VIDEO: Warning! Is the Roman Catholic Church about to follow the United Church of Canada into irrelevance and perdition?

Two million members lost in 40 years! That's what happened to the United Church of Canada. In 1965, the United Church was Canada's largest Protestant denomination, with 1,064,000 members and 3700 churches. It was regarded as reflecting the national identity of the non-French part of Canada.

Today the United Church has just 375,000 members -- an 80% collapse in two generations. A large number of its church are either closed or empty, save for a few elderly folk who recognize that the church they attend no longer believes what they believe, but go anyway because that's what they do.

What happend? The United Church, founded barely a century ago as a merger of four Protestant denominations with a total combined membership of about 600,000 members, got caught up in the cultural revolution of the hippy-dippy `60s. It went willingly down the rabbit hole of progressivism, liberalism and, latterly, "wokeism".

The policies of the church are totally inclusive and liberal. There are no restrictions of gender, sexual orientation or marital status for a person considering entering the ministry. LGBTQ++ "worship leaders" are welcome. The heresy of relativism is embraced. Interfaith marriages are recognized. Communion (the symbol only -- not the real Body and Blood of Jesus) is offered to everyone, regardless of age, religion or anything else.

In trying hardest to be relevant, the United Church of Canada became the most irrelevant. And that reveals something profound about the failure of progressive theology -- the same theology now being adopted by the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church, contrary to its own teachings and commandments. 

For the Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ while He was with us on Earth, the handwriting is on the wall. Will Catholics follow their supposed leaders into the new "church of accompaniment", Francis' New Church of the New World Order, or will they listen to the voices of Catholic tradition and hold onto the Faith of our fathers, that we may yet be saved.

What about that "Father James Martin"? - BONUS VIDEO ADDED

Some readers have expressed puzzlement over Walt's reference in "What made her/him do it?!", WWW 27/8/25, to "evil priests of the Father Hames Martin type". "Who he?", we hear them ask. That's him  on the right in the picture, giving his priestly blessing to a gay couple.

Father Martin is an American Jesuit priest and pro-queer activist. He was a great friend of the late Jorge Bergoglio (a Jesuit known by some as Pope Francis), and is now in the very good graces of Pope Leo XIV and members of the Mauve Mafia in the Vatican.

Father Martin is objectively a heretic in that he not only denies but openly advocates one of the mortal sins that deprive the soul of grace. They are serious transgressions of God's law, done freely and deliberately with a clear understanding of what they are. Their result is to deny a soul entrance to heaven. 

There are particular mortal sins that are so evil that they cry to heaven for vengeance. They are (with Biblical references for our readers who insist that only what's in the Bible counts): murder (Genesis 4:10), sodomy (Genesis 18:20-21), oppression of the poor (Exodus 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (St. James 5:4).

Sodomy and other "choices" of the liberal/libertine lifestyle are still regarded by Holy Mother Church as grave sins, even though modernists priests and bishops don't say the silent part out loud since the days of Pope Benedict XVI. Just one day before his election, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger delivered a homily in which he denounced modern trends he said were undermining Catholicism and Western civilization. "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism," he said, "which does not recognize anything for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

As enforcer of Catholic dogma, Cardinal Ratzinger chastised dissident theologians, said no to female priests, no to married priests and no to gay marriage. He described homosexuality as an "objective disorder and an intrinsic moral evil."

One of the pontiff's most successful and most emotional trips was to the United States in 2008, where he tackled the most painful issue for the Catholic Church in America — clerical sex abuse — saying he was deeply ashamed. "It is in the context of this hope born of God's love and fidelity that I acknowledge the pain which the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors," he said. "No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse ... nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the Church." 

Readers should now understand my wondering, yesterday, if Robin (formerly Robert) Westman might have been "influenced" by "evil priests of the Father James Martin type." If, indeed, the Minneapolis shooter was "influenced" by an evil priest, that does not excuse her/him. But it condemns the one who led the little one astray.

He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. (St. Matthew 18:6)  

Worth watching! "Nightmare in Minneapolis" Where did the Catholic Church go wrong?", with Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper.

