A Twisted, Fruitless Tree
Several people asked if there is any way they can do a quick or more thorough check of names in RENEW 2000 on their own or to convince others. This 'recipe' can really help, and is quick and easy:
1) Get the four leaders' manuals. There may be only one set per parish. Ask your priest or assistant if you can borrow the set.
2) The manuals are called Small Christian Communities and Called to Lead (books 1, 2, and 3). If you have time, go through other books, but only these four have big bibliographies and are easy to cross-check.
3) Turn to the bibliographies and endnotes. Also check forewords and inside front covers. Any time you see a name in RENEW 2000, write it and check it. Photocopy and mark up your photocopies to show others.
4) Take a copy of Ungodly Rage by Donna Steichen, available at low cost from Ignatius Press, 800-651-1531, even though it is not in its catalog (2nd-day mail is only $10.00 extra). Ungodly Rage is like a catalog of dissident writers. Another book to use is Call to Action or Call to Apostasy? by Brian Clowes, from Human Life International, 540-635-7884 or e-mail at [email protected] or http://www.hli.org. You can substitute the Clowes book for the Steichen book if necessary. Both are very good.
5) Look up the RENEW 2000 bibliography names in the back of Ungodly Rage. Then turn to the Ungodly Rage pages and read the excerpts from each RENEW writer's name.
6) Experience total dismay as you see the unbridled dissent that has been published by these writers and see that many of the RENEW 2000 writers are dissidents and heterodox.
7) Go online to the RENEW 2000 web page, www.renew-intl.org/catalog.html.
8) Look up the names of the authors and the commentators in the section which promotes books. Look those up in Ungodly Rage, too.
9) Here are some quick starter names from RENEW 2000 bibliographies that you can check in Ungodly Rage: Diann Neu, Mary Hunt, Monika Hellwig, Thomas Berry, Sandra Schneiders. Don't forget that Fr. Anthony de Mello, S.J., whose writings are in RENEW 2000, was the subject of a very recent notification from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Lord tells us in Scripture that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. It is more than a little ironic, then, that the "image" for RENEW 2000 is that twisted, fruitless tree. Our Lord teaches in Scripture that the blind cannot lead others and that those with a beam in their own eye cannot help others to see. It is not possible, then, that dissident, defiant, or heterodox authors could teach anything holy to the Catholic faithful. © The Wanderer, 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733.
This item 606 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
