Review of the National Catholic Reporter
by Unknown
This week, From the Mail asks a question about a competitor, in more ways than one: Just what is happening to the National Catholic Reporter?
To start, FTM would like to quote a letter received from a Wanderer reader in the Kansas City area:
"Dear FTM: I received the enclosed promotional letter from the NCR yesterday, and wondered whose mailing list these people purchased to get my name. I can only assume NCR obtained our parish membership list. I was disappointed to learn that in 37 years, NCR has obtained over 120,000 readers in 96 countries. Too bad this isn't the case for The Wanderer.
"My sister complains that everywhere she goes she only sees the NCR, sometimes along with the diocesan newspaper offered in churches. She went on a pilgrimage with a Carmelite-sponsored tour and every one of the churches they visited in Missouri, except for a Vietnamese shrine, had the NCR available in the vestibule. In a Paulist church downtown, they also sell the liberal diocesan newspaper from Dubuque, along with our own diocesan newspaper and the NCR . . . Whenever the local PBS station airs a program with a 'Catholic' angle, they bring on someone from NCR . . . How is it they have such undeserved influence?"
"Sincerely," etc.
In editor Tom Robert's promotional letter, ballyhooing NCR's achievements and awards, which accompanied the above letter, Roberts concludes:
"We are entering a critical time of transition in the church [sic]. We are living through the twilight years of a papacy while simultaneously looking toward the future. We feel the growing pains of a newly emerging global church working to become a unified eucharistic community. If this is a time of tension, it is also a time of opportunity and hope. Please join us . . . " blah, blah, blah.
NCR, let's be honest, does enjoy a privilege denied The Wanderer. Whereas many bishops have explicitly commanded their priests not to make this newspaper available in their parishes, none, as far as FTM is aware, have forbidden NCR. Not only that, but — from FTM's insider vantage point — it appears that the bishops have also quietly blacklisted The Wanderer, thereby preventing mention of this newspaper in any but in the most derogatory ways in the secular press for any of its ground-breaking investigative reports, its dramatic exposes, and its fearless fidelity to Catholic truth and the Holy See.
As the late Fr. John Hardon would say, "We go on . . ."
Looking For A More Comfortable Spiritual Life
Recently, the New Oxford Review's editor Dale Vree provided another insight into NCR when he wrote under the headline, "Going to India Without Really Leaving Kansas City," in the June 2001 edition:
"Tom Fox is publisher of the National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City, probably the most influential Catholic periodical in the U.S. You know the Reporter must be thriving, for Fox was able to take a month-long junket to India, which he tells about in the March 16 issue.
"Fox reports that when he arrived in India he was spiritually restless, was 'searching for something,' something in the 'mystical ways' of India that would make his spiritual life more 'comfortable.'
"Fox encountered two elderly Indian Catholic priests, with whom he had deeply personal spiritual conversations, and they made his trip halfway 'round the world 'comforting and uplifting.'
"One priest asked Fox if he believed in Hell. Fox answered, 'No, I guess I don't.' The priest was pleased. But probing deeper, the priest declared, 'You know what your problem is, you think of God as father. You still view God as judge. You've got to get over it . . . There is nothing you can do — no wrong — that is not already [forgiven] . . . by your best friend, God.'
"The priest then urged Fox to read Friendship with God by Neale Donald Walsch, an American New Age guru. Fox did so, saying he found it 'helpful.'
"Walsch is also author of Conversations with God, which has been on American best-seller lists for years. (Friendship is the sequel to Conversations.) In Conversations, Walsch's God says: 'There's no such thing as the Ten Commandments . . . God's Law is No Law . . . If you are to evolve, it will not be because you've been able to deny yourself things you know "feel good" but because you've granted yourself these pleasures' . . .
"It's funny how Tom Fox had to go all the way to India to find out about Neale Donald Walsch, when he could have bought copies of Walsch's books right there in Kansas City. Why, Fox had no need to go to India to find a more 'comfortable' spirituality — all he had to do was visit one of the loopy 'Catholic' retreat centers right there in the midwest. Heck, if Fox bothered to read the paper he publishes, he'd have found oodles of comfortable spirituality."
