As a former
television news junkie who does not miss not having television one
little bit, I have some completely unsolicited advice for Catholics
who are getting needlessly agitated by watching ignoramuses discuss
the Catholic Faith on radio and television during the Papal interregnum:
shut off the blather. Forever. You will never miss it. Spend time
in prayer, especially for the repose of the soul of the late Pope
John Paul II and for the cardinal-electors who will begin choosing
his successor on April 18. Do not participate in the blather. It is
the devil's exercise to get you to spend less time in prayer before
the Blessed Sacrament and to the Mother of God.
Television
is a drug. So is talk radio, for that matter. So is the internet,
to the extent that people participate in chat rooms (which are places
where all types of sins against the Eighth Commandment are committed
on a regular basis) and spend their waking moments surfing the internet
for this or that bit of news or gossip. While it is understandable
that a Catholic would want to watch live coverage of the Pope's funeral
Mass on Friday, April 8, 2005, it is truly mystifying that a Catholic
would want to stuff his immortal soul full of vain talk and gossip.
Why watch and/or listen to anyone who does not understand the fullness
of the Catholic Faith without compromise and without any hint of corruption
by the novelties of the past forty-seven years or so? What does it
contribute to a Catholic's spiritual well-being to be fed a steady
dose of pompous verbiage about matters contained in the Deposit of
Faith and entrusted by Our Lord to Holy Mother Church to be explicated
by her infallibly? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out
that talk show hosts who know nothing about the Faith are generally,
with a very few exceptions, going to have as their guests other people
who know less about the Faith than they do.
Thus, I
am sure it has been the case that television and radio programs have
had their share of guests who are talking about the "possibilities"
of the next pope ordaining women or "relaxing the ban" on
contraception or even being favorably disposed towards those steeped
in various perversions of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Public
opinion polls are taken to try to "prove" what Catholics
"want" the Church to look like in the years ahead, giving
the impression that the Church is just another "institution"
that can "change with the times." "Experts" are
brought on these programs to discuss the poll results, thus feeding
into the mania of misinformation and distortion. How is any of this
good for the sanctification and salvation of one human soul?
Very few
programs will feature people, whether priests or members of the laity,
who will talk in plain terms about the immutability of God and His
Deposit of Faith, fewer yet, if any, will feature guests who will
discuss the abandonment of the Church's Tradition as the foundation
for the insidious influences of Modernism in her liturgy and catechesis
over the course of nearly five decades now. It has been the conciliarist
and post-concilarist abandonment of the Church's Tradition, including
the Traditional Latin Mass, and the lack of discipline imposed upon
those who put entire articles of the Deposit of Faith into question
that is responsible for the decimation of the Church in her human
elements, especially in the so-called "developed" world.
The television and radio talk shows do not, as a general rule, have
time for such a "viewpoint," preferring instead to dwell
on the possibilities for even further revolutionary changes in the
years ahead. There have been, as I understand it, a few exceptions
to this (Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican is one who
knows the Faith). However, the one exception does not undo the general
rule and does not undo all of the misinformation being spewed out
by leftist critics of the recently ended pontificate or the late Holy
Father's reflexive defenders, such as Raymond Arroyo of the Ever Wishful
Television Network (EWTN).
Some have
lobbied me to try to get on The O'Reilly Factor or to get
on some talk radio show. Although there are souls who watch these
programs who might benefit from hearing someone speak the truth about
our ecclesiastical situation, it is generally the case that an opposite
point of view is presented for the sake of "balance." Even
if one does well on such a program, how long does the impression last?
There is too much noise in the lives of people today. I, for one,
am content to offer the words on this site (and in The Remnant
and Catholic Family News) to be accepted or rejected after
a reasoned and deliberate consideration of them. Too many visual images
and aural impressions bombard human souls as it is. Adding to this
cacophony is not in the interest of souls, in my humble estimation.
My own noninfallible
advice during this time is as follows: do yourself a big favor. Throw
out your television. Baptize it with 300 gallons of Holy Water, as
Father Lawrence Smith inveighed parishioners to do in a sermon at
Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Garden Grove, California. Listen
to little snippets of news headlines on the radio at the top of an
hour (such headlines must be monitored quickly to avoid tender ears
hearing the vulgar details of certain new events, such as courtroom
trials of various celebrities). Perhaps your internet provider gives
you access to a few headlines. That's all you really need, and that's
far more than the saints ever had or wanted. We should be
content to spend our time in prayer and to realize that the only one
who wants our souls to be agitated about ecclesiastical and civil
events is the adversary. As my dear wife has just noted, "People
should put down their clickers and pick up their Rosary beads."
The Church
is divinely founded and maintained. She will last until the end of
time. The jaws of Hell will never prevail against her. The Roman Catholic
Church has survived bad popes and cardinals and bishops and priests
and consecrated religious and members of the lay faithful. She has
survived people much like ourselves, fickle souls who spend more time
talking and worrying than we do in prayer and in cultivating the Supernatural
Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. There is no need to be agitated
about our present circumstances, especially no need to be agitated
by the endless array of misinformation that spews out of the mouths
of ignoramuses who need to shut up and learn something about the true
Faith before they ever utter another word publicly on any subject,
ecclesiastical or civil. You see, these people would have no right
in a truly Catholic world to say anything in public that could possibly
injure a soul by steeping it in confusion or leading it into error.
As noted
before, we continue to pray for the repose of the soul of Pope John
Paul II and for the cardinal electors who will convene on April 18
to elect his successor. I will have a commentary on the late Holy
Father's pontificate posted on this site on Monday, April 11, following
the conclusion of the official period of mourning. This is a time
to storm Heaven for the needs of the Church, not to spend our time
so fruitlessly in the watching and/or the listening of programs and
commentators who cannot help us get to Heaven and who only add to
the confusion of a world gone mad because of the overthrow of the
Social Reign of Christ the King and the enthronement of man as "god"
and "king" in all things.
Our Lady,
Help of Christians, pray for us.
Saint Joseph,
Patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.
Saints Peter
and Paul, pray for us.
