Real Fake Catholics

There is a dispute over the canonical jurisdiction in the ongoing controversy of Real Catholic TV and the Archdiocese of Detroit.  Even though Michael Voris lives in the Archdiocese, RCTV’s owner, Marc Brammer, lives in the Diocese of Fort Wayne, -South Bend, which apparently has no problem with RCTV.

Detroit’s Archdiocesan Communications Director, Ned MccGrath, says the archdiocese simply wants RCTV to drop “Catholic” from its name, although he cannot think of any other case in the history of the archdiocese where such a demand has been made of any other organization.

However, a high level source from the Detroit chancery has admitted that there were several concerns which led to the archdiocesan crackdown:  “The biggest concern is that we preserve the unity of the Church.  We are a Church for ALL Catholics, not just those who accept the Magisterium of the Church.   What would it look like to the dissenting theologians who teach in our Catholic universities and seminaries if we allow RCTV to call themselves ‘Catholic’?  How can we expect the ongoing renewal of our liturgy to continue when Michael Voris denounces the beauty of the diversity in liturgical expression that exists in our various parishes?  What would the women in the local churches think if we operated according to the preconciliar paradigm that Voris espouses?  There are a lot of very good Catholics who support a woman's right to choose.  If we allowVoris to blast them with his oppressive rhetoric, how much longer will they continue to support us?”

Fr. Eddie, an associate pastor from one inner-city parish thinks the problem could be solved if Voris would just leave Detroit.  “We never asked for some young smart-aleck with all that hair to start telling us how to do our job.  We’ve worked long and hard to renew and realign our parishes to reflect the New Church and we can’t let some know-it-all come in here and tell us we are wrong.”

“Molly” an anonymous employee at Real Catholic TV, says that the group is considering a name change, but they cannot agree on a new name.  “We’ve been tossing around ideas, but none seem to fit the bill.  I proposed ‘Follow the Pope TV’ and one of my assistants suggested ‘Reality TV for Dying Parishes’.  We are also considering ‘Whatever Happened to Objective Truth TV’, ‘Appoint Orthodox Bishops TV’ and “Anti-Heretic TV’.