VIDEO: PPC Candidates discuss globalism, Islamism, and immigration

Canuckistan's federal election is less than two months away. The No. 1 issue at the ballot box is likely to be immigration. But, as noted in "Canada's 'independent' Debate Commission shuts out Max Bernier", no-one except Maxime Bernier and the People's Party of Canada wants to talk about it.

No-one. The leaders of the two major parties (Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber) don't want to talk about it. Neither do the leaders of the two minor parties. Nor do the (((controlled media))) and the liberal commentariat. Why? Because all of them are agreed that unfettered mass migration and open borders -- come one, come all! -- are good for Canada! That's the official multi-party line, the political orthodoxy which is not to be challenged. Period.

Only the People's Party of Canada offers a realistic alternative to the mass migration espoused by all the others. See "Max Bernier's PPC policy on immigration, in point form", WWW 25/7/19. But will the Canadian people get to hear about it? Not if the usual suspects (named above) have their way. That's why Maxime Bernier is not being allowed to participate in any of the televised leaders' debates. That's why pro-PPC anti-mass-immigration billboards have been torn down. See "PC police force takedown of pro-PPC anti-immigration billboards", WWW 26/8/19.

The People's Party of Canada, its leader and its supporters are being vilifed in the lamestream media as racists, Islamophobes, white nationalists, yada yada yada, for daring to suggest that the No-longer-great White North's immigration policies need a rethink. And your average Canuck doesn't know enough about the PPC and its policies to challenge those slurs, because the PPC is being so effectively deplatformed.

So... as a service to the Canadian public... Walt is sharing this video of five of the alleged racists etc etc talking about immigration, Islamism and globalism. This was recorded at the PPC convention in Gatineau QC on the evening of August 17th. Mark Friesen, Frank Vaughan, David Haskell, Laura Lynn Thompson, and Ivan Pak are not just reciting talking points from the party platform. They are giving their own opinions, exercising their right to speak out and put these issues on the table for discussion. They and their leader should be heard.



Further reading: Click here to find out how the People's Party policies compare with those of the other parties.

VIDEO: What's wrong with relativism? Brian Holdsworth explains

The dictionary defintion of relativism is: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. In other words, there is no absolute right or wrong, no absolute good or evil, and, of course, no religion which possesses the whole and absolute truth about God (who may or may not exist) and our relationship with Him.

In this short video (7 minutes), Brian Holdsworth, the pride of St. Albert AB, takes a closer look at relativism, and why it's totally incompatible with being a Catholic. So also with socialism. You can't be a "Catholic socialist" or a "socialist Catholic", or, for that matter, a "liberal Catholic" or a "conservative Catholic". Can one describe oneself as a "traditional Catholic"? This video certainly got me thinking, so I commend it to you.

MAGA to MAAA - Walt explains President Trump's "trade war" strategy

The (((controlled media))) in the USA, Canada and western Europe are aghast at the American government's announcement, yesterday, that punishing tariffs against imported steel, aluminum and other products would go into effect today.

The importation of such good from coutries such as Canada and Mexico, the administration says, constitutes a threat to national security. Mr Dressup, the Acting Prime Minister of Canada, calls that claim "absurd", and for once he is right. But that doesn't mean President Trump is wrong to fire the first shot in what could become a global trade war. Walt will explain.

Next weekend Canada is due to hose ["host", shurely! Ed.] the G-7 summit, a meeting of the leaders of the world's seven most economically important countries, including Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, and the USA. [That's only six. Ed.] [I can't remember the seventh. Would you believe Italy? Walt] A few years ago they were trying to bring Russia into the circle, to make it G-8, but President Putin wasn't having any. Now the libtards on the "At Issue" segment of the CBC national news are suggesting that the coming meeting will really be the G-6+1, since (they say) President Trump has clearly signalled his intention of "taking the USA out of the world community". That is not absurd. Walt will explain.

