CF asks: “Could you please tell me about the site of Tradition in Action (TIA) and why they question Divine Mercy Sunday? The site claims that Sister Faustina did not get messages from God. It is very disturbing that this site came up on my Facebook page when researching Catholic teachings.”
Tradition in Action (TIA) is a controversial organization which opposes many of the changes of Vatican II. It claims to be “committed to defend the perennial Magisterium of Holy Mother Church and Catholic traditions. TIA also works for a restoration of Christian civilization, adapted to contemporary historical circumstances.”
The main authors on the site are Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D. and Atila Sink Guimaraes.
The latter was a protégé of Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira, a Brazilian intellectual, politician and Catholic activist who was the founder of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). Oliveira attended the opening session of Vatican II and declared it to be “a point in history as sad as the Death of Our Lord.” He later wrote that he considered Vatican II to be “one of the greatest calamities, if not the greatest, in the history of the Church”.
Both Horvat and Guimaraes were cosigners of a manifesto addressed to Pope John Paul II entitled, We Resist You To the Face, in the year 2000, which was a public statement of Catholic resistance to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. Joining them as co-signers was John Vennari of Catholic Family News and Remnant editor Michael J. Matt.
According to Catholic Culture, a reputable website which is faithful to the Magisterium, they found examples on TIA’s website of misleading articles and pictures with deceptive commentary.
For example, one statement read: “Picking up the pattern begun by John Paul II, Benedict XVI takes up the morally disputable practice of caressing young women. During one of his vacations in Castelgandolfo, Pope Ratzinger fondly strokes a young mother.”
In reality, the Pope was simply blessing a woman.
The group is also known to refer to the popes in a disrespectful manner, such as referring to Pope Benedict XVI as Pope Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II as Pope Wojtyla.
“Their manner of presenting pictures and commentary completely aside from any context is both a misrepresentation of facts and disgraceful to the Church and Her hierarchy,” Catholic Culture reports.
They have assigned a fidelity rating of “Danger” to the organization and cited its resources as “poor”.
