In the last couple of days I’ve discovered that I’ve been blocked on Twitter by Fr. Thomas Rosica (@FatherRosica) and by Massimo “Beans” Faggioli (@massimofaggioli).
I am not sure why I clicked on a tweet reference to Rosica, since I can’t remember the last time I purposely looked at his feed. I don’t recall ever tweeting to or about him or retweeting. Hence, I don’t know when I was blocked or why.
But, I think we all know why.
I also am not sure when I was blocked by Beans. It had to be pretty recently, however.
It was my intention to respond to his notion that the Kazakhstan bishops and the others who are aligned with them are like those who dissented from Humanae vitae. That is so weird as to be an intentional “click bait” to gain attention, start a fight, and aim his own clique at a target.
No one seemingly as bright as he could seriously think such a thing. Ergo, it has to be something else.
Concerning Beans and others of their side of the street, all one needs to do is look at the responses they provoke on Twitter to see that they are sowing bitter division. They post or tweet something and immediately different sides go at each other. It’s like something from the Mad Max. That can’t be helpful.
Granted, Twitter is often acrimonious. Distance and anonymity mask stupidity, cowardice and hate. However, what they provoke, as does the combox at the Fishwrap and other outlets in their camp, raises division and hate to new levels. I call it the “fever swamp”.
Mind you, they have an agenda. I believe they know exactly what they are doing.
Firstly, it keeps their traffic high. My traffic was a lot higher before I imposed moderation on the combox. I simply had to. I won’t be part of the “fever swamp”. But their side has another agenda in addition to simple click bait.
These are cadres of the New catholic Red Guards. It’s their job to whip up the mob and aim them at those who have been designated enemies. I’m reminded of…
RULE 13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Anyway, it might be interesting to know other faithful Catholics have been blocked and by whom. Some cross-referencing could be illuminating.
Meanwhile, please do me a kindness and follow me on Twitter. @fatherz
UPDATE:
Just to show that blocking is futile, here is the loony and provocative tweet by Beans. Don’t try to follow the reasoning.
One thing that is good about 2018: the fiftieth anniversary of 1968 will force us to remember what massive Catholic dissent against papal teaching is, and it will give some – like three bishops from Kazakhstan and First Things – some perspective about #AmorisLaetitia
— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) January 3, 2018
Meanwhile… perhaps he is developing his skills in self-parody.
This does not understand or ignores that the medium creates a particular kind of message, and does not simply allow it to be seen and debated. https://t.co/4QWZPlKVvs
— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) January 5, 2018
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It was my intention to respond to his notion that the Kazakhstan bishops and the others who are aligned with them are like those who dissented from Humanae vitae. That is so weird as to be an intentional “click bait” to gain attention, start a fight, and aim his own clique at a target.
To be fair, it is not weird. It leaves out one or two important considerations, yes; but it is not “how could anyone ever get such an idea?”-weird. [No. It is weird. There’s no comparison, other than that they are all carbon based life forms.]
The declarations of Königstein and Mariatrost which he had already in mind, as well as in the declaration of the Kazakh bishops now, do have so much in common that they dissent from an official, confirmed Papal policy and order “around here, we won’t do what the Pope wants, in this respect”.
Because that the Pope actually wishes what most people have interpret him to wish, that has now, whether we like it or not, officially been confirmed. It took him long enough, but dubium 1 has been answered by the Pope now.
(In a fallible manner, of course.)
So, we do see where that’s coming from. He leaves things out of consideration, but yes, from a Papal-functionalist perspective of Catholicism, yes, one can see where he’s coming from.
The one to two things left out of consideration are of course:
At Königstein and Mariatrost, the bishops wanted to innovate, the Pope to stick to tradition; now it’s vice versa; which makes a big difference.
And then there’s still the question who is right, though people tend not to like it nowadays.
I’ve been blocked on Twitter by Rosica, too. Suggestion: conduct a poll of your readers and see how many others have been blocked.
As an aside, I have been to Almaty, Kazakhstan on a five-week business trip and was able to locate a Latin Rite Catholic parish which I attended. They even had a Sunday Mass in English. . . diplomats usually attended. And there was an Opus Dei presence in Almaty. Like Chinese restaurants, the Catholic Church is just about every where! Deo gratias.
Of course they blocked you. It was probably you, after all, who taught the Kazakhstan bishops to hate Vatican II.
Facebook has banned posts to Father Hunwicke’s blog.
http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2018/01/enemies.html
I am one of the people who had a link to his blog banned. Some people have had them reinstated after protesting I so far I have not heard back.
