Monday thru Friday at www.DailyCatholic.org See why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!" e-mail: DailyCatholic@dailycatholic.org

RENEW 2000 dangles the lure of being legitimate, while beneath the surface the hook is connected to the dangerous Call To Action line. The result: hook, line and sinker!

      In his column today, Pat Ludwa expands on his piece from last week regarding the heretical Call To Action group by proving that the recent addition of RENEW 2000 is merely a front for the former. But in being the "front" they are trying to legitimize something that still remains the stinking carcass of a dead fish in this radical group's efforts to pollute the waters of Holy Mother Church. For Pat's column Bait and hook: RENEW 2000, click on VIEW FROM THE PEW

Bait and hook: Renew 2000

      (I first want to give a big thanks to my brothers and sisters on the Romcath. List for helping me with this. Getting info on Renew 2000 is difficult, and apparently, with good reason.)

      When is a Catholic organization not a Catholic organization? When it's Renew 2000. If you go to their web site you will notice that it is very ambiguous and doesn't mention Call To Action or any other CTA umbrella organization, i.e. WomanChurch, Dignity, Futurechurch, Catholics for a Free Choice, etc. You won't see obvious members of CTA mentioned in their catalog of booklets. You may even find wording which sounds exactly what the Church teaches.

      It can best be described as the old bait and hook technique of shady salesmen. You know, advertise a top of the line item on a fantastic sale, but get there and find they don't have it and sell you something else.

      The bait: "RENEW 2000 is a very thorough spiritual renewal evangelization process designed for parishes to prepare for the new millennium. It incorporates the themes suggested by Pope John Paul II in His Apostolic Letter. Special attention is given to the needs of young adults, both single and married." (Renew 2000 web page)

      Sounds great. It implies its in accordance with John Paul II's Apostolic Letter (but they don't mention it by name). But notice, incorporating themes 'suggested' by the Pope. And, of course, again, the main focus is toward the young.

      However, appearances can be deceiving. The hook: " In our parish, there was a wide-spread dissatisfaction with the Session I Renew 2000 participant booklet, "God, a Community of Love"-even as there was enthusiasm over meeting together as small groups. The complaints were general: as a team leader having reviewed the materials in detail, I decided to try to put into words possible reasons for the unease of so many, along with some comments on the current Session II materials. Doing so is difficult: the problems are subtle ones of tone and vocabulary. In fact, the greatest problem of the materials was what they didn't say" (A REVIEW OF RENEW 2000 MATERIALS by Brock Fowler)

      Mr. Fowler goes on to say: "As I was reading the materials, I often felt like I was back at Unity School of Christianity-a New Age-ish church where I spent some time on my way to becoming a Catholic. At various times, I was reminded the vocabulary that I heard former Catholics use while explaining why they left the Church, or from ecology spirituality (which is New Age/pagan, and goes by various names), or from those feminists who propose that the Church is a patriarchal instrument of oppression. It is important to use the language of faith, rather than a secular vocabulary, in a renewal effort aimed at the Catholic in the pew: " (Ibid)

      One phrase used in the Renew 2000 web site which sounds extremely Catholic is: "The actual decision to walk with Jesus in his Church involves us in the painful process of turning away from old habits of selfishness and sin (John 12:24). If we want to follow Christ, we will have to leave the "wide road" of ease and superficial pleasure and try to walk on the "narrow road" that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14; 16:24). As Christians we are called to choose life."

      Yet, the reality is far different. " Session II materials continue to use loaded language. For example, on p. 34, we are urged to identify ourselves with the Pharisees for the sake of honest self-examination (emphasis added): "These Pharisees gather the evidence, but they cannot believe because they are too rigid. Because the healed persons does not `fit their narrow definitions,' they choose to throw him out. In what way do I experience in me a self-righteousness or rigid way of thinking? (Pause)" Many believe that anyone who believes all the Church asks her children to believe is narrow and rigid. We are told that the Catholic view of the family is a "narrow definition" that needs to be expanded to include the full variety of unmarried sexual relationships. Failure to give on this, and many other points, is often called "rigid thinking." Interestingly, the Bible and Church history are full of martyrs who refused to compromise their faith: was that "rigid"? (A REVIEW OF RENEW 2000 MATERIALS by Brock Fowler)

      So the pain seems to be from our letting go of 2,000 of Christian teaching and tradition and embracing a 'new' theology.

      This seems to follow Call To Action tactics. Rosemary R. Ruether mentioned Jesus as a 'symbol' some may want to retain during a conference on "Women and Spirituality."

