I found it quite dangerous the fact that it has various anti-catholic documents that claim to be written by various ex-priests…
One of them is Charles Chiniquy, who I quickly wiki’d.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Chiniquy
Read the article about him, seems like he got a bit upset after the clash with the bishop.
Charles Chiniquy clashed with the Bishop of Chicago, Anthony O’Regan, over the bishop’s treatment of Catholics in Chicago, particularly French Canadians. He declared that O’Regan was secretly backing Spink’s suit against him. Chiniquy stated that in 1856 O’Regan threatened him with excommunication if he didn’t go to a new location where the bishop wanted him. Several months later the New York Times published a pastoral letter from Bishop O’Regan in which O’Regan stated that he had suspended Charles Chiniquy and since the priest had continued in his normal duties as a priest, the bishop excommunicated him by his letter. Chiniquy vigorously disputed that he had been excommunicated, saying publicly that the Bishop was mistaken. Chiniquy left the Church in 1858. [4] He claimed that the Catholic Church is pagan, that Roman Catholics worship the Virgin Mary
When I start hearing accusations of Mary worship from someone who’s spent time in Catholicism, it’s another case of knowing that I’m dealing with a liar.
A Catholic may think other Catholics make too much fuss of Mary, they may think it’s not necessary to pray to her at all, but when I hear about worshiping Mary from someone who’s been in the Catholic Church, it’s another case of knowing that I’m dealing with an intentional liar, rather than someone who’s just mixed up, ignorant and incorrect.
Maybe a non Catholic could make that mistake and only then if they refuse to look into the matter by asking a Catholic, doing 5 minutes research online, making a phone call to a local Catholic Church to just ask, etc.
It’s different coming from an ex Catholic though because anyone who’s spent time in the Catholic Church knows better by their own experience and can’t even use the excuse of ignorance. As an active Catholic or former Catholic, a person knows they didn’t worship Mary because it’s just not perceived that way in the Church. It’s not that Catholics are taught to NOT worship Mary either because it’s not an issue in the first place. Catholics are just raised knowing that God alone is worthy of worship and by default that leaves Mary out. Catholics don’t even hear about Mary worship from Catholic sources, that garbage is ALL coming from non Catholic sources. An ex Catholic who makes the “Mary worship” accusation is intentionally ignoring what he knows in his heart and embracing non Catholic, bigoted interpretations of Catholic practices.
When you hear an ex Catholic making the worship Mary accusation, you know you’re dealing with a liar who’s repeating things about the Church which he knows aren’t true in order to justify his departure. You can also presume this person isn’t “right in their own head” because if they were, they wouldn’t need to degenerate to such behavior anyway.
It’s really not much different than a petulant, runaway child making up lies about his parents to justify his running away from home.
