By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Once upon a time, the only people in the Catholic Church who were calling for reform were “cafeteria Catholics” but the advent of theologically conservative Catholic bloggers who are not afraid to expose dissent is beginning to have an impact on the Church in America.
The Associated Press is reporting that groups such as RealCatholicTV, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry of Texas, and the American Papist blog have been taking on and exposing dissenters wherever they find them.
“Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church,” writes the AP.
American Papist blogger Thomas Peters, 25, told the AP that fellow orthodox Catholics have embraced the Web because it gives them a platform on which to compete with well-established liberal Catholic publications such as the National Catholic Reporter (which bloggers have nicknamed “the National Catholic Destroyer”).
Peters goes out of his way to promote “bishops with backbone,” highlighting prelates who rein in dissent. His site offers online “thank you’s” that readers can use to express their appreciation to bishops who stand firm for the faith. The site recently generated more than 500 letters in one day congratulating Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul for refusing to give communion to gay activists at a recent Mass.
“All of these things that we say in public are meant for the best good of the church,” said Peters, who now works for the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group founded by Princeton University scholar Robert George.
Bellarmine Veritas Ministry of Texas has been investigating the bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which led to the uncovering of grants to organizations that support abortion and homosexual rights and other programs that violate Church teaching. As a result, some of these grantees have been defunded and bishops are reviewing their grant policies. To date, 10 out the 195 U.S. dioceses have suspended or dropped annual collections for the CCHD until the program is cleaned up.
Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV has produced many exposes on corruption in the Church from his Detroit studios. He has also launched the CIA — the Catholic Investigative Agency — a program designed to “bring to light the dark deeds of evil Catholics-in-name-only, who are hijacking the Church for their own ends, not the ends of Christ.”
Voris disagrees with accusations that he’s on a “witch hunt.”
“We’re just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith,” he told the AP.
Unfortunately, some bloggers fail to exercise charity in their writings, with some appearing to be more focused on politics than theology. This has sparked criticism from the likes of John Allen of the liberal National Catholic Reporter who refers to the rising breed on online conservative bloggers as the “Catholic Taliban.”
The Church is responding to this new trend and has organized several media conferences, including one held at the Vatican this month. The U.S. bishops conference also issued social media guidelines in July calling for Christian charity online.
While the guidelines are necessary, most of the bloggers say they have been fighting dissent in their dioceses for a long time and believe the blogosphere is finally getting them somewhere.
“There’s a general sense among many faithful Catholics that no matter how much they write their bishops, no matter how much they go to the pastors, all of these unfaithful things keep getting taught,” Voris said. “I think enough Catholics are saying, ‘That’s it. I’ve had it.'”
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