The "world community" is a pretty sick community. With the possible exception of Japan and the certain exception of the red half of the Paranoid States of America, the G-7 is infected with four fatal diseases, which are killing western, Christian (?) civilization, slowly but surely. The diseases, which are now not epidemic but endemic, are:
Globalism - aka one-worldism; the rich must give their wealth to the poor
Multiculturalism - all races and cultures are equally good, but the white race is not so good as the others
Secularism - denying religion and the need for religion; making man into god
Relativism - the notion that all cultures, are civilizations are of equal value

We could add liberalism and "progressivism", which are the creeds of all right-thinking people in western Europe and North America, according to the elites and opinion-makers who know (better than you and I) what's wrong with the world -- racism, colonialism, white supremacy, yada yada yada -- and what must be done to fix it. What's that, you ask? Why, the establishment of a one-world government, of course, so that the Disunited Nations can rule us all. Political rock stars like Canada's Trudeau II are practically wetting themselves in anticipation of being chosen Benevolent Dictator of the Brave New World.

"Join us! Join us!", the one-worlders say to the only country which stands apart from the movement to make us all one big happy family. That country is the USA. The Prez nearly succeeded in eradicating American exceptionalism and surrendering the country to the feckless foreigners. Truly, Americans dodged a bullet by rejecting Barry's anointed successor, the one who would carry on his "legacy". Under President Trump, America stands alone against the suicide of the west, and a good thing too!

It's not easy to read POTUS' mind [Reminder: Comments are moderated! Ed.] but my take on the imposition of tariffs against America's "allies" -- like the French surrender-monkeys -- is that it's just part of a bigger vision, which is... wait for it... to take the USA out of the so-called "world community". However timidly, Britiain is backing out of the European Union. Why can't America leave the G-7, the World Trade Organization, the UN, and any other international organization which exists chiefly to subjugate the USA and "redistribute" American wealth to the shithole countries of the world? If that's President Trump's real goal, Walt says GO FOR IT! Make America Great Again is a good idea. Make America Alone Again is even better!

Further reading:
Burnham, James: The Suicide of the West: an essay on the meaning and destiny of liberalism - 2nd ed. - Encounter Books, 2014
Murray, Douglas: The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam - Bloomsbury Continuum, 2017 - see "Douglas Murray explains the lie of multiculturalism", WWW 24/9/17 - includes video
Steyn, Mark: America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It - Regnery Publishing, 2006 - see "Muslim journalist admits Mark Steyn was right", WWW 22/6/16

RC bishop denounces "totalitarianism" of school gender "guidelines" ... PLUS Cardinal confirms gay lobby at Vatican

Earlier today Walt introduced you to the phrase "gender ideology", a euphemism for the LGBTQ2S OK-to-be-gay agenda which is being fed to us every day in every way by the lamestream media, our politically correct politicians (notably Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario's lesbian Premier Kathleen Wynne), and, yes, our ultra-PC school boards and departments of education.

The pale-pink NDP government of Alberta, in the formerly conservative Canadian West, has just released new guidelines for "respecting students' gender identity". The guidelines announced by Alberta's Minister of Education Minister David Eggen "advise" school boards to develop policies that let students choose which washroom to use, the name on their report cards and the sports teams they wish to play on.

It's not what you have (or don't have) between your legs that determines your gender any more. It's how you feel about it! That must be what "two-spirited" means. (See "LGBTQ... but wait, there's more!", posted here earlier today.)

"Advise" is typical pinko-speak for a government "suggestion" that you'd better obey or else! The Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, Most Rev. Fred Henry, calls the guidelines "totalitarian" and "anti-Catholic". In "Totalitarianism in Alberta", a pastoral letter posted online, Bishop Henry says, "This approach and directive smack of the madness of relativism and the forceful imposition of a particular narrow-minded anti-Catholic ideology."

He goes on to say that "[the guidelines] show no evidence of consultation with or sensitivity to the Catholic community. They breathe pure secularism." The Catholic Church, he explains, holds to a "rather simple" teaching that God created beings as male and female and that "men and women should respect and accept their sexual identity."

