ignorant, especially when it concerns one of the most heinous sins known to mankind. Before Mr. Shea starts canonizing people on his blog, he better make darn sure he knows the pertinent facts concerning the person, especially if someone else has evidence that the person in question lived with another male and most likely committed the act in question."

Recently from the Best Blog Refuting Roman Catholic Apologetics...

.....From the Roman Catholic blog that knows it's better to give than receive: Why The SSPX and Archbishop Lefebvre Are Important to the Church. Great stuff. Once again, a well-deserved hat-tip to... the Catholic Champion.

Fact number two: Vatican II and its documents have still not been clarified by the Church in many respects. The documents of Vatican II are in my opinion, and the opinion of many reputable orthodox theologians, the most ambiguous documents ever produced by the Church. In my opinion, the ambiguity and their “this but that” approach to explaining the faith have been, according to history thus far, a complete failure. Even our present Holy Father has a hard time trying to present this “hermeneutic of continuity” to the Church. Just the very fact that we need a "hermeneutic of continuity" scheme to be presented by the Holy Father should reveal to us that this is the case.

Recently from the Best Blog Refuting Roman Catholic Apologetics... What Do We do at Mass, and How Do We Interpret It?

.....From the Roman Catholic blog that knows it's better to give than receive: Fr. Robert Barron on LA Congress "Its the Happening Place". Great stuff. Once again, a well-deserved hat-tip to... the Catholic Champion.

Here is a short play which can be done at youth group entitled, "What Do We do at Mass, and How Do We Interpret It?"

Prelude: The Los Angeles Religious Education Congress is the largest annual gathering of its kind in the world. The four-day event is held at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center and is sponsored by the Office of Religious Education, a department of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Begun in 1968 as an "institute," Congress still keeps the same focus — to teach more about the Catholic faith as well as to advance personal growth. Today the event is open to people of all vocations and different faiths.

Act I
Champion: Fr. Barron asks, After being asked "What brings you to this religious congress," he answers, "Well, what would keep you away? This is the place to be. It is maybe my 7th or 8th visit here. And its one of the greatest events in the Catholic year.....Its the happening place."

Stacy: "What would keep you away?" Wow, maybe he honestly doesn't know about the liturgical monstrosities that are carried out there. Maybe he just goes to the conference to market his materials and doesn't stick around for the Mass at the end?

Steve: What Fr Barron said about the conferance being a "happening place" sounded like 60's hippie talk!

Act II
Jae: So sorry guys but I dont agree with your sweeping condemnation of the whole program...There is absolutely nothing wrong to express in your own cultural ways toward giving honor and thansgving to God whether it might be your native language of songs, dances and music. In fact Jesus was pleased when this sinful woman put expensive fragrance on His feet and have rebuked His apostles' suggestions of better use for the poor and Temple offering. The Bible itself is replete with giving God praise and thansgiving with singing and dancing which He was very pleased. The problem is, mixing the reverence due to the solemnity of the Holy Mass with festivities in His honor... We must not interpret the past Tradition in a rigorous and legalistic way that other RadTrads have mistakenly adopted.Just some of the verses in the Bible: Psalm 149:3, "Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!" Jeremiah 31:13, "Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow."

Andrew: I don't recall the Blessed Mother or the Beloved Disciple singing, dancing, and otherwise engaging in merriment at the foot of the cross. The only ones doing anything like that on Calvary were those with the blood of our Lord on their hands; those who saw to it that He be hanging there like a criminal... Demanding that this foolishness (best I can do in charity) must come to an end is not "RadTrad" - it is Catholic.

Jae: So sorry brother but I think it's pretty misguided and unwarranted of comparing those people with the Blood of the Lord on their hands in crucifixion is not the same type of people in this program. We can honestly assumed that NOBODY in this program has the intention in his heart to profane, mock, ridicule Our Blessed Lord like a criminal hanging on the Cross. They happened to be in a festival giving praise and honoring God. Most traditional countries celebrate the Feast of Saints with big celebration and banquettes.

Andrew: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not a banquette or party, as I am sure you will agree. In order for it to be efficacious for us it must be carried out with the solemnity that the miracle taking place.

Act III
Champion: Jae, the problem here is that the Church authority, the Archbishop, is the one that is participating in the madness at the Mass, not outside of it. He is the one obstinately participating in Liturgical abuse to its extreme. There is no way that the abuse is done accidentally. This stuff is not rocket science. It does not take a Church authority to state the obvious. Your use of Scripture here is out of context. Secondly there are many heretical speakers at the conference. This entire congress is an abomination, and until they get rid of the heretics and celebrate the Mass within the proper form allowed by the Church, it is a public scandal, end of story.

Jae: while I agree with you regarding the proper form the Mass should be said, I don't agree with your assertion that the entire congress is an abomination that is your judgment as with theirs are liable to God Almighty. Like what I said before, the 2 events in this congress namely first, the solemn celebration of the Mass and secondly the festival in honor of God (my Bible citations) are done in good faith and intention, both are pleasing to God, the problem started when the two are mixed together. Whether they were done intentionally or with invinsible ignorance I still give the benefit of the doubt to the Archbishop not outright condemn him... my Biblical quotations still stand with my point intact, that festivals of songs, dances, praises and thansgivings in honor of God is not "an anomalous behavior" but rather pleasing to Him.

