Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Attack on me by Christian Order

The small number of dedicated Christian Order readers who manage to wade through through the first 26 pages of the latest edition will find a few paragraphs attacking me by name, on page 27 and the top of 28, for my blog post about the fiasco of the cancelled conference organised by Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. I hesitate to give this any publicity but I think it is worth making a few remarks about it.

As Editor of Christian Order Rod Pead has long treated it as a personal mouthpiece, but recent issues have taken this principle to new extremes. The current issue comprises entirely, with the exception of a letter to the editor printed on the inside covers, the Editorial. Christian Order has a small format, but that is 79 pages of text (there are no pictures), not counting the contents page. This is not an unprecedented situation, and this is in fact just Part III of an apparently endless rant about the Jews.

I doubt any sane person will have the time or inclination to sit down and untangle the various theological and political claims being made by Rod Pead in these articles, to establish whether he can fairly be accused of anti-semitism. What a glance at the contents page tells us, however, without further ado, is that he is in the grip of an obsession. The style is prolix and undisciplined; he's just rabbitting on like a pub bore on speed. If there were a serious point at the bottom of all this verbiage, a serious person would realise that these CO articles are counter-productive in getting it across.

Rod Pead's attack on me is entirely about a single sentence in my blog post about the 'PEEP fiasco'. The point of the post was to say, against Dr William Oddie, that the successive errors of judgement which led to the cancellation of the PEEP conference cannot be attributable to a traditonalist element in Pro Ecclesia which Daphne MacLeod ought to purge. On the contrary, Mrs MacLeod was taking full responsibility for the decisions, and the conspiracy-theory element of the story is neither typical of or nor restricted to those associated with the Traditonal Mass. I added, towards the end:

"I don't know much about Kramer and Sungenis, but I know they are widely regarded as dangerous lunatics, and with justification."

I'd be happy to withdraw the 'with justification', on the basis that it is for their accusers to make the case, which of course they are happy to do. My point is simply that there is a perception of them being extremists, and that this perception is based on enough evidence (justification) that it is not going to be undone in a trice by a couple of adverts in the Catholic Herald. Given what had just happened - the withdrawal of Cardinal Burke as a speaker on the grounds that PEEP was a cause for concern to faithful Catholics (ie, a bit extreme), inviting two alternative speakers who are regarded as more than a bit extreme was not a very clever idea.

Rod Pead's accusation against me is that this remark of mine is an unjustified slur on the good names of Kramer and Sungenis: no, it's not, it is merely a comment about public perceptions of them; my lack of knowledge about them in themselves is made explicit.

He also says that this remark indicates that I am a 'useful idiot' in going along with the great conspiracy of Jews, Communists, Freemasons, and promoters of theological innovation, yawn yawn. Well, I have news for Rod Pead: insofar as there are problems in the Church, insofar as error needs to be opposed, and our great liturgical traditions made available once more to all Catholics, as our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI now gloriously reigning wills, the Latin Mass Society is doing a great deal more about it than Christian Order.

7 comments:

  1. Andrew Witcombe-Small12:21 pm

    Mr Chairman, only an escaped lunatic could possibly associate you with "Communists, Freemasons, and promoters of theological innovation".
    I have a subscription form for 'Christian Order' somewhere, and I was going to use it. I don't think I'll bother now, and will try 'Second Spring' instead.

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  2. Sue Sims11:54 pm

    I subscribed to Christian Order for several years - cancelled my subscription (and wrote to the Editor to explain why) about four or five years ago, when it became clear that anti-Semitism was the default position of both Editor and several contributors. I assume, without any proof, it's because of the Lefebvrist connections (and of course, the Archbishop himself shared the anti-Semitic attitudes endemic in French Integrist circles throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries). Your comments don't surprise me.

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  3. Gareth10:15 am

    I am a subscriber to CO and reading his series of articles, he has pretty much, overall nailed it. Of course we are free to agree or disagree (this is not dogma) but the attacks on the Church and Catholicism per se, not to mention our ancient liturgy can be traced to certain Masonic groups and individuals.

    If mr. Pead has joined the dots and - in light of a Neo Con forcing the cancellation of a perfectly normal conference of interest to conservative Catholics - chosen to speak out then he should be free to do so without the sideways knife in the ribs of those too afraid to speak out against the enemies of the church.

    e.g. I do not deny the LMS has done much to promote the LM/TM, but equally without the SSPX (whom one contributor here slams as "anti-semitic" whatever that means) the LM/TM might be much less available thanks to Bugnini's errors and the sheer weight of Modernism in the Church circa 70s/80s.

    But rather than point the finger at the Freemasons demanding ever more that the Bible itself be whittled away (it too being "anti Semitic" of course), certain folks would rather have a pop at CO and its editor.

    I recently renewed my subs (last month) and in light of his forthright tone and the attacks unleashed ehrein I will also be sending a donation.

    I regularly attand LMS Masses. Thanks for your good work in that regard.

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  4. rpienne@aol.com2:39 pm

    Just as you can get anti-depressants from the doctor; Christian Order does its work by providing depressants, as a cure for any optimisim,hope,delight,faith in the hierarchical Church that we might experience or sense.

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  5. Jim Gallagher11:17 pm

    Many consider the LMS "a bit extreme". Is that a good enough criterion for judgment?

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  6. Sue Sims7:21 am

    Gareth: I'm glad you've never encountered anti-Semitism (at least, I assume that's the case, since you're unaware of its meaning). Here's an example of the sort of thing I mean, from the Ignis Ardens site: it was posted on the prayer-for-the-Queen thread by someone with the user-name 'Robhaidheuch'.

    "Disgraceful, that the treacherous Union be praised on a Catholic website. Catholic Scotland fell due to the Protestant Reformation that was imported by England. With the help of fifth columnists like Knox who received his instructions from John Calvin the crypto-Jew and the early Masonic agents such as Robert Cecil the good Cardinal Beaton was murdered, as was the Queen of Scots. The only prayer I make for our Protestant queen is that she becomes a Catholic Prince Charles Edward Stewart was Catholic, and his brother the Cardinal was the last legitimate King of Scots that I recognise. Spare me praise for the "Butcher's Apron" that waved in the wind at Culloden! Why the pope welcomed King Billy's victory at the Boyne will forever remain a mystery to me. Abraham Sausso, an Amsterdam Jew, was the front-man for the operation that put the Orange %*$# on the British throne, in order to create the private company they called The Bank of England, introduce government borrowing and saddle us with the national debt which has impoverished everyone except those who control the system."

    There are various types of anti-Semitism, but this is the major one I've noticed in SSPX circles: the collapsing of history into one huge Jewish/Masonic conspiracy.

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  7. Doesn't anyone other than the Jews and Freemasons attack the Church? You'd be forgiven for thinking so if you relied only on CO for your information, which I suspect is true for many CO readers. I cancelled my subscription to CO 3 or 4 years ago because its hate-filled rants had nothing of the Gospel in them. Sometimes you have to let go of anger and forgive your enemies. At least that's what our Blessed Saviour taught. CO on the other hand...

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