      Renew 2000 has a booklet on "SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES:A Vision of Hope" If they were speaking of such 'communities' as the Legion of Mary, or other ministries in the Church, there would be no problem. However, it appears that Renew 2000 is more in line with Call To Action. "RENEW 2000 and small faith communities: Imagining Future Church' ": RENEW 2000's diocesan director from Illinois will speak on the small faith community process, the expected result of which is to replace the Church with a "community of communities" and non-male leadership…... The RENEW 2000 materials that I reviewed (Small Christian Communities, Called to Lead, and several shorter texts) appear orthodox at first glance.

      The name "Call to Action" appears nowhere in the materials. But the section entitled "Feminist Spirituality" is unadulterated CTA anti-Church agitprop. In it, one reads: "The foundations of feminism are basically religious...."; "Many Christian women and men who recognize the relationship between many feminist goals and the realization of God's reign are developing a spirituality which integrates a feminist consciousness.... There has been an exclusive emphasis on male imagery when talking about God. When God is imaged as only masculine, we lose the particular expression of God that is feminine." " (Paulists' RENEW 2000 Is Just A Front For Call To Action By Beth Roney Drennan)

      " ChristSophia, a female Christ with a pierced nose, is promoted in a 1992 video series featuring RENEW 2000 coordinator and coauthor of the primary RENEW 2000 text Margo LeBert. LeBert is coordinator for RENEW 2000 and has been "American coordinator for the international office of RENEW in Plainfield, N.J." She coauthored the primary RENEW 2000 text, Small Christian Communities. A few years ago, LeBert was featured in a video series called InnerAction. InnerAction and Call to Action are associated with many of the same theologians, writers, and groups. Most disturbing, however, is that the InnerAction program in which RENEW 2000 coordinator and author LeBert appears approvingly features a large, full-color icon of "ChristSophia," a female Christ with a pierced nose holding a naked, faceless fertility goddess doll with huge bare breasts.

      This program recommends "to the Christian community" a new "ritual," including 16 "special chants" to the earth, to plants, to the "sisters" (special powers that help people), to powers that bring rain, to the four being powers, and to the spirit of Handsome Lake (InnerAction Cultural Blessings participant magazine, pp. 8 and 27).

      Another presenter in RENEW 2000 coordinator LeBert's InnerAction series is Fr. Richard Rohr. He also heads a CTA-associated organization (Center for Action and Contemplation) and founded another (New Jerusalem). Rohr, who has presided at the "weddings" of same-sex couples, also writes books about "enneagrams." "Enneagrams" and their concomitant "enneagram trances" are not in the Catechism, but an Internet search of the word reveals that enneagrams are a part of (again!) the WICCA (witchcraft) and paganism web sites." (Ibid)

      The list goes on and on. One thing that was of note was how Renew 2000 seems intent on covering their Call To Action connections. One can only find them after extensive research and digging. And I wouldn't have found it without the help of my Catholic friends on the Romcath e-mail list group.

     

"….."evangelization" project RENEW 2000:
• 1) Utilizes reference names or writers whose work has been hostile to and in direct conflict with Catholic teaching;
• 2) Requires extensive research to discover the background of its contributors;
• 3) Will reach and influence a vast number of Catholic faithful for a significant length of time;
• 4) Will reach faithful who have been told by their pastors and bishops that the program is entirely safe and who have not been put on notice that the program harbors any dangers;
• 5) Will reach many laypersons who are not sufficiently educated in Catholic teaching to be able to identify or recognize dangerous theologians and passages;" (Ibid)

      For a full expose' on Renew 2000, I recommend going to the Peters Net Web site and searching their database for Renew 2000. (http://www.petersnet.net/)

      Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., openly declared Call to Action and their affiliates to be heretical and their members excommunicated. Renew 2000 appears to be their attempt to get back in via the back door.

Pax Christi, Pat

---

Message to the Americas:
Take responsibility for your actions and your fellow man's as well - be your brother's keeper

      Following up a year after the Bishops of North, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean contingent, met for the month-long Synod of the Americas in Rome at the end of 1997, Pope John Paul II officially closed the Synod with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City in January 1999. Because of its significance for all Americans, we bring you this important document in several installments over the next few months. For those wanting to read the entire encyclical or check footnotes, go to Ecclesia in America For the eighth installment on Chapter Two: Encountering Jesus Christ in America Today - The burden of external debt , click on THE VICAR OF CHRIST SPEAKS.

Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America

From Pope John Paul II to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, and all the Lay Faithful on the encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America

The burden of external debt

22. The Synod Fathers voiced concern about the external debt afflicting many American nations and expressed solidarity with them. They were consistent in reminding public opinion of the complexity of this issue, acknowledging that “the debt is often the result of corruption and poor administration”.(59) In keeping with the spirit of the Synod's deliberations, such an acknowledgment does not mean to place on one side all the blame for a phenomenon which is extremely complex in its origin and in the solutions which it demands.(60)

      Among the causes which have helped to create massive external debt are not only high interest rates, caused by speculative financial policies, but also the irresponsibility of people in government who, in incurring debt, have given too little thought to the real possibility of repaying it. This has been aggravated by the fact that huge sums obtained through international loans sometimes go to enrich individuals instead of being used to pay for the changes needed for the country's development. At the same time, it would be unjust to impose the burden resulting from these irresponsible decisions upon those who did not make them. The gravity of the situation is all the more evident when we consider that “even the payment of interest alone represents a burden for the economy of poor nations, which deprives the authorities of the money necessary for social development, education, health and the establishment of a fund to create jobs”.(61)

Corruption

23. Corruption is often among the causes of crushing public debt, and is therefore a serious problem which needs to be considered carefully. “Respecting no boundaries, [corruption] involves persons, public and private structures of power and the governing elites”. It creates a situation which “encourages impunity and the illicit accumulation of money, lack of trust in political institutions, especially the administration of justice and public investments, which are not always transparent, equal for all and effective”.(62)

      Here I wish to recall what I wrote in the Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace — that the plague of corruption needs to be denounced and combatted forcefully by those in authority, with “the generous support of all citizens, sustained by a firm moral conscience”.(63) Appropriate supervisory bodies and transparency in economic and financial transactions are helpful and in many cases stop the spread of corruption, the dire consequences of which fall in the main upon the weakest and most marginal members of society. It is also the poor who are the first to suffer as a result of delays and inefficiency, by not being properly defended, because of structural deficiencies, especially when corruption affects the administration of justice itself.

The drug trade

24. The drug trade and drug use represent a grave threat to the social fabric of American nations. The drug trade “contributes to crime and violence, to the destruction of family life, to the physical and emotional destruction of many individuals and communities, especially among the young. It also undermines the ethical dimension of work and increases the number of people in prison — in a word, it leads to the degradation of the person created in the image of God”.(64) This devastating trade also leads to “the ruin of governments and erodes economic security and the stability of nations”.(65) Here we are facing one of the most urgent challenges which many nations around the world need to address: it is in fact a challenge which threatens many features of the human progress achieved in recent times. For some American nations, the production, trafficking and use of drugs are factors which tarnish their international reputation, because they reduce their credibility and render more difficult the cooperation which they seek with other countries and which is so essential nowadays for harmonious social development.

Ecological concern

25. “And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:25). These words from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis reveal the meaning of what God has done. To men and women, the crown of the entire process of creation, the Creator entrusts the care of the earth (cf. Gen 2:15). This brings concrete obligations in the area of ecology for every person. Fulfillment of these obligations supposes an openness to a spiritual and ethical perspective capable of overcoming selfish attitudes and “life-styles which lead to the depletion of natural resources”.(66)

      In this area too, so relevant today, the action of believers is more important than ever. Alongside legislative and governmental bodies, all people of good will must work to ensure the effective protection of the environment, understood as a gift from God. How much ecological abuse and destruction there is in many parts of America! It is enough to think of the uncontrolled emission of harmful gases or the dramatic phenomenon of forest fires, sometimes deliberately set by people driven by selfish interest. Devastations such as these could lead to the desertification of many parts of America, with the inevitable consequences of hunger and misery. This is an especially urgent problem in the forests of Amazonia, an immense territory extending into different countries: from Brazil to Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.(67) This is one of the world's most precious natural regions because of its bio-diversity which makes it vital for the environmental balance of the entire planet.

NEXT MONDAY: Installment nine - Chapter Three: THE PATH OF CONVERSION The urgency of the call to conversion

Will the Apostles believe such a wild tale?

      In Chapter 10, Faith Conquers Fear that apprehension had to be going through the thoughts of Mary Magdalen as she raced toward the place where the Apostles cowered in the upper room. She was eager to tell them, yet apprehensive, too, for who was she compared to these men who had followed her Master and been so close to Him? These are some of the things the Blessed Mother shares with us through the interior vision imparted to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart after Pentecost 1993. They are meant to inspire and prompt a greater understanding of the Glorious Mysteries. For part one, click on "MY LORD AND MY GOD!"