Bishop Henry also disapproves of student-led "gay-straight alliances" and "queer-straight alliances", calling them "highly politicized ideological clubs which seek to cure society of 'homophobia' and 'heterosexism,' and which accept the idea that all forms of consensual sexual expression are legitimate. The view of sexuality that they espouse is not Catholic."

Walt couldn't agree more, but wonders if Bishop Henry sent a draft of his pastoral letter to the Gay Mafia within the Vatican for approval or correction. Probably not.

You don't think there's a Gay Mafia at the Vatican? Read "A 'gay lobby' at the Vatican? One cardinal says it's real, and Pope Francis is responding", posted on the Catholic News Agency website 13/1/16. Walt expects that the Holy Father's "response" will be the same as it is to other crises in the world, the Faith and the Church -- confusing, tepid and ineffectual.

VIDEO: Michael Matt talks about the worldwide persecution of Christians, Vatican II and the victory of relativism

One of the best truly Catholic newspapers extant is The Remnant. Since 1990 it has been edited by Michael J. Matt, a graduate of Christendom College. In the Wanderer and elsewhere, Mr. Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Roman Catholic Church as well as anti-Chrisitan political trends in the world.

Mr. Matt is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly speaks to traditional Catholic groups across the USA and Canada. His most recent appearance was at The Path to Peace Conference held in Niagara Falls, Canada, by the Fatima Center.

The title of his talk is "Will there soon be martyrs?" If you're Christian -- even if you're not Catholic -- and want to understand what's going on in the Middle East and why Christians and Christianity are under attack worldwide, watch this video.

Warning: The video is just over 58 minutes long, but if you have any doubt as to how the almighty State "hungers for Christian blood" -- Mr. Matt's words -- you should pay attention to every minute. He explains how those of us who still believe -- the remnant -- are part of "a Christophobic narrative which is at work and very serious". If you doubt Walt [How could you?! Ed.], try the first 10 minutes or so. You won't be able to turn it off.

Go Dutch!

Agent 3 wants to know if an e-mail rant he received from a business associate is the Real McCoy. It's headed "Go Dutch - but why wait until 2013?" and comments approvingly on a news report that the Dutch government is planning to do away with multiculturalism. Here's the text.

The Netherlands , where six per cent of the population is now Muslim, is scrapping multiculturalism. The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.

A new integration bill, which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16 [2011. Walt] reads: "The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people.
In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role.With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society."

The letter [see below] continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands .

"The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants who ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law."

The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner: "It is not the government's job to integrate immigrants."

The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering, Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013. [Walt reported this in "Muslim eyes aren't smiling -- Dutch to ban the burqa", posted 16/9/11.]

The e-mail forwarded by Agent 3 continues:
Holland has done that whole liberal thing, and realized -- maybe too late -- that creating a nation of tribes will kill the nation itself. The future of Australia, the UK and Canada may well be read here.

Muslim immigrants leave their countries of birth because of civil and political unrest created by the very nature of their own culture. Countries like the Netherlands, Canada, the UK and Australia have an established way of life that actually works, so why embrace the unworkable? If Muslims do not wish to accept another culture, the answer is simple: stay where you are!

This gives a whole new meaning to the term "Dutch courage". Unfortunately Australian, British, and Canadian politicians don't have the guts to do the same. There's a whole lot of truth here!

Agent 3 expresses his agreement, but before forwarding it to his long list of correspondents wants to be sure the report isn't a hoax. Well, Mr. Three, you'll be happy to know it's the real thing -- old news, to be sure, but worth repeating.

The text quoted in the first part of the e-mail was written by Soeren Kern and posted on the Gatestone Institute's website 23/6/11. Needless to say, the story was generally ignored by the PC, "pro-diversity", American media.

The "letter" referred to is apparently the covering letter attached by Minister Donner to the new integration bill. The Gatestone article gives the background to the new legislation and the reasons why the Dutch government thought it necessary.

Polls taken just before the introduction of the bill showed that a majority of Dutch voters supported the government's skepticism about multiculturalism. 74% of Dutch voters told the Maurice de Hond organization that immigrants should conform to Dutch values. And 83% of those polled supported a ban on burqas in public spaces.

The problem of course is the increasing number of Muslim immigrants, including many 1000s from largely Muslim Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. As their numbers increase, the Muslims become more and more assertive in carving out a role for Islam within the "host" society. For example, the Dutch TV programme Netwerk reported in June 2009 that Dutch law was being systematically undermined by the growth of Sharia "justice".

An earlier report, "From Dawa to Jihad", by AIVD (the Dutch equivalent to the CIA), concluded that Dutch society is poorly equipped to resist the threat of radical Islam because of "a culture of permissiveness" that has become synonymous with "closing one's eyes to multiple transgressions of the law".

In his letter, Minister Donner said the Dutch government "will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society." Although society changes, he wrote, it must not be "interchangeable with any other form of society."

Pope again endorses "Spirit of Assisi" heresy of relativism

Pope Benedict XVI has sent his greetings to this year's Inter-religious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace, held at Mount Hiel, in Japan. The Pontiff noted that the meeting evokes "the spirit of the 1986 historic meeting in Assisi" convened by Pope John Paul II.

The Pope expressed confidence that the meeting would produce positive results for "inter-religious amity", which is a Vatican code-phrase for the false ecumenism condemned by Archbishop Lefebvre and others who hold to the traditional Catholic Faith. Properly understood, the "spirit of Assisi" is an expression of relativism -- the heretical notion that one religion is as good as another, because all roads lead to God.

Relativism (or indifferentism) is a form or subset of the heresy of modernism, condemned in 1907 in the syllabus Lamentabili sane exitu, which distinguished sixty-five propositions as modernist heresies. In the same year Pope Saint Pius X promulgated the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis. This was followed in 1910 by the introduction of an anti-Modernist oath to be taken by all Catholic bishops, priests and academic teachers of religion. Presumably Pope Ratzinger took this oath, but perhaps he has forgotten it.

Writing in Catholic Family News, John Vennari comments:
The new ecumenical orientation, such as manifested in the "Spirit of Assisi" threatens the salvation of countless souls, as it effectively tells non-Catholics to remain in the darkness of their false religions. It also threatens to bring with it a great chastisement.

In the early 20th Century, the eminent European churchman Cardinal Mercier, citing the consistent teaching of the Popes, stated that the Great War was actually a punishment for the crime of nations placing the one True Religion on the same level as false creeds, as does the "Spirit of Assisi".

Cardinal Mercier said in his 1918 Pastoral titled "The Lesson of Events":
"In the name of the Gospel, and in the light of the Encyclicals of the last four Popes..., I do not hesitate to affirm that this indifference to religions which puts on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men in order to include them in the same scepticism is the blasphemy which calls down chastisement on society far more than the sins of individuals and families."

The "Spirit of Assisi" also gives visual expression to the central error of our time: that any religion is good enough for salvation. [My emphasis. Walt.] The world sees the Pope of the Catholic Church, as well as Catholic bishops and clergy, placing the one true Church established by Christ on the same base level as counterfeit religions. This cannot help but foster the religious indifferentism vigorously condemned by the Popes prior to Vatican II. In the face of this affront to the true Faith, Catholics must not be complacent, but must publicly and ceaselessly resist.

Worth reading: "Relativism - A Central Heresy of our Culture", on the Christian Medical Fellowship website.

Follower of "the religion of peace" cuts an apostate's throat - VIDEO

WARNING: EXTREME VIOLENCE

What follows is a snuff video. Walt advises you to NOT watch it too soon before or after a meal. What you will see -- if you can stand it -- is a tight close-up of a Muslim cutting the throat of a young man who had the temerity to convert to Christianity. According to Sharia law, that's the crime of apostasy.



If you looked away, here's what you missed, as summarized by Raymond Ibrahim (a Muslim) on the Gatestone Institute's website.

A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or "narrator," chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: "Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate"; "Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists"; "Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims," and "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

Then, to cries of "Allahu Akbar!"— Allah is greater!"—the masked man holding the knife to the apostate's throat begins to slice away, severing the head completely after approximately one minute of graphic knife-carving, as the victim drowns in blood. Finally, the severed head is held aloft to more Islamic slogans of victory.

