Reasons To Doubt Thomas: Part Two (Plagiarism: The Sequel)

Thomas Everyman

The National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/tracking-father-rosicas-very-long-history-of-plagiarism

Tracking Father Rosica's (very) long history of plagiarism - by Michael V. Dougherty (Sr. Ruth Caspar Chair in Philosophy at Ohio Dominican University) and Joshua Hochschild (Monsignor Robert R. Kline Chair of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University).

Scrutiny of Rosica’s literary output stretching back 30-plus years has revealed that his plagiarism is a long, consistent habit(.)

The latest secular media report exposes something of Fr. Rosica's rebellious behaviour. The authors note Fr. Rosica's plagiarism of an anti-Catholic source to contextualize (justify?) Pope Francis' apparent loose play with doctrine.

Catholics should be seriously annoyed that a priest has used his national pulpit, i.e., Salt & Light Television, to disseminate that which purports to be Catholic teaching, but is instead liberal religion of a diabolical kind. That is not to say all that S&L media has done is worthless. S&L TV has grown because of many faithful lay people giving time and talent to an important means by which to spread the New Evangelization. Unfortunately, S&L's vision or praxis is at times more Canadian-secularist than Catholic, more 'play nice' and 'fit in' than promoting the clear mission of saving souls. S&L's identity and modus operandi is exactly that determined by its founder, Fr. Thomas Rosica, plagiarist and, for attempting to blame-shift to mitigate culpability for  plagiarism, liar.

Pouring 'Salt' In The Wounds Of Catholic Canadians

The scant number of Canadians converting to Catholicism or remaining faithful, and the majority of Canadian politicians who claim to be Catholic - Jason Kenny, the recently elected Premier of Alberta and Ordinariate Catholic, being a rare exception - while promoting unethical and destructive policies, strongly suggests that the milquetoast programming of Catholic media along with the typical limp Sunday morning Novus Ordo homilies, weak parish catechetical programs and weak high school religion classes, are failing to win Canadian hearts and minds. Where are the Salt & Light programs, for example, that challenge that diabolical manifestation of disobedience called the Winnipeg Statement?

Subterfuge

Dougherty and Hochschild, the authors of the National Post article, present additional evidence of Fr. Rosica's deliberate mismanagement of information.

Most recently, we turned our attention to Rosica’s July 2018 reflection on “The Ignatian Qualities of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Francis.” Circulated widely online, it generated considerable international attention especially for the following passage, intended as praise: “Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants, because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’ Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

Critics of Francis took this as confirmation that Francis was a renegade and apostate; supporters of Francis were embarrassed at such a clumsy account of reform. When asked to comment specifically on Rosica’s words, Cardinal Raymond Burke responded, “This is nonsense.” And in response to all of this, Rosica only tweeted that some of his critics should “go to confession.” He never defended or further articulated his claim. Now we know why.

The controversial passage is lifted from a 2014 blog post by Richard Bennett, a former Catholic, commenting on a video lecture by Fr. James Martin. Here is Bennett, quoting (and sarcastically interpreting) Martin: “Francis having completed the Spiritual Exercises is now ‘detached,’ i.e., free from any ‘disordered attachments’ so that all his attachments or desires are supposedly ‘ordered toward God.’ In Pope Francis apprising himself to be, in the terminology of the Spiritual Exercises, one of ‘Christ’s Captains,’ he now as pope is able to serve God according to the subjective dictates of his own darkened conscience. Therefore, it is not surprising, as Jesuit priest Martin points out, Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants — because he is ‘free from disordered attachments’ according to the subjectivity of his own mindset rather than worshipping and serving God according to the authority of Scripture. Clearly, the Roman Catholic Church has entered a new phase: with the advent of its first Jesuit pope, it is obviously ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

Bennett’s words are formulated as a critique of Pope Francis (and of Martin and Ignatian spirituality). Rosica removes the overt criticism, but still manages to use Bennett’s key assertions: Francis “breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants,” “because he is ‘free from disordered attachments’ ”; the Church “has entered a new phase”; and, most remarkably, “with the advent of its first Jesuit pope, it is … ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

The authors hint at a forthcoming analysis which might expose a deliberate effort to promote heterodox teaching:

We are surprised that this source hasn’t been identified before, and in retrospect the distinctive Protestant, anti-Catholic tone of the critique should have been evident. What does it say that Rosica would use such a source, and in this way? In general, what lessons of intellectual influence and theological disposition can we learn from Rosica’s dishonest use of sources? In a separate, longer reflection, we plan to share more of what we have learned through close analysis of dozens of plagiarized texts.

Reasons To Doubt Thomas

Fathers Rosica's and Martin's respective playbooks appear to contain the same tactics to promote content that the faithful should avoid and bishops should forcefully condemn.

Fr. Thomas has effectively demonstrated that he is more (a progressivist) community organizer than caretaker of souls. His mind is a good mind misused. His fraud over the past 30 years or so tends to suggest he was willing to forgo the demands of academic and journalistic life and took the easy road to fame and influence.

All Fr. Rosica's substantial work to promote the Gospel, if indeed he actually intended to configure his efforts to the Gospel, is now tainted by a familiar fall of the proud: the end always justifies the means. To the proud and power-hungry person, the sacrifice of truth upon the altar of compromise is necessary to guarantee one's own success. When priests and journalists succumb to such a temptation, hearts and minds suffer and those who trust in the work of charismatic leaders tend to fall into the same fraud as their arrogant guides.

Pray for those willfully errant priests who, thinking themselves doing the Lord's work, merely behave as wolves among the sheep. Pray that they may abandon their deceitful and destructive behaviour.

Pray for faithful priests, especially young priests and seminarians, that they may withstand the tide and temptations of liberal religion.

May the merciful Lord forgive us all our failings, that we being brought to repentance may be spared the just consequences of any fraudulent piety, of any and all sham behaviour.

Pray for the Ordinariate! May it continue to be a safe harbour for Catholics seeking the fullness of the Faith.

https://ordinariate.net/parishfinder