Mr. Hahn is educated but not wisd, quite knowledgeable but lacks an understanding of pre-Vatican 2 teachings and like many modern theologians places too much emphasis on post Vatican 2 teachings, and does not look at the teachings of the whole two thousand years of doctrine. Mr. Hahn being a post Vatican 2 Protestant convert lacks the insight on the fullnes of all the Churchs teachings. He has fallen into the trap that many people have that make their living off the Church do, in that they follow the politically correct stance on issues that Rome has become pc on, and won’t stand up for the truth i.e. false ecumemism, altar girls, not speaking to the declines of Vatican 2 teachings or misteachings, and the sacredness of the TLM. We must all believe in the infallable doctrines taught by the Church, but we must question false teachers and false teachings just as scripture foretold. False teachings are teachings of men, and there have been many coming out of the Church in the last forty years. Mr. Hahn sticks his head in the stand as so many do on these issues. ps. the only dialogue we should be having with any other faiths is to bring them the truth of the Church, not a social get together as seen so often today. We are a holy people, whoever is not with us is against us. Read your whole bible, look at all the councils, and all the encyclicals.
I would not disagree with you assessment here. Especially the assessement of being a post VII protestant convert to the faith post Vatican II, and the implications thereof. As such, Hahn comes from the same “perpsective” of many of the popular conservative Catholic apologists today. They are probably very reluctant to question authority
in any way whatsoever - even in prudential practical matters - since they have converted from Protestantism which is based on the all-out rejection of authority in the first place.
That is one of the reasons why, I think, when you read their works and hear their tapes, etc. you will often here post-VII documents cited along with Scripture verses and* very* early Christian writings, but less commonly do you hear of what went on in
between say 500 AD and 1960 AD - not too many quotes from Trent, Florence, etc. in their lectures. And you won’t
often hear a tape series or lecture on authentic ecumenism, the social reign of Christ the King, the true nature of religous liberty, or EENS, etc. Some things are just not on the agenda as they are somewhat in a confused state right now with the hierarchy not really speaking clearly to them. As such, these aplogists won’t either - it’s just not in their “makeup”.
And you are correct, in that professional Catholic apologists would put the muzzle on themselves the minute they would critique
anything relating to VII. Even acknowledging the troubling ambiguous nature of the documents is tatamount to a blacklisting (seems to me anyway) - and so they must “look the other way” on some issues in order to keep doing what they are doing.
That being said, I appreciate their zeal and their sincerety and do find their material on the basic apologetics
very helpful in defending against the usual attacks on the Catholic faith.
And call me naive, but I think they are a step away from embracing traditional issues as well, but need the assurance of the hierarchy (especially the pope) to proceed. The more Pope Benedict XVI continues the move to more
traditional clarity in things like the recent Motu Proprio, the more these convert apologists will follow.
For instance - I hardly noticed it before “discovering” tradition, but were some subtle (and some not so subtle) attacks on traditionalists in some of their work. Kind of a discounting the “traditionalist” arguments without really addressing them in detail. I’m seeing less of this since the recent MP - I think things like this (along with the wonderful mass and awesome homily on EWTN that followed) will produce many good things and a softening of the hostility between the “conservative” and “traditional” camps in the future.
Let’s hope and pray we see such moves from the Holy Father in areas such as ecumenism, religious liberty, etc. and well as a continued strenghtening of the traditional liturgy.
I truly believe that there are two stong forces within the Church laity and both love the Church and the Lord dearly - the “conservative” catholic and the “traditional” catholic - when we finally get on the same page…look out! And I think, in the end, the one to bring this about is the pope. And he’s got alot of folks (and supernatural forces) fighting him on this.
Peace in Christ,
DustinsDad