From the usual suspect:
If, as Tosatti clearly implies it is, this information is true (which would not be shocking considering the evolution of current events), the situation of the former Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate is even more suffocating than before, on a level never before seen in the Church in recent centuries (for instance, there certainly was no blacklist of dioceses incardinating as secular priests the former Jesuits after the suppression of the order in the 18th century, and in similar cases). These poor priest-friars will simply remain with no way out, other than completely abandoning the priesthood, if even the bishops willing to welcome those who want to leave the modified order are blacklisted by the highest levels in the Vatican. (Of course, if true, the bishops can still incardinate them, but are aware that they may suffer consequences) [emphasis mine].
Of course, it don’t matter one jot whether any of this is true because the medium by which it is delivered is the Internet. In the brave new virtual world, it is perfectly acceptable to publish whatever comes into ones head, or to repeat whatever has bubbled over from another’s into the digital world.
The narrative is just assumed to be true and New Catholic, whoever he is, without any way of holding him accountable, will just say: “don’t shoot the messanger.”
Yet, riding the wave of the cutting edge “reporting” of Rorate Caeli, even a “real” journalist fails to do even the least amount of due diligence before tweeting the following:
via @RorateCaeli: Papal blacklist4 bishops who shelter refugees from heretical order condemned for being nonheretics? http://t.co/HZ5ZplrUZk
— Sam Schulman ? (@Sam_Schulman) September 18, 2014
This is from someone who writes for The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal and The Spectator. But he is just “repeating” what he read on Rorate Caeli. Now, of course, New Catholic will deny he called the FI under commission a heretical order, but that is clearly what he meant. Why else would a friar otherwise have no way out but to abandon the priesthood?
But be sure, no one will take responsibility for spreading the lie that the friars who support the Apostolic Commission are heretics, nor will anyone take responsibility for having sowed the seed of dissension and despair by suggesting that friars confronted with the duty to obey the Church in difficult circumstances will have no choice but to leave the priesthood.
The “facts” “reported” by blogs and Twitter accounts are not all the facts, my Catholic friends. Rather, these are the “facts” that are fit to print because they fit the tint. And this is precisely the problem that many of us have had with our Institute’s past association with groups like Rorate Caeli.
And many traditionalists wonder why their cause is not more popular today among those who have to make policy decisions.
The Internet is more often the near occasion of mortal sin (objectively speaking) than many care to admit.
Behold, brethren, the Internet beast. We thank God for the free exchange of information, and well we should. But here gossip becomes fact, and such a “fact” becomes a tweetable factoid, a virtual torpedo of falsehood that will continue to damage the reputation of decent people as it ripples across the blogosphere.
This kind of dissension and division within the Church, which is the fruit of falsehood and gossip is satanic. Tossati blames this on those around the Holy Father, but I know for a fact, that many of these rumors originate elsewhere. Romanità knows no ideological boundaries.
This is a plague upon the Church and the Internet is its delivery system. The Catholic blogosphere needs a purge. We need to stop the rumor-mongering and vicious gossip.
Filed under: Catholicism, Church, Holy Father Tagged: Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, New Catholic, Rorate Caeli, Sam Schulman 
From MaryVictrix.com