Champion: Jae, the whole discussion here has been for the most part about the Mass and the speakers at the event. That about covers most of it. As far as a bunch of people jumping around at an event, that has little to do with the intention of the Congress. The intention of the Congress by its own definition is for the education of Catholics. Hence its title, Religious Education Congress. It fails in its intention. While you may think that the jumping around is pleasing to the Lord, teaching heresy and turning the Mass into a Disney parade is clearly not pleasing to Him. Priorities are important. The intention of the Congress is not met and therefore as I said, it is a complete failure. We will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Jae:...for a start I admired your apologetics prowess defending the Faith with the likes of John Bugay, Turrentinfan, etc. however, please don't caricature the position which I hold by saying, "While you may think that the jumping around is pleasing to the Lord". The point is rather simple, as we can see David, Moses, Saints Francis, Nicholas etc., the Psalter were all singing and dancing to the Lord. I don't know if you judge them otherwise.

Champion: We worship as we believe, and it aint lookin too pretty. My point again is that the Congress is not successfully achieving what it intended to achieve, that is my point. The rest of it matters little, which is why my "jumping around" depiction was used. We are not discussing Old Testament parallels here. We are discussing the Mass and the education of Catholics here.

Finale
Jae: I agree with you Matt. It is sad, truly sad on why they invited people who are known dissidents of the Church to speak in the congress. However, I'm still hopeful that the rotten few wont able to hijack the entire mission of the congress, that there are still faithful majority to plant seeds (as a priest from SJ attested that majority are still faithful to the Magisterium and Tradition). I have faith with St. Ignatius who is in Beatific Presence not to allow his society succumb to heretical sect as the same hope that Jesus' great promise to Peter and His Church that the "gates of hell shall not prevail" and guiding her INTO ALL Truth until the end of time.

Champion: Well, all we can do is pray, and bring things like this to the attention of faithful Catholics who will speak up about it. Until faithful Catholics start making it known that severe abuse and charlantry like this is not appreciated, it will keep happening. Although we need to be charitable, we also need to be straight to the point in not tolerating this kind of thing. I will never support an event like that knowing what goes on there. That being said, think of all the good they could do if they had great theologians and speakers at the event, along with a solemn high Mass with Gregorian chant giving glory to God. It could be a great event. That is what Catholics should be demanding from the Archbishop.

Recently from the Best Blog Refuting Roman Catholic Apologetics...

.....From the Roman Catholic blog that knows it's better to give than receive: LA Congress 2012- Sponge Bob and "Youth Day Liturgy". Great stuff.  Once again, a well-deserved hat-tip to the Catholic Champion.

"The second video is the Youth Day Liturgy. Pagan drumming from the Orient begins the Mass along with some pagan chant. Sponge Bob Square Pants makes his appearance in the back. That's right look for him around the 2 minute mark. This almost looks like the Thanksgiving parade on TV. The rock band kicks in shortly after the drum session ends. Then the great conservative Archbishop Gomez appears introducing this as the Holy Mass."

Best Blog to Refute Roman Catholic Apologetics

What is the best blog demonstrating the futility of Roman Catholic apologetics? Triablogue? Aomin? TurretinFan?  Hardly.

For those of you who engage Roman Catholics, I want to recommend one of my favorite sources in regard to refuting Roman Catholic apologetics.  The Catholic Champion blog continually provides helpful material demonstrating Roman Catholic epistemology, particularly the fact that despite having an infallible magisterium, each Roman Catholic serves as his or her own private interpreter of Romanism. That is the stake in the heart of Romanism. One need not go beyond this point.

I'd like to have the mastermind behind the Catholic Champion as part of my blogging team, but his tone of writing  isn't up to my standards. Ah well.

Make sure to bookmark the Catholic Champion.

Addendum

The Catholic Champion keeps on giving:

"For the Catholic, their faith resides in the living God who speaks through those whom He sent, through His one and only Church. This one and only Church of course includes the Sacred Scriptures, which folks like you Mr. Swan have sought to remove from the bosom of Christ and His Church."

Translation: The "one and only Church" as interpreted by.... the Catholic Champion. Now why is the Catholic Champion right, and someone like Mark Shea wrong?

Roman Catholic Confusion on Contraception in the Bible

You can't make this stuff up:

Genesis 38 is about contraception:

Bottom line is that God killed Onan for some reason. The only plausible reason we have from the text itself is contraception. A straightforward reading of the text lends itself readily to that interpretation (though not absolutely of logical necessity).[source]

Genesis 38 is not about contraception:

"In the case of Onan, you are right that the common Catholic reliance on this passage as a proof text against contraception or masturbation is a weak one and wrong-headed" [Source: Mark Shea. What Does it Mean to Say Jesus has Fulfilled the Old Covenant?].

Hat tip: Catholic Champion. Good catch Matthew.