Stand Alone Pages on 'Musings of an Old Curmudgeon'

28 April 2021

The Great Facade: Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Roman Catholic Church

I've started reading The Great Facadeby Christopher Ferrara and Thomas Woods. The original edition was written during the Pontificate of JPII. The second edition, which I'm reading, has supplemental chapters by Ferrara bringing it up to date in the current Pontificate.

As I read it, I'm inevitably reminded of FishEaters Forum over the past few months since the closing of Catholic Answers Forum. Several of the new members, who arrived at the same time CAF ceased to exist, are shining examples of the 'neo-caths' that Ferrara and Woods are discussing. The modernist mentality of 'if Rome has approved it, it must be Traditional' is exactly what makes a neo-cath. 

Ferrara and Woods point out that, far from being 'conservative', as in wanting to actually conserve things, they are actually just a slower form of radical progressives. Who was it that said something to the effect that radicals screw things up and conservatives then prevent things from being fixed? That's exactly the way neo-caths work.

Well, that and a bit of passive aggression, as I've seen in a couple of recent threads on FishEaters. Ask a question to which you already know the answers you're going to get and then clutch your pearls when you get those answers. Misread and misconstrue comments and accuse people of positions they don't hold, etc. These are standard neo-cath tactics, as when the SSPX and sometimes even Traditionalist in general are accused of being 'schismatic' because they refuse to accept the latest diktat from Rome or the decrees of a 'pastoral Council' that flatly contradict the Dogmatic Councils and Papal Magisterium of pre-Conciliar times.

At any rate, if you haven't read The Great Facade, I highly recommend it. 

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