Strong stuff, eh. But that's how "the religion of peace" treats those who renounce their faith. According to Ibrahim, a prominent Egyptian Salafi leader -- referring to the canonical hadiths, including Muhammad's command, "Whoever leaves his religion, kill him" -- recently stated that no Muslim has the right to leave Islam.

What's interesting is that the video, and the concept of death for apostasy, has received little negative comment in the Muslim world. Muslims seem to regard this barbarity as "normal" under Sharia law -- along with "honour killing", stoning of adulterers, hanging of homosexuals, lashings for "un-Islamic" conduct, and so on.

Yet leaders of of other world religions -- even the Pope, who should know better -- are very careful not to utter any politically incorrect thoughts about Islam. Is Islam primitive, barbaric and evil? Oh no, it's just another way of approaching God! Christians and Jews must respect Muslims and their heathen ways in the name of diversity!

The PC stance nowadays is all for false ecumenism and against any suggestion that one faith is superior to another. We must all learn to get along together. That's the "spirit of Assisi", for which Pope John Paul II and his successor have been very rightly criticized by traditional Christians.

In truth, the "spirit of Assisi" is the heresy of relativism. Catholics who've never heard about this are invited to e-mail Walt for more information.

However, knowing a good thing when he sees it, Walt is going to set up a registered charity to collect money for more "ecumenical outreach" programmes to welcome our Muslim brethren -- and their customs and their religion -- into our formerly Christian society. We could call it "Drawing All Faiths Together".

A "wedge" between Catholics and Protestants? Really?!

On July 14th, the Catholic Register reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen "Call me Steve" Harper has blamed the controversy of his recent sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion on “people who want to cause embarrassment in religion and drive a wedge between Protestants and Catholics.”

There are 14 million Canadians who call themselves "Catholic". Mr. Harper is not one of them. He is a "born-again" -- an evangelical Protestant. But he evidently doesn't understand the differences between what he believes and what Catholics believe.

Harper criticized the media for showing a video of him of pocketing the Communion Host while attending the funeral mass for former Canadian Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc on July 3rd. “Somebody running an unsubstantiated [sic] story that I would stick communion bread in my pocket is really absurd and I think it's a real, frankly, a low point,” he said, according to Canwest News.

"Unsubstantiated"? What about the video?! Anyway, the point is that what Steve put in his pocket (and later transferred to his mouth, if you believe him) is not "bread". Catholics true to the dogmas of their Faith believe that the Host is nothing less than the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not to be put in pockets or taken home for a souvenir. In fact, traditional Catholics believe the Host should not even be touched, except by a priest, and therefore reject receiving Holy Communion in the hand.

As for the "wedge" which Harper says is being driven between Catholics and non-Catholics, that division was caused in the 15th and 16th centuries by a chap named Martin Luther and other heretics. Since Vatican II the Church has tried to paper over the cracks in Christianity, to the point where many now believe that it doesn't make any difference which church you go to or what you believe. That is the heresy of relativism.

Here's what Harper said on that point. "While I’m not theologically a Catholic, in my judgment, the Catholic Church is a critical bulwark of worldwide Christianity.... The Pope is an important moral and spiritual leader generally and for Christians generally, even though I’m not a Catholic."

That's very nice of him, but Walt wonders if Steve has heard the Bible-thumpers who preach from the pulpits of churches like the one he attends. Even today they inveigh against the Church, accuse the Pope of being the anti-Christ, etc etc. And we find their anti-Catholic rants printed virtually every day in blogs and letters to the editor and other forums.

No, Mr. Harper. We traditional Catholics -- the ones who were upset by your disrespect for our beliefs -- are not the ones driving the wedge between ourselves and the rest of the world. It is people like YOU, who have no understanding or appreciation of the core principles of true Christianity.

For an excellent article on relativism, see "Can we talk about heresy?" , by Thomas C. Oden. (Christian Century, April 12, 1995)