{"id":6114,"date":"2011-06-06T17:08:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T23:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/catholic-fundamentalist\/"},"modified":"2019-02-09T15:59:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T21:59:03","slug":"catholic-fundamentalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/catholic-fundamentalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Fundamentalist?","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FROM <\/strong>a reader:<\/p>\n

\n

I have been reading your “deluge of false prophets” series, and to tell you the truth, I am a little concerned. Let me explain… I am a recent convert to the Church. I was once a fundamentalist Protestant Pastor of the “meanest kind”\u2014I was a bigot! Then someone gave me a book by Pope John Paul II\u2014 and I fell in love with this man’s writing. I resigned as Pastor in 1995 and in 2005 I came into the Church. I went to Franciscan University (Steubenville) and got a Masters in Theology. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

But as I read your blog\u2014I saw something I did not like\u2014an image of myself 15 years ago. I am wondering, because I swore when I left Fundamentalist Protestantism that I would not substitute one fundamentalism for another. My thoughts: be careful you do not become so negative that you lose sight of the mission.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Is it possible that there is such an entity as “Fundamentalist Catholic?” I worry about the heteronomic element in your message.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The reader here raises an important question: are my writings overly negative? After writing about “false prophets,” am I perhaps a “false prophet” myself, blinded by a spirit of “doom and gloom,” and thus, unhinged from reality such that I have lost sight of my mission? Am I, after all is said and done, simply a “Fundamentalist Catholic?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WHEN THE TITANIC IS SINKING<\/p>\n

There is a popular saying that it makes little sense to “re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.” That is, when the ship is going down, the most important thing at that point becomes survival: helping others into the safety boats, and getting into one before the ship sinks.\u00a0 \"\"Crisis, by its nature, takes on an urgency of its own.<\/p>\n

The above is an appropriate image for both what is occurring to the Church today and the mission of this apostolate: to brings souls into the safe refuge of Christ in these troubling times. But before I say another word, let me point out that this is not<\/em> the view of some if not many<\/em> bishops in the Church today. Indeed, there is little sense of urgency or even crisis apparent among most bishops. However, the same cannot be said for the “Bishop of Rome,” the Holy Father.\u00a0In truth, it is the Pope whom I have been following carefully for many years like a lighthouse in the darkness. For I have found no where else such a powerful blend of reality and hope, truth and tough love, authority and anointing like I have\u00a0heard coming from the popes. For the sake of brevity, let me focus primarily on his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Peter Seewald in 2001, then Cardinal Ratzinger said,<\/p>\n

\n

To begin with, the Church “will be numerically reduced.” When I made this affirmation, I was overwhelmed with reproaches of pessimism. And today, when all prohibitions seem obsolete, among them those that refer to what has been called pessimism… often, is nothing other than healthy realism…<\/strong> \u2014(POPE BENEDICT XVI) On the Future of Christianity, <\/em>Zenit News Agency, October 1, 2001; www.thecrossroadsinitiative.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This “healthy realism”\u00a0was expressed most vividly just weeks before he was elected Pope\u00a0when\u2014using our Titanic reference again\u2014he said\u00a0the Catholic Church is like…<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side.<\/span><\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Ratzinger, March 24, 2005, Good Friday meditation on the Third Fall of Christ<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, we know in the end that the boat does not<\/em> sink. That the “gates of hell will not prevail against it.” [1]<\/sup><\/a>Matt 16:18<\/span><\/span>