“No one seemingly as bright as he could seriously think such a thing”
With the emphasis, it seems, on ” seemingly”. Really, one wonders, how many evolutions do these people have to perform to fit their worldview into reality? Answer: none, because they’re well divorced from it.
They’ve been spoiled children for so long, screaming at everything that seems to intrude into their comfort-zone. Brats need to be put firmly in place. About to happen? Not since the time of Ven. Pius XII, it seems.
Didn’t know you were on twitter. I’ll definitely follow you from now on. I’ve been following Fr. Kevin Cusick for awhile – he’s pretty good.
Blocked on Twitter?? Meh – who cares, it’s a vanity forum and self appreciation tool.
Blocked from Heaven? Now that’s more of a concern.
I discovered, after reading your post, that I am also blocked by Fr. Thomas Rosica. I am not however blocked by Massimo Faggioli. Since I do share your blog posts on both Facebook and Twitter, I suspect that Fr. Rosica would block people on that basis alone. Doesn’t matter. I will share anyway. Still a rebel at 62.
I ask this as a serious question. Does this new brand of Ultramontanists think that the Pope can rewrite the Catechism at will, and we should all think that his will is God’s will, and that what was black yesterday is white today? This was an issue when he gave a speech claiming that capital punishment was intrinsically evil, and I think even suggested then that the Catechism be re-written on this point. Where does it end, except with the Church turned into a weird cult of personality?
The way things are headed we are going to reach the point where statements like the one published by the Kasakstan bishops can no longer be prettied up with phrases about filial loyalty, but will have to say straight out that the Pope’s understanding of the papal office is badly flawed.
Fr. Z:
You are being censored by the preachers of “inclusion, diversity, tolerance, and dialogue”? What makes them uncomfortable? What makes them hide?
I wrote a note on Rosica’s blog and was blocked. Apparently, it is quite common to be blocked now. Now I am on the hit parade of blocked: Pray-Tell, Rosica, James Martin. Its a sign of honor.
I believe what you say in such a circumstance is “I’ve been invited to Fr Rosica’s block party”
[Outstanding.]
Not Twitter; but just yesterday I left a Catholic Facebook page because the owner/moderator came out with a statement, to the effect, they while many inside the Vatican may play politics, Popes NEVER do.
What? You gotta be kidding me!
Popes, whichever one you want to choose, are human. They do human things. To deny that just seemed preposterous to me and a short flight away from reality. If I’m going to you on social media – please have at least one foot firmly placed in the real world.
I have never been blocked on Twitter by the New Red Guard. But then, I am not a Twit, so I wouldn’t run into that problem. :-)
i was blocked by Fr Rosica during the last synod for civilly disagreeing with him. He posted an article implying some mental distress about being criticized and the need to protect one’s mental well being, and went on a mad streak of blocking anyone and everyone who did not agree with him. I’m not on Twitter anymore.
The Red Guard is the Red Guard, and they are mainly in agreement that if you don’t have a logical response to your opponent, can’t debate them with substance, then your only recourse is to silence them. When Hillary Clinton was running for office, many Leftists were angry the media gave Donald Trump any press at all. Their argument actually was that if the people did not know about him, they would not be able to vote for him. As in all Banana Republics, the only candidate the Left wanted to be discussed was their candidate. Hey, these people are dangerous, if you enjoy freedom and liberty. They don’t ascribe to these, and they’ve been discarded. So if you don’t agree with their viewpoint, the best thing to do is shout you down or harass you to scorn or silence, as at our colleges and universities, or block you on Twitter, or refuse to cover you at all, such as the media now barely covering the many successes President Donald J. Trump is bringing about, such as in one year greatly reducing ISIS. Keep the people ignorant and talk up your guy.
Facebook has made it clear 2018 is going to see increased “controls” on speech, whatever it doesn’t like. I’ve already had a run in, and over something exceedingly mild. I anticipate closing my Facebook account this year. Christians are going to need an alternate social media platform, because soon we will not have one at all, as the Left deems us too hateful to tolerate. Twitter has the same attitude.
We have two extreme camps of course.
One side adheres to the Deposit of Faith as has been taught for 2000 years.
The other side has itching ears and having found a pope who teaches novelties, now find themselves defending his utterances as if they came down from Mt. Sinai.
We aren’t going to find common ground.
I’d consider being blocked by Fr Rosica and Mr Faggioli as a badge of honour.
Some people just want an echo chamber because it keeps them happy. Intelligent opposing views are so scary.
