Due to start now - Gerry Matatics and James White live on the dividing line at aomin.org

discussing the debate of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

Olly.

-- Oliver Fischer (spicenut@excite.com), November 18, 2003

Answers

Jmj
Hi, Olly.

We know that James White is not Catholic (and is in fact very anti-Catholic -- though his sister has converted to Catholicism).

But is Gerry Matatics now a Catholic?
My understanding is that he was a cradle Protestant, became a (Presbyterian?) minister (graduating from seminary with Scott Hahn), converted to Catholicism, but then fell away from the Church and into the pseudo-traditionalist schism (if not heresy).
Do you have more recent news of his returning to the Catholic Church?

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 19, 2003.

[The thread has been derailed to this URL: http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BYjf]

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@Hotmail.com), November 19, 2003.

I'm curious as to how we come to deem traditional Roman Catholicism "schismatic" and possibly "heretical" (and I'm not quite sure what's "pseudo" about the whole thing). The traditional Faith is the faith of your grandparents and ancestors, all of whom are apparently schismatics. St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas would have quite an interesting conversation with you regarding the implications for them of your judgments. If, indeed, there is a schism within Catholicism, does it not make sense that the breach would have occurred at the instigation of the party that showed the greater discontinuity with the almost two-thousand-year-old Magisterium? Such a disconnect was concurrent with the Second Vatican Council. It is disappointing that conversation among debate observers takes on the same tone as a James White debate itself: immediately, people's credentials and personal controversies become factors, where instead the merits of the argument should take center stage. In-fighting has long been the domain of Protestantism; let's keep it that way (while we pray for their conversion). We must stay on the same page, my good Catholic brother, because the only two who benefit from our disagreements are the Devil and James White.

-- James G. Brown, Jr. (Jmsgbrwnjr@aol.com), December 28, 2003.

Jmj
Hello, James.

You wrote:
"I'm curious as to how we come to deem traditional Roman Catholicism 'schismatic' and possibly 'heretical.'"

That which is genuine "traditional Catholicism" is neither schismatic nor heretical.

And what is this entity?

You offered one accurate description:
"The traditional [Catholic] Faith is the faith of your grandparents and ancestors ..."

I will offer an additional accurate description:
"The traditional Catholic Faith is the faith of Popes Pius X and John Paul II ... the faith of Vatican I and II ... the faith of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered according to any rite approved by the Church ... and the faith of the 'Roman Catechism' and the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church.'"

Those who deny either your description or mine deserve the appellation, "pseudo-traditionalists," for they discard some portion(s) of the Catholic tradition.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), December 29, 2003.

For those interested in the fine points of the debate on Mary's perpetual virginity and aftermath of the debate go here: Catholic Legate

Marcia

-- Marcia Dietrich (marciadietrich@yahoo.com), December 29, 2003.