November 2003
vol 14, no. 39

Time for EWTN to come clean!
Editorial on
Traditional Catholics' response to EWTN's Fr. John Echert soundly condemning the ecumaniacal bent planned for Fatima: 'Don't stop there, Father!'
    "Consider very carefully that it is John Paul II who, for the last 25 years and before that as an influential progressivist-influenced periti at the Vatican II Council, has overseen the wreckovation of all that is sacred in pursuit of the globalization of solidarity and ecumenism in one big everybody's-saved-Civilization-of-Love-society. This is fostered by the "New Evangelization" which is being foisted on the faithful by not only the bishops, but Mother Angelica and EWTN. Mother knows better. The foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network and those she has signed on to represent EWTN have been protecting Karol Wojtyla far too long while criticizing those he appointed. Folks, the buck stops at the top!"
    In my last Hot Issues editorial Fatima foiled? Not a chance!, I threw down the gauntlet to EWTN and The Wanderer, to name a few of the leading neo-Catholic mediums, to wake up and realize what is happening at Fatima and has been happening throughout our beloved Church for decades. Well, EWTN responded, but they need to go further...much further.

    In their Faith section on Catholic Q&A on the EWTN website, a very astute Scott Burke wrote asking about the flap in Fatima which we wrote about November 8th. Now, I say "astute", but then I have to wonder when Burke admits that he places the credibility of his Faith on one Raymond Arroyo - the very same who oohed and ahhed during the pagan Aztec ceremonies for John Paul II in Mexico City last year. So take it all with a grain of salt.

    One who would seem to be providing the correct salt-of-the-earth answers every priest should be expressing was the responder of Burke's question: Father John Echert - a diocesan priest with a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute as well as graduate studies in Jerusalem at the Ecole Biblique. So this priest knows his Faith. He is also from the Archdiocese of my birth St. Paul-Minnesota. In fact he presently teaches at one of my alma maters - the University of St. Thomas - which back in my day was College of St. Thomas. I attended during the era of the scandalous Bishop James Shannon - then rector of the institution -who shocked everyone by running away and marrying his secretary after a long sordid affair. Such were the first fruits of the freedoms of Vatican II. We shoulda seen it coming back then!

    Regardless, Echert, who, though ordained in 1987, seems like a fairly orthodox chap despite being a Novus OrdinArian, has put in writing what every Traditional Catholic has been saying:

    "I am opposed to any inter-religious or ecumenical efforts which fail to operate under the explicit and manifest principles that salvation is possible only through Jesus Christ and within the Catholic Church. There can be no compromise on these absolute fruits of the faith, and there is no room for dialogue on any alternative. We do others a great disservice, which further puts at their risk their own salvation, if we affirm them in the errors of false religions."

    He continued,

    "If the article is accurate and the intention is to turn Fatima into an inter-religious 'centre where all the religions of the world will gather to pay homage to their various gods,' then I condemn such a project as contrary to Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the whole spiritual message of Our Lady of Fatima, who called for the conversion of sinners and the consecration of Russia, not the honor of false gods and the promotion of false religions."

    Bravo, Fr. Echert! In fact, he even cited and quoted from "the great encyclical of Pope Pius XI, 'Mortalium Animos' (On Religious Unity), which bears upon this topic:" He then referenced His Holiness' paragraphs #2 and #10 of the encyclical which we have had on line for two years at Mortalium Animos

    Now that is all well and good, but, Father, and all you other "experts" at EWTN I ask you this: If you condemn - so whole-heartedly and rightly so - "such a project" then you must also condemn the 1986 and 2002 Assisi Summits which were a microcosm of what they want to do at Fatima. Having been enamored for many years myself by the smoke and mirrors of John Paul II, I know it is a difficult confrontation to your own psyche to speak out against the actions of the current pope. However, if you are to abide by the truths of Holy Mother Church then you have to acknowledge that it is not just the rector of Fatima who is in heresy, but those who put him up to it - the Roman Curia and the one who appointed and fashioned that Curia and their objectives - John Paul II.