I have seen stories about new laws about speech in Europe that are affecting Facebook and twitter. Thank goodness we still have a First Amendment but we have to continue to be vigilant since the left in this country would like to do away with it.
“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” George Orwell
Hmmmm. It appears that I have been blocked by Fr. Thomas Rosica. Don’t know why I was blocked, but I’ll take that as some sort of badge of honor.
I haven’t been blocked by Faggioli, largely because I haven’t followed him on Twitter (or in Catholicism for that matter).
Imrahil,
With all due respect, what you wrote is incoherent.
Humanae Vitae was much more than a papal policy — even an “official, confirmed Papal policy.”
Humanae Vitae is an infallible act of the Ordinary Magisterium confirming what the Church has always taught. Dissent against Humanae Vitae is not dissent against the wishes of Pope Paul VI, but rather against the constant teaching of the Church, reiterated in the solemn form of an Encyclical Letter.
There is no reasonable comparison here to what the Kazakh bishops have done. They have exercised their duty as successors to the Apostles in reaffirming the Church’s constant teaching on the nature of marriage. The fact that the occasion for this reaffirmation is an erroneous interpretation of an Apostolic Exhortation which seems to be “wished” for by our Holy Father Pope Francis is the source of a great deal of confusion, but it does not turn their intervention into dissent in any reasonable meaning of the word.
The “wishes” of a pope do not constitute Church teaching, even if they are published in AAS.
The problem with social media, blogs, etc. is that they contribute to the breakdown of meaningful community life. Historically, the Catholic Church was referred to as “here comes everyone”! Now there are boutique forms of Catholicism sprouting up. In “real”life you would be part of a parish with Fr. roscia or Hunwicke and you may disagree with their approach or vice versa. But the dialogue would likely not be poisoned because somebody would die or a baptism would need to be performed and these priests would be forced to perform those sacraments even if they didn’t personally like the person and the person would also be forced to participate. But the common shared spiritual and human experience of these liturgical events would help in bringing people together. Being in the same physical proximity and sharing in worship and community life you are forced to resolved differences and find common ground. Now, we can just be blocked and the result is that like minds find their own self selecting community -quite the opposite of Catholicism.
However, what they provoke, as does the combox at the Fishwrap and other outlets in their camp, raises division and hate to new levels. I call it the “fever swamp”.
Several weeks ago (on one of my penitential forays into the Fishwrap Fever Swamp) I noticed that their comments were not working. Some time ago they had gotten rid of Disqus in favor of another third party comment service called Civil Comments. Civil Comments was a sort of peer review thingee where you had to decide whether some else’s comment was “civil” before yours could be posted. Or something like that.
It appears that Civil Comments went bust. I haven’t felt like rooting through the Fishwrap debris to see if they have even written about it. But last I checked there were no longer comments on Fishwrap!
I’ve found you intellectually open to the exchange of ideas. I don’t think we’ve ever changed the other’s mind, but I like to think we’ve gained some insights. “Blocking” seems petulant to me.
[In the spirit of full disclosure, I have used the block or mute function from time to time. I use it when people post seriously stupid, blasphemous or obscene things or they relentlessly pound me with unwelcome or automated tweets.]
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I am on no form of social media whatsoever—no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, nothing. It’s very freeing and peaceful.
[Indeed?]
Antonio, I really like your comment. I was in a parish once where the priest was playing games and I never knew for certain that this wasn’t what was affecting the way they performed some of the sacraments. It appeared that you only were on the A list if you were the pastor’s friend. Fortunately, some other priests went out of their way to not be involved, even going so far as to say the pastor had been slandering and gaslighting some of us.
Thank you for the gold star, Father. Full disclosure – I did not think that up. Several good people on Facebook mentioned Fr Rosica’s block party several months ago.
Mary Jane, me too. No narcissism, look at me look at me. More time for praying and stuff.
Happy New Year, Father. I don’t read you enough. You have some good stuff. Thank you for all that you do.
I’ve been blocked by Frs. Martin and Spadaro (I wasn’t unblocked by Fr. Spadaro). I haven’t been blocked by Fr. Rosica or Dr. Faggioli, though I am well aware of what Fr. Rosica is capable of, being a resident in his current diocese, and I am disgusted by Dr. Faggioli’s comments as it regards 1968. You weren’t the only one who didn’t like his comparison.
I’ve not been blocked by Fr. Rosica or Dr. Faggioli. However, Fr. Spadaro bloked me some time ago.
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