      Dear Father, it is the eve of Corpus Christi. I have gone to the vigil Mass, and have so tried to love Him, knowing how miserable my love is. But how He waits for each of us, no matter how miserable our love, because it is He Who makes it perfect. Now our Holy Mother comes and bids me continue these Lessons. I do not fully understand why, nor do I ask, but our Heavenly Mother would like all of these put down and given to hr children. It is their simplicity, which she wants them to be aware of. How simple it is to know God, for He is Love, how little all of us love with Divine Love, how the evil one has confused 'love' with the human emotion. I have tested the voice and I begin.

      I am with Mary of Magdala. She is running pell-mel through the garden. Her face is absolutely beyond all description. There is upon her face the full spectrum of human emotions, but also an inner radiance, which truly sets her eyes afire. In all my interior visions, Mary of Magdala has been shown to me to be an extraordinarily beautiful woman. But since her conversion, her beauty has intensified. Now, having seen her beloved Master risen, having been so close to Him and realizing profoundly in her soul the full Truth of all His Words, this inner beauty ignites. Faith and Trust fuel her love. It spills out. She wants to shout from the rooftops. She wants everyone to know and share in her joyful love.

      But Mary is obedient. Her Master has commissioned her to carry the news to His Apostles. And she is headed straight for the house of the Last Supper. The other Marys have been left far behind. They do not appear to be anywhere in sight, and the Magdalene does not think of them at present.

      The city is stirring to life now, as dawn has filled the whole eastern sky. Many curious eyes look after the flying figure of a woman dashing up one street and down another. They question in their minds, most just shake their heads, and go about their normal daily routine. But several recognize her as she passes, for she has not bothered to keep her veil tightly about her face as she runs, and I hear, "It is her, Lazarus' sister." "What can she be in such a hurry for?" "Could be trouble. She was on of His followers. Now that He's gone, there won't be any more trouble between the Temple and Pilate.

      Mary, breathless, reaches the house of the Last Supper. Breathing hard, she pauses only for a moment to catch her breath and then knocks. It is not a timid knock as all have been want to do since the Passion of Our Dear Lord. Her knock says clearly that it is urgent she gain entrance, and so eager is she that she repeats the knock at once.

      The door squeaks open an inch or two, no more. Angled as I am to Mary's side I see the two piercing eyes of a worried, frightened Peter inside. He sees the woman and is about to open the door a little wider to admit her, but Mary is not about to wait for him. She pushes against the door, surprising Peter, and the door swings fully open and daylight streams into the darkened house where all the shutters remain tightly drawn, save the room where the Blessed Mother prays and gives praise to the Trinity.

      "Mary, what has happened?" Peter is truly alarmed. With one hand he grasps the door and bangs it shut, immediately casting them into a semi-gloom, while with the other he grabs Mary's arm with great strength born of his human fear.

      "I have been out!" Mary gasps, looking squarely at Peter. "I have been to the garden where His body was laid."

      The news shocks Peter, who lets go of her arm. Now he is thoroughly convinced that the Sanhedrin or Pilate's troops have caused either Mary's haste.

      Mary rushes up the narrow stairs, headed for the room where the other Apostles are gathered. Peter pulls himself together and enters the room right behind her.

      The sight of Lazarus' sister causes the Apostles to come to their feet. Most had been asleep. Some sat dozing, trying to pray. But they find Lazarus' sister in the very center of the room, and not one misses the fact that she is absolutely glowing, her whole being animated with renewed life. They do not speak, but watch her as, carefully. Mary turns slowly a full 360 degrees to let her eyes see each Apostle.

      "I was there," she begins.

      "She went to the tomb," Peter gruffly interjects. "We'll have trouble now from the guards stationed there."

      "No! You don't understand. I have not come to tell you of trouble."

      "What have you come to say then?" asks John in a mild voice, almost with a dream-like quality. He, of all the Apostles gathered here, is the only one who is truly at peace. He is not fearful as the others are of being discovered by either Roman soldiers or Sanhedrin guards.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: Part two: Faith conquers Fear

    Dear children! I call you to prayer with the heart. In a special way, little children, I call you to pray for conversion of sinners, for those who pierce my heart and the heart of my Son Jesus with the sword of hatred and daily blasphemies. Let us pray, little children, for all those who do not desire to come to know the love of God, even though they are in the Church. Let us pray that they convert, so that the Church may resurrect in love. Only with love and prayer, little children, can you live this time which is given to you for conversion. Place God in the first place, then the risen Jesus will become your friend. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

---

THE DAILY WORD

"Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you have seen signs, but because you have eaten of the loaves and have been filled. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for that which endured unto life everlasting, which the Son of Man will give you."

John 6: 26-27

---

---

Click here to go to SECTION TWO or SECTION THREE click here to return to the graphics front page of this issue.

April 19, 1999 volume 10, no. 76   DAILY CATHOLIC