I have listened to Fr Larry’s CDs and he is excellent. He spends an hour in adoration everyday and is a strong advocate against abortion (he said “you cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ and kill babies in the womb). Just a wonderful priest. Now, when you listen to Father Larry he goes off in tangents and so it is very misleading to grab one part of a talk and form an opinion based on it. Please be careful not to judge based on these clips here. He did wrongly accuse CM of threatening to kill him and he later made clear it was a follower of CM and not the organization itself. So, I used to be very fond of CM and still agree with its positions most of the time. But they have become a bit too uncharitable in their dealings with other members of the faith. It’s good to confront evil but to badger and instigate/inflame confrontation with good priests is too much. There is a woman who works for CM, Christine Niles, and on the twitter the other day she suggested that Fr. Larry might need a “break” from his ministry. This is not appropriate and was over the line. We have issues in our church but Fr. Larry is not one of them. CM should have let it die after Fr. Larry set the record straight. Please, if you have any questions about Fr. Larry listen to his cd through lighthouse media entitled “confession” .... that will tell you all you need to know
I do not doubt what you say. I just think Fr Larry needs to be more reflective before he acts in a rash manner. Spitting and stating that he hated traditional Catholic families and calling Church Militant the ISIS of Catholicism does not endear him to me. And I am not really a fan of Voris either but he does not deserve that label.
The point Father Larry was making is not that he hates Catholic families (and I do not think hate is a word we should use when referring to another) but he was pointing out that if we are catholic but do not love what good is it? I suspect this was a men’s retreat so it must be taken in context.
I've seen a few snippets of Fr. Richards on EWTN and he seemed ok. I think that he did mention something about having anger issues. If so, it would be better if he didn't do phone-ins where he doesn't have time to reflect on the questions before giving an answer. With the rampant apostasy and all the confusion in the Church, why pick on LifeSite News and Church Militant? While I'm inclined to agree with you about CM going over the top, I get the impression that the "respectable" Catholic media's over-reacting to CM and demonising Voris is more about deflecting from their own disgraceful silence or excusing of ongoing mismanagement in the Church than what they like to portray as some kind of anti-papacy or protestant divisiveness on the part of CM and LifeSite. I also get the impression that the growing popularity of LifeSite and, especially, CM was the only reason most of them backed off their standard "nothing to see here" response to the scandals but that now, post-Synod, realising that it's business as usual in the management of the Church, they want to get back to their old "nothing to see here" approach and, when the likes of CM and LifeSite point out that there's plenty to see, their fallback position is to attack the messenger. CM and LifeSite must make that position very uncomfortable for them because only the very blind or the very gullible can be unaware that if it hadn't been for Voris and LifeSite a whole lot more would have been swept under the rug in the name of loyalty. Apparently, the love Fr. Richards has for Fr. James Martin doesn't extend to the staff of CM. Why? Could it be because Fr. Martin is a priest and the CM staff are non-clerics exposing what Pope Francis likes to pass off as "clericalism"? Or could it be that CM are low hanging fruit in comparison with a well connected Jesuit who believe that the Catholic Church "is not there yet" on same-sex marriage? What are the chances of Fr. Richards making a pronouncement that, say, America Magazine or National Catholic Reporter are "not of God" but "of the Devil himself", bringing "division, divison, divison"? So much easier to pick on the odd pewsitter whose distorted version of what constitutes orthodox Catholic parenting and, by extension, cast a slur on all orthodox Catholics struggling to raise their children in the Faith despite the continuing Church scandals and confusion. Sometimes, "division, division, division" is a work of stealth over many years, and the role played by the Devil only becomes clearer in hindsight. Here's a report about McCarrick's "unofficial"(?) role in Vatican China relations: https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2...s-unofficial-role-in-vatican-china-relations/ And here's a documentary from America Magazine about the Catholic Church in China uploaded to YouTube a year earlier, in September 2017: Looking at the plight of the Church in China, perhaps Fr. Richards' anger is misdirected.