It's good that Fox has finally outed himself as a New Ager, and his episcopal backers have been outed too. Just one question remains: When will Bishop Raymond Boland of Kansas City demand that NCR remove the word "Catholic" from the newspaper, and order an end to its distribution in his diocese?
It might also be noted that NCR is the official bulletin board for Amchurch enthusiasts seeking employment. Hundreds of thousands of dollars flow into NCR's coffers each year from dioceses, parishes, and other Catholic institutions to display advertisements for a myriad of Church related employment opportunities.
"Bridge Builder" Doesn't Require Teaching Church Dogma In Evangelization
The current (June 29) issue of NCR contains an interesting report by Fox, illustrating that his enthusiasm for things Hindu has not waned, and alerting real Catholics that they really ought to make another push for the bishops to order the Catholic Theological Society of America to remove the word "Catholic" from its title.
In "U.S. Theology Meeting Signals Broader Vision," Fox reports that the directorship of the CTSA has passed from one dissenter to another, from Franciscan Fr. Kenneth Himes to Fr. Peter Phan, of Catholic University, who was a major critic and opponent of The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Reading between the lines, it appears that Fox is delighted that Phan's agenda might be to Hinduize the Church in the U.S. Here are the relevant excerpts:
"As the theology society's president-elect, Phan had chosen the theme of Church mission to guide conference discussions . . .
"Newer mission theologies generally focus on Jesus and His message and call for witnessing Christianity to the world. They often look beyond the Church to the Reign of God, advocating labor on behalf of justice, peace, and integral human development. These ideas have flourished since the early 1970s in Asia where the bishops have been especially sensitive to widespread poverty, local cultures, and interreligious dialog . . .
"In Asia evangelization based on witness and dialog has received uncompromised episcopal support. These post-conciliar initiatives flourished beneath Vatican radar throughout the 1970s and 1980s until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Then Rome was more focused on thwarting the influence of liberation theology in Latin America. However, in the 1990s, Rome's target of concern moved eastward. The Vatican began to speak about the dangers of relativism and religious pluralism.
"In his 1990 encyclical, Redemptoris Missio, Pope John Paul II questioned the new evangelism, worrying aloud that the Church was losing its missionary zeal. However, the Asian bishops stayed the course. They shocked Roman prelates at the 1998 Synod on Asia by their insistence on their mission-driven Church vision based on the 'triple dialog' with cultures, religions, and the poor.
"The next year Pope John Paul, in Delhi, offered his response to the synod in an apostolic exhortation called Ecclesia in Asia. It came as a disappointment to most Asians. Laden with Church orthodoxy, the document fell far short of an emerging Asian vision of church — a network of truly collaborative local churches working through dialog for total human liberation. When the Asian bishops met in Thailand only weeks later for a once-in-five-years pan-Asian gathering, they simply ignored Vatican pleas to discuss Ecclesia in Asia.
"It was within this Catholic debate over mission that Phan invited Indian Jesuit Fr. Michael Amaladoss, a former assistant to the superior general of the Society of Jesus and one of Asia's most respected theologians, to be a keynote speaker at this year's gathering of the Catholic Theological Society of America. Phan calls Amaladoss a 'bridge builder' . . .
"'Our starting point is that salvation is now understood not merely in terms of individuals being saved but in cosmic terms made familiar to us by Paul,' he said. Amaladoss upheld the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, but rejected the notion that other religions must be seen as simply leading up to the fulfillment of Catholicism. This idea does not match the Asian experience, he said.
"Rather, Amaladoss argued that the divine-human dialog has led to the emergence of many religions. It is the task of believers, he said, to work for reconciliation finally leaving it to God to gather up all things. Again echoing ideas widely held by the Catholic Asian bishops, Amaladoss said the Spirit and Word have been present throughout history in all religions. Asian evangelization begins, he said, with contemplating this reality and then attempting to learn from other religions. This approach opens the Church to true dialog, he said . . .
