Dear Bill:

Rick Salbato has a mission to expose false apparitions. Frankly, such a focus is not necessary. We should not be following apparitions that have not been approved. If we listen to the Church, who has the sole authority to detemine the veracity of any apparition, then we do not have to worry about expending so much energy has he does to determine what is or is not a false apparition.

As for Medugorje, I personally do not believe it is genuine, but my opinion is worthless. The opinion of the local bishops and the Vatican, however, do matter. The local bishops have discerned that Medugorje does not come from a supernatural source. The Vatican has disallowed official pilgrimages to Medugorje sponsored by bishops or priests; though one can privately visit there.

While the Unity Publishing website has some good information on it, it also has many problems.

Salbato appears to be rather uneducated and is very careless with his rhetoric and seems to be rather intellectually lazy. He tends to make wild speculations about the things he writes about. 

At one time he was major supporter of Mr. Malachi Martin, a laicized priest, now dead, who caused damage to many souls through his divisive rhetoric against the Vatican II, and to Pope John Paul II and the Holy See.

I would not recommend the site as a source of reliable information.

As to this article for Mother's Day, he is trying to show we are to honor woman who have great dignity with God. Many of the points he makes are good.

But, again, his rhetoric is careless and, at times is plain wrong:

Follows are three examples of statements that are false:

1) "You mothers, hold your head high, knowing that you brought into the world the only thing that God wants from all of his creation, living souls that can never die.

Apparently, Salbato has never read the Catechism, or even the old Baltimore Catechism #3 which states:

Q. 126. What do we mean by the "end of man"?

A. By the "end of man" we mean the purpose for which he was created: namely, to know, love, and serve God.

Q. 127. How do you know that man was created for God alone?

A. I know that man was created for God alone because everything in the world was created for something more perfect than itself: but there is nothing in the world more perfect than man; therefore, he was created for something outside this world, and since he was not created for the Angels, he must have been created for God.

Q. 210. Why did God create all things?

A. God created all things for His own glory and for their or our good.

Q. 474. Why should we love our neighbor?

A. We should love our neighbor because he is a child of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and because he is our brother created to dwell in heaven with us.

Q. 1127. Which are the Commandments that contain the whole law of God?

A. The Commandments which contain the whole law of God are these two: 1st. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole strength, and with thy whole mind; 2nd. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

God wants a lot more from us than having babies so that new souls will live forever. It matters "where" in eternity these souls end up. One will live forever in heaven or in hell.

God wants us to worship Him, to have faith in Him, to accept His Son, and to love (and all the things that love demands).

Salbato's statement is careless and theologically inaccurate.

2) "Let’s face it men. Women are smarter that we are. They mature at least ten years earlier in life than we do. They are more social. They are stronger, at least in withstanding pain. They live longer. They are holier in most cases. They are more civilized."

I have no idea what planet Salbato resides, but this statement is nonsense. Men and women have the same intellectual potential. One is not smarter than the other (though woman like to think they are smarter )

Women do mature earlier than man, but not by ten years. It is more like 3-5 years. They are more social by nature, that is true. They are not stronger in withstanding pain. That is nonsense. Men undergo pain in many ways that is comparable to natural child birth. Kidney stone is one of those ways. Female nurses have told me that kidney stone pain is greater than that of natural childbirth. I personally have had two bouncing baby kidney stones. These stone are spiked, like a burr one picks up in the woods, and goes through a tube that is not designed to expand as is the birth canal for a baby. There is no nine months to prepare for the pain, and at the end of it there is not something cuddly to take home.

Women do tend to live longer but they are hardly more holy than men as a gender, nor are they more civilized. Adultery and fornication requires both sexes to commit. These sins are have been quite popular since the beginning of the human race. Women have been the cause of wars and corruption using their feminine wiles to convince their men to do their bidding. John the Baptist was beheaded because Herod's wife wanted it done. Nothing civilized in that. It was Eve the serpent approached first.

Each gender has the same capacity for holiness or evil.

3) "We must treat our wives and mothers with the same reverence we would treat God face to face."

This, I believe, is a heresy, or at least a blasphemy. No one and no thing is to be reverenced in the same way we reverence God. Our Blessed Mary is not reverenced the same as God.

Again, I understand what he is trying to say, but he is careless -- even to the point of possible unintentional heretical or blasphemous statements.

There are many other places to find information from people who are educated in the Faith, who can articulate that faith with reason, logic, and precision, and who can report information without wild speculations and presumptions.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary