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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
St. Joseph's Men's Society	Damien	Monday, August 9, 2004
Question: I'm very concerned about the Diocese of San Jose, California, my diocese. Recently at Mass there were quite a bit of protesters, some were handling out pamphlets about how Bishop McGrath should be removed. The group that published this pamphlet is called the St. Joseph's Men's Society (http://www.stjosephsmen.com/). I'm really worried and I want to know if they are outside of the Catholic Church. There is even an article about the church I go to: http://www.stjosephsmen.com/OLOP I need to know if this society is legit and what' they're sying is true. May God guide and Bless you.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Damian: I changed the title of this question since you are asking about the St. Joseph's Men's Society more than about the Diocese. I looked over the website of the St. Joseph's Men Society. This group is obviously a group of very angry men who feel it their mission to conduct an extremely aggressive and confrontational polemical campaign against the problems in the Church. There is nothing wrong with that per se, but there are some inherent dangers in that approach. They appear to be "traditionalist" but I am not sure how far they go on that. I could not find any anti-Vatican II statements, but then I did not have the time to review every page. If they present any anti-Vatican II rhetoric then they should be dismissed as dissenters. But, as I said, I did not find any of that rhetoric on the pages I looked at. As far as the protest they are lodging against the Diocese of San Jose, it would appear they have just cause IF, and only IF, their accusations are accurate which they may not be. Frankly, because of the unrelenting and emotional ranting and raving approach of this group, I would not really trust them to report things accurately -- not because they are trying to manipulate the issues, but because of myopic vision. When any of us are so hot under the collar that we rant and rave constantly and always take the most extreme polemical approach, there is a tendency to evaluate situations with a little less than rational objectivity. It would be wise to check the source material for oneself in FULL context rather than accepting their quotational excerpts of the source material and their interpretation of it. There is little question that their anger is indeed justified on the issue that many priests and bishops do teach things not Catholic and do not hold up the Catholic Faith. This is sad, but true. I just hope they have not taken their anger into sin that they polarized themselves with the Church and begin to think, for example, that Vatican II was a mistake or a cause of the liberalism in the Church (which it wasn't), or that our Pope, John Paul II, is in any way duplicitous in the error "modernism" (which he isn't). I frankly suspect they do go to far, but that is only a suspicion at this point. Be in prayer about them and about whatever is going on in your parish and/or diocese. Do not just accept any 'ol rhetoric. Check out the original source material and read it for yourself and discuss it with a spiritual director. Do not just take the word of this men's group. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

St. Joseph's Men's Society

Damien

Monday, August 9, 2004

Question:

I'm very concerned about the Diocese of San Jose, California, my diocese. Recently at Mass there were quite a bit of protesters, some were handling out pamphlets about how Bishop McGrath should be removed.

The group that published this pamphlet is called the St. Joseph's Men's Society (http://www.stjosephsmen.com/). I'm really worried and I want to know if they are outside of the Catholic Church. There is even an article about the church I go to: http://www.stjosephsmen.com/OLOP

I need to know if this society is legit and what' they're sying is true.

May God guide and Bless you.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Damian:

I changed the title of this question since you are asking about the St. Joseph's Men's Society more than about the Diocese.

I looked over the website of the St. Joseph's Men Society. This group is obviously a group of very angry men who feel it their mission to conduct an extremely aggressive and confrontational polemical campaign against the problems in the Church. There is nothing wrong with that per se, but there are some inherent dangers in that approach.

They appear to be "traditionalist" but I am not sure how far they go on that. I could not find any anti-Vatican II statements, but then I did not have the time to review every page.

If they present any anti-Vatican II rhetoric then they should be dismissed as dissenters. But, as I said, I did not find any of that rhetoric on the pages I looked at.

As far as the protest they are lodging against the Diocese of San Jose, it would appear they have just cause IF, and only IF, their accusations are accurate which they may not be.

Frankly, because of the unrelenting and emotional ranting and raving approach of this group, I would not really trust them to report things accurately -- not because they are trying to manipulate the issues, but because of myopic vision. When any of us are so hot under the collar that we rant and rave constantly and always take the most extreme polemical approach, there is a tendency to evaluate situations with a little less than rational objectivity. It would be wise to check the source material for oneself in FULL context rather than accepting their quotational excerpts of the source material and their interpretation of it.

There is little question that their anger is indeed justified on the issue that many priests and bishops do teach things not Catholic and do not hold up the Catholic Faith. This is sad, but true.

I just hope they have not taken their anger into sin that they polarized themselves with the Church and begin to think, for example, that Vatican II was a mistake or a cause of the liberalism in the Church (which it wasn't), or that our Pope, John Paul II, is in any way duplicitous in the error "modernism" (which he isn't).

I frankly suspect they do go to far, but that is only a suspicion at this point.

Be in prayer about them and about whatever is going on in your parish and/or diocese. Do not just accept any 'ol rhetoric. Check out the original source material and read it for yourself and discuss it with a spiritual director. Do not just take the word of this men's group.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary