Catholic Culture.org has a web site tool to keep us safe from lurking heretics that examines a site's “fidelity” to the Magisterium of the Church.
Catholic Culture.org the TSA of Catholic Journalism, takes on the Vatican
By Stephen K. Ryan November 27, 2010
Ah! to have sat down for breakfast with Dr. Jeff Mirus and Phil Lawler the prolific commentators and co-founders of online magazine Catholic Culture.org the day L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, told the world that "Homer and Bart Are Catholics.” The coffee, no doubt, would have blown across the room.
And now Catholic Culture.org – the TSA of Catholic Journalism - has finally had it “up to here” with the Vatican newspaper after it published excerpts from the new book called “Light of the World”. Book snippets that revealed Pope Benedict’s evolving belief that HIV infected male prostitutes who choose to use condoms perhaps demonstrates a morality superior to those infecting somebody with the deadly virus unprotected, has Lawler and Mirus fit to be tied and insisting that heads should role.
Catholic Culture has now gone nuclear over the “Condom Crisis".
Lawler writes “Today millions of people have the impression-- a completely inaccurate impression-- that Pope Benedict has signaled a change in the Church's teaching on the morality of condom use. Pope Benedict has been badly served by his public-relations staff. In this case, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano bears most of the blame for a truly disastrous gaffe.”
Most Catholics I know saw no huge controversy in the Pope’s statements - after all Pope Benedict XVI was talking about homosexual prostitutes infected with HIV – which we argue is not a large segment of the Catholic population. Most folks without the help of Catholic Culture understood the Pope was not talking about teenagers at Catholic schools in the United States.
Philip Lawler then asks “Why didn’t the Vatican publisher warn Pope Benedict that his statement was bound to be distorted? Why didn’t the Pope himself recognize that risk? Why haven’t other Vatican officials offered real clarifications—as opposed to the turgid and confusing statements from Father Lombardi? There is plenty of blame to go around.”
Mirus and Lawler have built up a successful following on the internet by blaming people for their Catholic shortcomings. It also turns out Catholic Culture.org is in the business of “warning” Catholics against “dangerous, risky” Catholic web sites. The syndrome of “to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail” is seriously at work here.
Catholic Culture.org has a web site tool to keep us safe from lurking heretics that examines a site's “fidelity” to the Magisterium of the Church.
They grope and put Catholic Web sites through full body scanners to keep us safe from Catholic terrorists. - On the "danger list" - America Catholic Magazine, a leading respected Jesuit publication. Catholic Culture says about America Catholic "There are numerous articles on this site, and many of them should be read only with extreme caution. Extreme Caution?
Catholic Culture.org likes to say that they are " working to shape an authentically Christian culture in a secular world." But sadly and typically like many "conservative Catholics" they define authentic Catholicism in terms of red state republicanism.
Incidentally we searched for Catholic Culture's review of L’Osservatore Romano but to no avail. Perhaps it is under review by the righteous folks at Catholic Culture after the “truly disastrous gaffe” by the Vatican.
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