Dolours, I agree in part but Fr. Larry did not claim to love Fr.Martin but instead said he disagrees with Fr Martin on a host of issues as most of us do. But he also said he will not demonize him for it either and this is where I am starting to break with Church Militant. I want the Chruch to change too but it is again one thing to point out the ills in the church and another to provoke and harass. Michael Voris is a master of rhetoric and he uses to to these ends. Look at The Vortex whee he discusses Father Larry, whom he refers to as the “great accuser” which is a clear reference to satan. I heard Father Larry vilify CM in radio a few months back and felt it was wrong but charity goes both ways. I am not saying Father Larry is clear in this but but he is being cast inaccurately.
Fr. Richards, in response to a single phone call, managed to contradict his own message when he demonised CM while warning against demonising Fr. Martin. And he did it as a demonstration of love in action. Some would call that inconsistent. Others might call it hypocrisy. What would motivate Fr. Richards to go on such a rant? Surely not a simple phone call. Perhaps the real target of his message were powerful bishops like Cardinal Cupich who have the power to decide who may be permitted to lead retreats or give talks in their dioceses? Bad but powerful Bishops were the reason Mother Angelica took steps necessary to ensure that EWTN couldn't be shut down at the whim of the USCCB. Fr. Richards might want to reflect on that. Considering the powerful enemies Voris has in the Church, CM would have been out of business ages ago had its enemies found the slightest excuse to take Voris to the cleaners via the US courts. That they would use Fr. Richards as a tool to attack Voris says more about them and Fr. Richards than it does about CM. I'm not a fan of CM's tabloid style journalism, and I do believe that Voris goes too far. I see similarities between the styles of both Voris and Fr. Richards. One is a journalist, the other a priest. I expect a priest to have higher standards than a journalist. We all put our foot in it from time to time. Fr. Richards put his foot in it with respect to both Lifesite and CM. He needs to man up and say "Sorry, I made a mistake". Had he done that from the start, and had Voris not graciously accepted his apology, it would have shown Voris in a very bad light. As it is, the appearances are that Voris is being forced to go to court to protect his reputation and his livelihood. Fr. Richards needs to sit down with Mr. Voris and work things out. If I were to choose between being lined up alongside Fr. James Martin or Michael Voris, I would choose Voris every time. Michael Voris is using in your face and rather unsavoury tactics to expose and clean up corruption in the Church. Fr. Martin and his clever tactics are a million times more harmful to the Church than Michael Voris or Lifesite News.
I would call it demonic. He may have started as a wonderfully passionate and uplifting speaker. But as his fame grew, it's possible that some vanity worked its way through the cracks in his self-control, telling him it was OK to go off on these rants and to directly attack people. In the Evangelical world, it's the thing that draws preachers to try to grow into a superchurch, with book sales that increase the ministry's bank accounts. But if it's true that he has driven people out of the confessional for "wasting his time" confessing venial sins, or that he publicly shamed altar boys for one reason or another, that is demonic. I believe it's time his bishop relieved him of his duties and sent him on a 6-month period of meditation and reparation, some place isolated where he won't be tempted to interact with the public.
If that's true, it is worrying. I would be reluctant to call it demonic because it may be a symptom of stress or burnout. If so, I hope that Ml. Voris doesn't pursue legal redress. By all accounts, Fr. Richards has been a good priest so there's no reason he can't get over this and continue being a good priest. Maybe someone at EWTN would step in, find a way to smooth it over and suggest gently to Fr. Richards that he take a rest. The Church already has enough elephants in the room to hold a Hindu festival. We don't need any more celebrity priest dramas.
Love and truth go hand in hand. Many left following Jesus because they could not accept his truth on the Eucharist (John 6:67). Jesus did not call them back. The Church is in a war of deceit vs truth (good vs evil). There has been so much reservation and coverup in the past and still today by Catholics clergy at the highest levels in the church and those perverted by priests for decades, that the Pandora box has been opened and if the good, including Cardinals, Bishops and Priest remain passive, they are culpable of in their silence to these most horrible sins against man and against God. Thank God Michael and CM are speaking truth to the darkness within the Church. It will get much much worse as we enter closer into the prophecies of Fatima, Akita and so many others. We are barely into the unraveling of the corruption in God's house, but whoa to the world when God brings light to its deep evils being planned by Freemasonry and its head, the Antichrist.
