Is Deacon Nick Donnelly Catholic?

[EmilyAlexandra]

First, I hope that Catholic Living is the best place for this. I am fairly new here, so I’m not quite sure what goes where.

I found the Twitter account of somebody called Nick Donnelly:

https://twitter.com/ProtecttheFaith

He calls himself a deacon. At first glance, I assumed that he was a Catholic deacon. However, now I am not so sure. Here are some of the tweets that made me wonder:

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He tweets a lot about “Bergoglio” (not “the pope” or “Pope Francis” or “His Holiness”): https://twitter.com/search?q=bergoglio (from:ProtecttheFaith)&src=typed_query I assume that if he were an actual Catholic clergyman he would not get away with calling the pope a heretic and a usurper or saying that Donald Trump is a better moral leader than the pope. I am therefore wondering whether Deacon Donnelly is actually not a Catholic but a deacon in some Catholic-style cult that is not actually Catholic.

His political views also seem extreme. I don’t just mean conservative. Some of his tweets and retweets are conspiracy theories, and one was a photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar with a racist caption.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

The clergy is not immune from falling into errors.

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

So he is a genuine Catholic deacon? But these tweets and retweets are in error? Retweeting that the pontificate of Pope Francis is an “evil monarchy” and that the pope is the partner of the Antichrist seems like a very big error for a Catholic clergyman to make! Do Catholic clergy just accidentally call the pope cunning and devious? Comparing His Holiness to Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings is hardly complimentary.

Bergoglio will employ his trademark cunning and deviousness in Querida Amazonia to avoid a head on confrontation in the Church about celibacy. This is a Grima Wormtongue pontificate
— Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) February 8, 2020

As a non-Catholic, I am now even more confused.

 

[yankeesouth]

Why don’t you ask him?

 

[puer.dei]

Calling himself a deacon doesn’t prove he is one. Given the studmff he posts, I wouldn’t waste time on him.

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

Why don’t you ask him?

I don’t have a Twitter account. I read stuff on Twitter, but I have never seen the point in tweeting anything, so I don’t have an account.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

Retweeting that the pontificate of Pope Francis is an “evil monarchy” and that the pope is the partner of the Antichrist seems like a very big error for a Catholic clergyman to make! Do Catholic clergy just accidentally call the pope cunning and devious? Comparing His Holiness to Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings is hardly complimentary.

It could a troll or extremist if it’s going that far, but sometimes politics and overzealousness can cause those types of faults.

 

[yankeesouth]

If it means that much to you perhaps it would be worth it to get an account to get a definite answer rather than ask others who might give you agenda driven answers.

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

I found this interview that he gave to a website called Gloria.tv:

Nick Donnelly - Interview with The Most Famous Deacon in the English-Speaking World

The English Deacon Nick Donnelly runs a well-known Twitter-account with 17.000 followers. Five years ago, he was ordered by his bishop to stop publishing his blog because he kept challenging the almighty anti-Catholic mainstream. Deacon Donnelly spoke with Father Reto Nay. Deacon Nick Donnelly...

gloria.tv

It seems that he is a legitimate Catholic deacon, but he admits that he has received criticism for some of his activities.

 

[CTBcin]

It seems that he is a legitimate Catholic deacon, but he admits that he has received criticism for some of his activities.

Blatantly accusing most clergy of being heretical or at best timid and cowardly is definitely cause for criticism.

No wonder his bishop censured his blog.

 

[otjm]

I assume that if he were an actual Catholic clergyman he would not get away with calling the pope a heretic and a usurper or saying that Donald Trump is a better moral leader than the pope.

Ordination is not, and never has been considered as an endowment of common sense.

 

[sealabeag]

Yes he is a Catholic Deacon. He also appears to be an extreme traditionalist of some sort, who I would ignore. He is very disrespectful of the Pope, who, agree with him or disagree with him on various things, deserves our respect as our Holy Father.
The comment two above by otjm sums it up.

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

Okay, I won’t pay him too much attention then. He seems to retweet a lot of stuff from what I assume are reliable Catholic sources, e.g. the Catholic Herald, Church Militant, LifeSite Catholic Edition, and the Latin Mass Society. Perhaps I should check some of those out instead.

 

[BartholomewB]

Nick Donnelly has been in the news from time to time, over the years. From memory, I think he is a permanent deacon somewhere in the diocese of Lancaster, where he came into conflict with the bishop, who ordered him to stop blogging. He wriggled out of that by getting his wife to carry on his blog for him, under her own name. It may have been the present bishop, Paul Swarbrick, but I think it was probably his predecessor. I remember reading about it in the Archbishop Cranmer blog, which is my main source of news about the churches in the UK.