    Please, don't repeat the inane excuses that "the Pope doesn't realize what is going on." Go back and truly study Karol Wojtyla and read Nostra Aetate and Ut unum sint. Read his documents and thinking before his elevation and you'll realize that what is proposed at Fatima is only a fulfillment of what the Polish prelate has always strived for. With that fact, then you must condemn what John Paul II has done in the whole ecumaniacal venue of ecumenism. Not to speak out forcibly and in concert with the infallible perennial Magisterium of the Church is paramount to not only being hypocritical, but serving two masters. We all know, as Christ has clearly stated in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16: 13, "No man/servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

    Go back and research the many jaunts of this "pilgrim pope" over the last quarter of a century, for wherever he has ventured into pagan lands, rather than calling them to Jesus Christ and the True Church as the Dogma of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus demands, he tolerates and even takes part in their rituals. By doing so he tacitly - even openly - acknowledges these pagan and heretical offices whether it is recognizing a snake to accommodate the animists in Africa or kissing the Koran in a Roman mosque, or proclaiming that the Old Testament is still in vogue for the Jews and has not been rescinded or kissing the ring of an Anglican presbyter. These are all acts contrary to the doctrines of Faith - many indeed smack of the savor of heresy. No matter the nuances of the degree, they are all actions which must publicly be resisted - declared anathema - as St. Paul so strongly states in Galatians 1: 8-10.

    Father Echert notes in his reply to Burke "If the article is accurate"...well, that has been confirmed fully as well as other past blasphemies documented in photos and multi-news media accounts that equate to scandalous acts by the current man at the top in Rome. Ergo, Fr. Echert and anyone else who wants to be in full harmony with what Pius XI decreed, must renounce publicly the actions of the current pope in the very spirit urged by two Doctors of the Church - St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Robert Bellarmine, the latter who specifically and doctrinally stated in his work De Romano Pontifice

    "It is permissible to resist the Pope when he invades souls and troubles the commonwealth; and moreover, if he appears to be causing harm to the Church. It is permissible, I say, to resist him by not doing what he enjoins and by preventing his will to triumph."

    Consider very carefully that it is John Paul II who, for the last 25 years and before that as an influential progressivist-influenced periti at the Vatican II Council, has overseen the wreckovation of all that is sacred in pursuit of the globalization of solidarity and ecumenism in one big everybody's-saved-Civilization-of-Love-society. This is fostered by the "New Evangelization" which is being foisted on the faithful by not only the bishops, but Mother Angelica and EWTN. Mother knows better. The foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network and those she has signed on to represent EWTN have been protecting Karol Wojtyla far too long while criticizing those he appointed. Folks, the buck stops at the top! For further proof I urge you to read John Vennari's first-hand account of just what went on at Fatima at An Account From One Who Was There

    Pope John Paul II must be held accountable fully for this travesty of Faith. It's one way or the other. You can't blame the employee for perpetuating a lie if the boss signs off on the lie and continues the charade. Likewise, you cannot blame the bishops and priests solely when the "Boss" - read Pope of Rome - by his silence, inaction and actions, refuses to adhere to the constituted evangelic traditions that every Pope since the 4th Century has vowed before God to uphold and never to change or allow to be altered.

    Fr. Moderator pulls no punches in his commentary for the Feast of St. Albert the Great. He writes:

    "After Vatican II the Conciliar Catholics objected to the vernacular instead of Latin; now they accept it. They objected to communion in the hand; now they accept it. They objected to lay mininstresses and lectoresses; now they accept them. They objected to altar girls; now they accept them. They objected to standing the "Eucharistic prayer"; now they accept it. Sin grows.

        The Novus Ordo service has been in a constant state of change, deceiving the Novus Ordinarians into unCatholic practices and beliefs one after the other. When they look back over the 40-year record (if they ever do), they must be shocked at how far they've come, and how much they have come to accept that they previously objected to as evil. Sin grows.

        It's that way with sin. First of all, it's a little white lie, then it's a lie of convenience, then it's detraction (truth, but no one's business), then it's gossip and backbiting, then it's calumny. Pretty soon it has grown to the point where lies are being told about a person that ruins his reputation, his profession, and his family. And it all started out with a little white lie. Sin grows. ...

        At first it might seem like a far-out notion, I grant you. But look at what happened to the Protestants. First they denied Sacred Tradition, more recently they've denied any meaningful understanding of Sacred Scripture. The Protestants are now accepting priestesses, bishopesses, divorce, birth control, homosexuality -- at all of which their Protestant forebears would have been scandalized, and would have called them heretics. Sin grows.

        Sin grows. The only answer is to "avoid the near occasion of sin." It is becoming harder and harder to deny what traditional Catholics say, that the Novus Ordo itself is a near occasion of sin -- a danger to one's Catholic Faith, of sacrilege, of blasphemy, of scandal, of idolatry. Not peccadillos, these sins! Dante places such people in the bowels of Hell, while even sins of the flesh are closer to the entrance.

