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Lea Sevcik wrote: |
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Hi, guys —
I have just found your web site, and I am wondering
if you would be able to help me.
My boyfriend is a recent convert from Sikhism. Three years,
ago he fell in love with a pious Catholic woman and began visiting
her remote little community. She belonged to the Counter-Reformation
Catholics (CRCs) in Quebec; they follow the Abbe de Nantes
in France.
Well, he deeply admired their faith and piety, their
exemplary, large families, and their rejection of all the immorality
of today's society, etc. Thanks to their example, guidance
and friendship,
he converted to Catholicism, however, he didn't join the community and he goes to a regular
post-Vatican II church, one of the more "traditional" in
our city. For example, they still distribute Holy Communion while kneeling at the altar
rail.
When I met my boyfriend, he told me about his history with
the CRCs, but he also told me that although he liked their
faith and piety, he didn't agree with their "political" views,
which seemed too radical, so he did not want to join their
community. Since he broke up with his girlfriend about 1½ years ago, he never goes to see the CRCs and he never communicates
with them, except for infrequent e-mail contact with his ex-girlfriend.
Lately, I've noticed that he does continue to visit their
website on occasion. He's not deeply educated in their arguments. He says that he can't understand some of them because they
go over his head, but I've noticed that he still continues
to gravitate to what they say on their website, and gives
it a lot of weight. He believes that Pope John Paul I was probably
murdered, and that Pope John Paul II was a bad Pope who taught error.
He also thinks Vatican II is erroneous. He likes Benedict XVI,
but I suspect it is because they like him too.
He is very emotionally attached to the CRC, because they converted
him and changed his life around. He is now a much better,
happier and more moral person, plus he feels he has found
the truth so whenever I argue against the CRC, my boyfriend
takes it personally, and he feels offended because I am attacking
his "brothers", whom he loves. He has said to me
that, if they are wrong, then he must also be wrong, because
that's where his faith came from.
He claims that they
have not been excommunicated, so everything they have said
so far is okay and is allowed, and that they have a right to
think this way. He says that if they were excommunicated, he
would not follow them, but would stay in the Church.
- How can I make him see the truth?
- Is it likely that he will
become more radical in the future and join them or another
fringe society, like the Society of St. Pius X?
- Is there hope for the future?
- How should
I approach this problem?
I have tried getting him to read things, but he views anything
by John Paul II with too much suspicion, and is so defensive when he
reads it, that he finds nit-picky criticisms everywhere.
Lea
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| { How can I make this Christian see the True Church, not this group tilting to the schismatic right? } |
Mike replied:
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Hi Lea,
I am happy yet saddened by the journey of faith your boyfriend is currently on. It is truly a blessing that he encountered a community of Catholics who were a good witness to the Christian faith. Nevertheless within Christendom, one has to be sure that their chosen faith it totally true to Jesus and the Teachings He left His Apostles.
Despite the fine witness the CRC had for him, it appears that some of their material tends to break away from the Church on certain key issues. In my opinion, it is very hard to persuade some one that
they belong to a potentially heretic or schismatic group.
All religions and religious denominations have a certain set of religious beliefs
they adhere to. Some are written; some are not. Others, like ours, are both written: the
Holy Scriptures, and non-written: Tradition.
You will likely never find a Baptist, or a Catholic saying that they believe Christ
is only human, because it is not in their body of beliefs. Catholics have a body
of beliefs all must adhere to,
in order to identify themselves as Catholics.
Although this is a big step for your boyfriend, from Sikhism, given the possible schismatic
group with whom he has associated himself, I would question whether he has a solid and basic knowledge of all Catholic, or for that matter, Christian Teachings.
Catholics believe in:
- The primacy of Peter's successors to the end of time on issues
of faith and morals.
- The Catechism of the Catholic Church as a sure norm of faith
for the faithful.
- The validity of both the Novus Ordo Mass and Tridentine Mass without
politicizing either.
These are also know as the Mass of the:
- Ordinary Form, and
- Extraordinary Form/Latin Mass, respectively.
The point being, we trust the Church to tell us what is, and is not, a valid Mass, seeing the primary issue of faith and morals is the way we worship.
- All that the Magisterium of the Church teaches on issues of faith
and morals.
- All Catholic Councils from Nicea to Vatican II.
If your boyfriend doesn't believe in this, he is not Catholic, no
matter how much he tries to convince you otherwise.
Probably through no fault of his own, he is far more of a Protestant in that he "picks and chooses" what
he wants to believe.
Note: Heresy comes from the Greek for "to pick and choose".
He has come across scandalous Catholics
who, despite their fine Christian witness to him, have dissented from the Church, though at this point in time,
are not yet formally excommunicated.
You said:
- How can I make him see the truth?
- Is it likely that he will
become more radical in the future and join them or another
fringe society, like the Society of Pius X?
- Is there hope for the future?
- How should
I approach this problem?
The best thing you can do is be a faithful practicing Catholic. This includes:
As to whether he will become more radical in the future, a lot depends on your good witness and something you can't control: his free will to choose/decide what he thinks is true Christianity.
I'll keep both of you in my prayers,
Mike
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Richard replied:
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Hi, Mike and Lea —
I wouldn't be too harsh on the CRC movement. While they
are critical of recent Popes and of Vatican II, they
recognize the authority of the recent Popes, and they
are not supporters of the SSPX. I'm glad to hear that
they gave an effective Christian witness to Lea's boyfriend,
and contributed to his conversion.
To the best of my knowledge, he's right to say that
their views stay within the permissible limits for a
Catholic — which shows that the Church really does allow
quite a bit of freedom! A friend familiar with the movement
tells me that Fr. de Nantes has remained obedient to
the Church, complying with the suspension imposed on
him.
While I don't agree with some of their views — actually,
I've only read a few issues of their newsletter — they
do have some valuable things to say about the controversies
afflicting the Church. I wouldn't worry about prudent
Catholic reading, if he is:
- Firm in faith
- Already acquainted with the controversies involved,
and
- Able to identify any misinterpretations that Fr.
de Nantes or his associates might make.
However, that "if", rules out most Catholics!
When he decided not to join the CRC, Lea's boyfriend
probably recognized that it wouldn't be good to rely
on them continually, as a source of Catholic thought.
One doesn't become a Catholic in order to adopt teachings
that are stricter than the Church!
Speaking generally about the whole "traditionalist" controversy:
the bitter fighting of the schismatic traditionalists
against the Church and the moderate traditionalists, doesn't
contribute to making anyone a saint, and doesn't teach
us the more important *positive* truths of the Catholic
faith. A little reading about controversy can be educational,
but only a little. If we spend all our time on it, our
mental outlook becomes shaped by responding to the agenda
of the Church's enemies — whereas most of all, we want to be shaped
by the Church Herself.
Perhaps a helpful approach, Lea, would be to make sure
that your boyfriend knows about traditionalists who are
more in harmony with the Church: for example, the people
who write the website:
It might also be worthwhile for you to get in touch
with my canonist friend Peter Vere, also a Canadian,
and a former adherent of the Lefebvre movement. He writes
for a group web site:
I hope this helps! God bless!
— Richard Chonak
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