"Noting that many Asians, including Ghandi, have been deeply influenced by Jesus yet reject the Church and its creeds, Amaladoss said evangelization does not necessarily require teaching Church dogma . . ."
Heading Toward An Idiotic State
In the spirit of journalistic solidarity, FTM sincerely recommends to Tom Fox that he read Tal Brooke's Riders of the Cosmic Circuit, an Authors Guild Backinprint.com edition, published by iUniverse.com.
In Riders of the Cosmic Circuit, Brooke, who for two years served in the innermost circle of India's most well-known avatar, Sai Baba, who believes he is God, exposes the satanic side of three of India's most well-known gurus: Sai Baba, Muktanananda, and Rajneesh, the latter of whom enjoyed an immense international reputation. These "gods" are masters of mind control, and hold in their thrall tens of millions of devotees worldwide. When we think the crowds the Holy Father draws are huge, think that Sai Baba draws crowds double that size all across India, crowds anxious to be dazzled with his miracles.
In the chapter headed, "Zorba the Buddha Cafe," Brooke describes a conversation he is having with Ada, from Amsterdam, whose husband, off in the distance, is trying to console a 26-year-old freshly sterilized girl whom Rajneesh has made his personal sex toy. After recounting Rajneesh's bizarre attitudes toward sex and child-rearing, Brooke describes Rajneesh's residence and the ashram, where his devotees toil:
"These were the privileged permanent residents, who had given the ashram their entire savings and burned all their bridges to move in. Their days would consist of eleven hours a day and more of duty to Bhagavan. They would manicure the gardens, till the fields, build cabins, plant sunflowers and a range of crops, work in the woodshops, bakeries, printing press — like the elves of an enchanted kingdom . . .
"These were the serfs, the medieval servants of the king, and in a caste role whether they knew it or not. We passed them, toiling sweaty bodies from all over the world — Brazilians, British, Germans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese and Swedes, and Indians. Sweaty and covered with dirt, sawdust, hay or stubble on the wet matted hair of their naked chests. Heaving and groaning, screaming at each other or joking, and the work went on.
"Release they would get, because women outnumbered them three to one. And many of these girls, most of them, seemed picked out of the sky — it was uncanny. So many lithe, well-developed beauties, at the flower of life. Sensual, dark beautied Italians and Jewesses, heavenly Scandanavians, sultry French women and Brazilians . . . hand picked, it seemed, by the gods. Yes, these heaving studs would have their release. And if swapping partners did not do the trick, there was Nepalese hash, or opium, or regular pot . . . There were also a range of encounter groups . . . There was primal scream, and there was a padded cell where they could beat each other's brains out, and many of them did . . .
"Now and then, at the evening dharshans, one of them would be given the boon of bringing the master a question. For instance, consider Rajneesh's response to a question from one of the merry elves of the realm.
"'Just the other day, Divyananda came to me — he works in my garden — and said, "What is happening to me? I have become almost a Zombie, and I am afraid. Should I go and do something else?" And I told him, "You be a Zombie. Be a perfect Zombie, that's all. You continue your work." Now something immensely valuable is happening, but he cannot understand it yet. This is what is happening: catalepsy . . .
"'This is going to happen to many. Don't be afraid when it happens . . . This is a state of not knowing; you don't know what is what, all your knowledge is lost, all your cleverness is gone. You become idiotic. You look like an idiot! People will say that you have become hypnotized or something, that you are no longer your old self. That is true; but it is a kind of shock. And good, because it will destroy the past . . . This is the whole meaning of sannyas and discipleship: that your past has been completely washed away — your memory, your ego, your identity — all has to go.'"
Rajneesh continued: "And each Master beheads you, cuts your head mercilessly, destroys your reason, destroys your logic, brings you down from the head . . . This is the third state: catharsis. When the head is no longer functioning, its control is lost and the prisoner set free . . . That's why a real disciple passes through a kind of insanity around a Master."
Tom Fox, and every other Catholic, ought to realize, before it is too late, that if you start playing with Hinduism, more often than not one will end up in the idiotic state described by Rajneesh. Fox should open his eyes: his paper is already a warning.
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This item 3915 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
