On this episode of the podcast, Steve flies solo, breaking down a couple of very important stories not currently being widely discussed.
First, the Directory for Catechesis has been revised for the first time since the papacy of John Paul II, and those behind the changes are seeking to shift the emphasis from teaching doctrine to evangelization – to include care for migrants, ecology, and a new view of the death penalty as “inhuman.”
Second, we examine an interview with Anne-Marie Pelletier, a member of the pope’s latest commission to study women deacons. She offers some extremely telling insights into the possible agenda at work behind the commission, which may not so much be an attempt to take over the sacrament of holy orders, but to try to make it nearly irrelevant, giving women new roles not currently prohibited by existing Church discipline or teaching, seeking an ape of sacramental grace without sacraments. An empty, human church.
On the whole, it’s the picture of the real Church being set aside and remade in a new image, and it appears far more sinister in that respect than even many concerned Catholics expected.
AUDIO ONLY:
TRANSCRIPT: (Please note, this is not a complete transcript, but based on the original script for this episode. Some variations may exist, and it has not been checked for typographical errors):
Hello and welcome to the OnePeterFive podcast, episode #68. I’m Steve Skojec.
Today’s episode is brought you by…OnePeterFive. Our shows don’t have sponsors for the time being, so I just want to remind you, like we do, that we’re an organization that runs totally on your contributions. If you’d like to help us meet our fundraising goal for June and pay the bills, please do so at onepeterfive.com/donate.
So today there’s no guest, just me and some thoughts. If you’re not a fan of monologues, this is your chance to run screaming, but I think if you stick around you’ll find what I have to say worth listening to today. I think it’s pretty important.
A mistake I think a lot of folks make in these increasingly polarized times is the genetic fallacy. It’s the sort of thing you encounter when you link to an article about some interesting or important topic and someone immediately responds, “That’s in the New York Times. I would never read anything from them.” Or just swap out the New York Times with any outlet they don’t like. It could be Breitbart. It could be 1P5. I see it all the time. Pretty much every day.
It’s a mistake for two reasons: first, because the truth is the truth, no matter where you find it. I don’t care if you find an answer to what’s going on under a rock or in a trailer park sewer. Facts are facts, and they can usually be verified. Certainly, we should understand the bias of the publication we’re reading if we’re getting information from them, but we should be looking past the opinion or the editorializing and identifying what might be said that is, in fact, real. Because only the Real matters.
The second reason the genetic fallacy is such a huge mistake, I think, is because we are at a strategic disadvantage if we fail to understand the way the enemy thinks. We may think they’re full of it, we may think they have nothing to say that we haven’t heard before, but the fact is, we’re often wrong. Sometimes, they lay out their thinking so clearly that they tell you what they’re planning to do. Right there. In the open. Things you wouldn’t know if you didn’t take the time to read.
All of this is why I don’t just read, but actually pay to subscribe to a little publication known as La Croix international. The English version is headed up by a guy called Robert Mickens. He’s written for a number of publications over the years. He was actually fired by The Tablet — the...