WARNING: The Most Holy Family Monastery

[RevDrNorth]

What an odd site. It is rather conspiratorial and reminds me of Chick Publications. It is pointless arguing or bothering to against this. It is like trying to convince anyone who is convinced that Paul (of the Beatles) died and was replaced or there is a cosmic conspiracy that resulted in the coinciences in Lincoln/Kennedy’s death. Each will have iron cald facts to support their case.

Is MHFM a cult? Where does he get off claiming to be a member of the Benedictine order? Is the guy the Abbot and sole monk??

**PS I know. For those who support it, those who think it is rather inaccurate in a Chick Publications way are either part of the conspiracy or deluded. Kind of reminds me of all the Masonic conspiracy theories. Heck, I remember an educated Catholic who thought the Knights of Columbus and the Freemasons were in a conspiracy together.

 

[revscott]

Yikers. I figured I might get a reply, but I thought it would have something to do with the topic. Something besides an attack. I grew up Catholic, and I study it too. So saying I know less than nothing is…wrong. Let’s see, did they offer any proof to their claim on the site? No.

I mean, if you don’t count all the quotes, dates of the quotes, writings and references, and supporting pictures. Whoever wrote that website gave plenty of proof of the claims. Do a little research yourself, and google “banquet of chestnuts” and see what the Papal historian himself recorded. Your problem isn’t with me, so put away your sword. I’m looking for reasonable discussion of history. Will I find any here? We’ll see. By the way, if you claim to be a follower of Christ, where is your love?

Ephesians 4
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called,

2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

[pnewton]

What is even more interesting to me, is the lack of response to the specific charges from the site.

The individual topics mentioned have been addressed elsewhere. I can tell you why I have jumped in too much. It is sort of a variation on Occam’s Razor. I only have so much time. Why waste it on dozens of ludicrous accusations by a single person all of which have been addressed elsewhere? I am certain any reasonable person can get a sense for themself how far out this blogger guy is.

 

[KathleenElsie]

This topic was talked about in 2004. Rehashing their beliefs is of no use IMHO.

 

[Michael_Francis]

Most Holy Family Monastery seems to be pretty much a one-man operation. That one man is Michael Dimond, age 31. In 1995, when he was only 22, he succeeded the recently-deceased founder of the monastery.

That alone should be grounds for pause. Have you ever heard of a legitimate monastery that would select as leader someone who was too young to rent a car?

In fact Most Holy Family Monastery is not a real monastery and is not a real Benedictine foundation. Dimond puts “O.S.B.” after his name, but he is in no way associated with the Order of St. Benedict.

His web site hovers around the 2,000,000 mark in the rankings of all web sites–that is, there are 2,000,000 other sites that are visited more frequently than his is. (Over the last week catholic.com has been around 7,800 in the rankings.) That Dimond’s site ranks so low should be a comfort: Almost no one visits his site, which means not many people are being injured by it.

Not that I would expect much injury to come from it even if the site were ranked high. The reason is that Dimond’s positions are just, well, goofy. It isn’t just that he is a sedevacantist. It is that he has excommunicated everyone else on the Catholic right.

He thinks that the groups and publications that normally come to mind when one hears the phrase “extreme Traditionalists” (such as “The Remnant” and “Catholic Family News”) are themselves awash in liberal heresy.

Feel free to visit his site and see for yourself. I’m not worried that anyone at the forums will succumb to Dimond’s arguments, but it might be good for you to see what happens when bad logic is joined with hysterical claims.

(Besides, you’d give him a thrill: It wouldn’t take many visitors to bring his site’s ranking up to 1,900,000 for a week.)

This Thread is now closed.
MF