        Sins against God by their genus, so the Fathers and Doctors tell us, are the worst -- worse even than such moral sins as abortion -- and the Novus Ordo is undeniably an objective sin against true religion and the true God."

    Wow! We can only hope and pray that Fr. Echert will follow the wise path Fr. Stephen Zigrang took this year and flee from the NO as fast as he can, opting for the Tried and True TM over the NO. The Traditional Latin Mass is the vaccine against the sin of apostasy, the only cure to stave off the virus that is running rampant through the bloodstream of the entire modern church today. It is time to abandon the rotting corpse, to allow it to be discarded in the furnace of hell, and cling to the healthy Mystical Body of Christ infinitesimal though the True Church may be at this time. Saint Augustine said very clearly,

    "Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it, and right is right even if nobody is doing it."

    Saints, Fathers and Doctors of the Church for centuries, indeed the prophets of old have warned of the deterioration that has occurred in this day and age. Keep in mind what three very holy souls stated. First, Pope Saint Adrian II decreed,

    "The first requirement of salvation is to keep the standard of the True Faith"
and secondly, the great Jesuit theologian Saint Peter Canisius in combating the Protestant heresies and the vernacular liturgies that slowly but surely introduced more and more novelties and innovations, eliminating any trace of the sacrificial nature of the worship service and ushered in profanity and secularism while denigrating the long-standing unchangeable teachings and traditions of Holy Mother Church (Sound familiar?). He said:
    "Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith."
Finally, Blessed Anne Katherine Emmerich (who was given visions and prophecies for these very apostate times we live),
    "Even if there were only one person left who held the right Catholic Faith, there would be the Catholic Church."

    Dear Father John and your cohorts at EWTN, by now you have to get the picture. It is either renounce Vatican II completely because that is the bad tree that has spawned the bitter fruits of the universalist plans outlined by the rector of Fatima, and which you rightly condemned. However by condemning certain things while giving credence to other heresies, you are no different than today's 'cafeteria catholic' who picks and chooses what he wants to believe. I wonder why! No, Father, you and all at EWTN from Mother on down must firmly and loudly condemn the rest of the rotting corpse, or else cling like mold to that barren tree and futilely continue to subscribe to the whole ecumaniacal madness that includes revamping Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe et al every 25 years to please man, not God. You cannot have it both ways!

    While EWTN seems to endorse the whole concept of "dialogue" with non-Catholics so mankind can achieve 'peace' and 'dignity,' wouldn't it be better to understand your own brothers and sisters who still worship as you once worshipped, still believe as you once believed, still practice Catholicism as you once did? I respectfully suggest EWTN be a trendsetter and initiate dialogue between Traditional Catholics and 'conservative Catholics'. By the latter I am referring to those who, weighed down by their 40-year-thick bifocals, follow so obediently everything that came from Vatican II and the reforms with nary a challenge or discernment. We would call them 'neo-Catholics.' We'd like to call them Authentic Catholics, but alas, we cannot. One way this can be remedied is for the remnant of loyal, Authentic Roman Catholics who cling to the Truths and Traditions passed down and held so sacrosanct and intact from Peter to Pius XII to be given the same respect and attention Jews, Moslems, Anglicans, Buddhists, Hindus, Lutherans, et cetera et cetera are given. We keep hearing the Pope's desire to 'dialogue' with other religions so we can all better understand each other. Well, we suggest he or his representatives dialogue with the 'Trads' as you might call us, for indeed, we are definitely a different religion than what John Paul II has been advocating over the past quarter of a century!

    Therefore, if you want to dialogue with someone who thinks differently - much differently, dear EWTN, then Traditional Catholics are more than willing to sit down and talk with whoever wants to try to defend the Vatican II church. But I warn you, compromise and political correctness have never been a part of Christ's way and therefore, like those who preceded us in following all that Our Lord taught and passed down through Divine Revelation and Tradition up until October 28, 1958, we not only don't speak Vaticantwoese, we don't recognize it as Catholic in any way whatsoever! The sooner you realize that, the sooner the conversion process will begin bearing fruit.

Michael Cain, editor

For past "Hot Issue Editorials" this month, see HOT ISSUES ARCHIVES



      November 2003
      vol 14, no. 39
      Short, concise editorials on HOT ISSUES