Catholics Have Filled The Internet With Venom And Vitriol, Says Vatican Media Advisor

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Unfortunately, Internet venom and vitriol is hardly a Catholic monopoly. 😃
 
Big fat surprise. This is the Age of Liberalism, which is really just reverse intolerance.

It all counts toward our penance.

ICXC NIKA
 
christofirst said:
www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/catholics-have-filled-the-internet-with-venom-and-vitriol-says-vatican-media-advisor

Fr. Rosica described internet bloggers and commentators as "obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices."

Thank goodness this never happens on CAF 😉
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Well, this is hardly an unbiased source, so take it with a grain of salt.

But, having said that, the man has a point. Unfortunately, he fails to realize that the problem is on both sides of the spectrum. For every “One Peter Five” or “Roman Catholic Imperialist”, there is at least one (and often several) “National Catholic Reporter” or “Catholics for Abortion”. Balance is essential in discussing these things. Simply attacking those attached to liturgical Tradition is a blinkered view. 😦
 
I can’t believe he would make such a venomous and vitriolic comment!
 
Yes, because statements like “Those claiming to be…traditional, faithful, orthodox Catholics throw out words and they have no idea what those words mean” are kind, and not vitriolic at all. Somebody doth protest too much.

I guess he’s just still mad that his Cease and Desist/lawsuit thingy went nowhere.

Like most people who get mad at the Internet, he’s probably just angry that he doesn’t have a monopoly on media and comms anymore. That’s what "who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners.” sure sounds like.

“We didn’t authorize you to have a platform! How dare you question me and my media outlet!”
 
For fuller context, here’s a bigger chunk of his remarks:
Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we “Catholics” have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith! The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around. Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners! In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people. We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!
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I wouldn’t expect non-Christians to have much experience with Catholic websites or specifically Catholic commentary. Perhaps there is more than I think there is.

Anyway…, sure, you can find a wide range of behavior in cyberspace. At the same time, the percentage of content on the internet provided by Catholics is so miniscule that I can’t accept the notion that Catholics have “turned the internet” into anything. I picture it like this: the negative aspects of the internet is like a two ton, raging elephant that has a wart on its foot. That wart is the Catholic contribution.

Dan
 
The headline is not representative of the speech. I found the keynote address to be in the style of Amoris Laetitia, in that Fr. Rosica emphasizes that without mercy, dogma is useless. Here is a more representative quote from the speech, “The words of Christians ought to be a constant encouragement to communion, even in those cases where they must firmly condemn evil, they should never try to rupture relationships and communications.” (Fr. Rosica, 11 May 2016)

Here is the whole speech
youtube.com/watch?v=2K0L9NFQ3cA
 
Kaninchen said:
Unfortunately, Internet venom and vitriol is hardly a Catholic monopoly. 😃
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Agreed, but Father’s comments were, IMO, a wonderful analysis of Catholics who do more to scandalize others than they do to win souls for Christ.
 
1Lord1Faith said:
The headline is not representative of the speech. I found the keynote address to be in the style of Amoris Laetitia, in that Fr. Rosica emphasizes that without mercy, dogma is useless. Here is a more representative quote from the speech, “The words of Christians ought to be a constant encouragement to communion, even in those cases where they must firmly condemn evil, they should never try to rupture relationships and communications.” (Fr. Rosica, 11 May 2016)

Here is the whole speech
youtube.com/watch?v=2K0L9NFQ3cA
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Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners! In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people.
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The mercy just flows from that statement.
 
I guess I don’t run in the same circles and blogs Fr. Rosica does.
 
ARSpade said:
The mercy just flows from that statement.
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I don’t know where that statement came from, but it’s not in the speech. Again, the headline is misleading and apparently, so is the article itself. If there is one thing I know, it’s, never trust the media. The headline makes us believe that Fr. Rosica said, “catholics have filled the internet with venom and vitriol”. He didn’t. Others have said that to him.

In his speech Fr. Rosica also quotes Pope Francis. Does the “staff reporter” who wrote the article give Fr. Rosica credit for saying those things that Pope Francis said?
 
1Lord1Faith said:
I don’t know where that statement came from, but it’s not in the speech. Again, the headline is misleading and apparently, so is the article itself. If there is one thing I know, it’s, never trust the media. The headline makes us believe that Fr. Rosica said, “catholics have filled the internet with venom and vitriol”. He didn’t. Others have said that to him.

In his speech Fr. Rosica also quotes Pope Francis. Does the “staff reporter” who wrote the article give Fr. Rosica credit for saying those things that Pope Francis said?
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Fr. Rosica is the media.
 
1Lord1Faith said:
I don’t know where that statement came from, but it’s not in the speech. Again, the headline is misleading and apparently, so is the article itself. If there is one thing I know, it’s, never trust the media. The headline makes us believe that Fr. Rosica said, “catholics have filled the internet with venom and vitriol”. He didn’t. Others have said that to him.

In his speech Fr. Rosica also quotes Pope Francis. Does the “staff reporter” who wrote the article give Fr. Rosica credit for saying those things that Pope Francis said?
Click to expand...
Hello,

Certainly, the statement given by “ARSpade” is in the speech. I quoted it earlier. To say that it is simply what others have said to Fr. Rosica, and Fr. Rosica doesn’t necessarily agree with it, doesn’t hold much water. If he didn’t agree with it, I would think he would have said so. Instead, he makes those remarks in order to make a point. Likewise, when he refers to statements of the Pope, we presume that he is referring to them because he agrees with them and wants to make a point based on them.

Dan
 
dans0622 said:
For fuller context, here’s a bigger chunk of his remarks:

I wouldn’t expect non-Christians to have much experience with Catholic websites or specifically Catholic commentary. Perhaps there is more than I think there is.

Anyway…, sure, you can find a wide range of behavior in cyberspace. At the same time, the percentage of content on the internet provided by Catholics is so miniscule that I can’t accept the notion that Catholics have “turned the internet” into anything. I picture it like this: the negative aspects of the internet is like a two ton, raging elephant that has a wart on its foot. That wart is the Catholic contribution.

Dan
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Very true. Unless there are some crazed Italian sites that I’m not aware of, most of the “Christian venom” I see online are from non-Catholics.

And on orthodox Catholic sites, I rarely see any “venom” from the actual posts. Yes, there can be a lot of venom in the comments, but I rarely see it from the actual posters.
 
christofirst said:
www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/catholics-have-filled-the-internet-with-venom-and-vitriol-says-vatican-media-advisor

Fr. Rosica described internet bloggers and commentators as "obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices."

Thank goodness this never happens on CAF 😉
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It’s true, some bloggers are exactly as he says. And then there is another number of Catholics who are just cowards afraid of telling the truth and standing up for the Catholic Faith at all.
 
dans0622 said:
Hello,

Certainly, the statement given by “ARSpade” is in the speech. I quoted it earlier. To say that it is simply what others have said to Fr. Rosica, and Fr. Rosica doesn’t necessarily agree with it, doesn’t hold much water. If he didn’t agree with it, I would think he would have said so. Instead, he makes those remarks in order to make a point. Likewise, when he refers to statements of the Pope, we presume that he is referring to them because he agrees with them and wants to make a point based on them.

Dan
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I provided a link to the speech. He does not say, “Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners! In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people.” If you know he does, point out where in the speech he does.

I don’t think you’ll convince me the headline was not misleading. The Catholic Herald seemingly has an axe to grind with Father Rosica
 
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