 

[sealabeag]

Church Militant should be avoided like the plague. They are a very bad representation of Catholicism - sensationalist, disrespectful to the clergy, and more. LifeSiteNews are okay but at times fall into the same errors as Church Militant, but more subtly. But they’re worth occasional glance as they do have good articles at times and are especially focused on life issues.
I recommend the National Catholic Register (not the Reporter) - it is the Catholic news site of EWTN and very trustworthy and very Catholic. Crisis magazine is one of my favourites, more article-y than news but very good.

Apologies for the confusion of navigating Catholic news media!!

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

I remember reading about it in the Archbishop Cranmer blog, which is my main source of news about the churches in the UK.

Thanks, I’ll check that blog out.

Overall, I am still confused. I thought that the Catholic Church was well known for being highly centralised and keeping its clergy on a fairly tight rein. If I took to Twitter to talk about my boss at work this way, my line manager would put a stop to it pretty soon. I am surprised that a bishop doesn’t have this kind of authority of his clergy.

Apologies for the confusion of navigating Catholic news media!!

Okay. Thanks. It all seems a bit of a minefield. Church Militant describes itself as “Serving Catholics”, but it sounds like possibly it’s doing nothing of the sort!

 

[BartholomewB]

Thanks, I’ll check that blog out.

That blog uses Disqus, and it’s difficult to look up things from the past. I don’t remember seeing anything about Nick Donnelly there recently, but you could try asking one of the handful of Catholics who regularly post on the comments threads there.

 

[sealabeag]

Overall, I am still confused. I thought that the Catholic Church was well known for being highly centralised and keeping its clergy on a fairly tight rein. If I took to Twitter to talk about my boss at work this way, my line manager would put a stop to it pretty soon. I am surprised that a bishop doesn’t have this kind of authority of his clergy.

Clergy have a fair amount of freedom. A member of the clergy would need to do something quite serious to be disciplined by his Bishop or the Church. A priest can criticise (or offer a fraternal rebuke would be a better phrase) the Pope or Bishops online in a respectful way all he likes, but if it becomes outright disrespectful, or worse, then he can expect to be disciplined. The bishop has authority over his priests, yes. But some bishops are slow to use that, they may not want to be seen as authoritarian. Every priest and every bishop is an individual.

As for Church Militant - anyone can set up a website or blog online and make claims about themselves. I can start a blog tomorrow and say “The most faithful Catholic blog on the internet”. It means nothing. We just have to be very discerning when reading things online.

 

[commenter]

Okay, I won’t pay him too much attention then. He seems to retweet a lot of stuff from what I assume are reliable Catholic sources, e.g. the Catholic Herald, Church Militant, LifeSite Catholic Edition, and the Latin Mass Society. Perhaps I should check some of those out instead.

Of those you mentioned, I am unfamiliar about Catholic herald or Latin Mass Society. But the other two you mentioned are definitely not affiliated with the Catholic Church.

If you want reliable Catholic sources, better to stick with those either sponsored by the Church directly, or those independent but affillated, such as Catholic Answers, EWTN, or others in union with their bishop.

There’s many sources that report on Catholic news, but are not affiliated with the Church Some are fundamentalist, such as Mission to Catholics. Others are liberal, such as National Catholic Reporter.

Some are conservative, such as Catholic Family News, Remnant, Rorate Coeli, OnePeterFive, etc.

I’m not saying they are all bad, they may have an interesting article here or there. But don’t read them as Catholic websites or ministries.

They aren’t.

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

EWTN are as prone to giving themselves an aura, as anyone. CM sometimes draw attention to fact. So, you should not tar anyone nor elevate them. Weigh up the issues themselves, using your own responsible reason.

Donnelly’s tone per se is sometimes irresponsible and it’s within his bishop’s rights to ask him to refrain from using a certain tone in his known deacon capacity. As he has his own livelihood, he could also resign some of the duties of deacon and take a more back seat. There are indeed serious things going on, and whilst we can be charitable towards his motive, perhaps he puts pot-stirring slightly ahead of informative airing occasionally.

So - don’t be told what to think - YOU think! How far bound would Newman feel towards Rome, those times Rome wasn’t on board? (Which wasn’t as severe in his day I must say.) I think he would often put his bishop slightly to moderately above Rome (if he had had one).