The scandal of Gregory Baum and the Canadian Church – UPDATED

A little off topic for this blog, but it is in the same vein as the posts I’ve done previously on this blog and the radio show I did last Thursday night.  Former Father Gregory Baum has been one of the most influential theologians in the revolutionary sect of the Church which sprang into being during and after Vatican II, and his influence has been most thoroughly felt in Canada.  Indeed, it was Gregory Baum who, according to Anne Roche Muggeridge penned most of the Canadian bishop’s execrable “Winnipeg Statement” in which they, collectively, apostasized, by rejecting the timeless and authoritative Doctrine on contraception.  If that had been the limit of Baum’s baleful influence, it would have been enough to mark him as one of the most destructive theologians of the 20th century.  But he’s done far more than that.

About a month ago, Michael Voris ran some videos that discussed Baum, and another figure, Fr. Tom Rosica, the head of the tiny Salt+Light TV network that runs in parts of Canada and the US northeast.  It’s a rather liberal competitor to EWTN.  I have read some very disturbing things regarding Fr. Rosica. He has worked behind the scenes to try to undermine, persecute, or otherwise destroy certain blogs and websites he dislikes.  He’s been pretty hard on LifeSiteNews, in particular.  But even given what I knew about Fr. Rosica, his penchant for progressive thought and his distaste of more traditional Catholics, I was shocked that he would bring Gregory Baum onto his network and give him a glowing introduction, and refer to him as someone who “loves his theology,” which makes plain this wasn’t some cross-examination of a controversial figure, this was Rosica giving a platform to a theological dissident – heck, a manifest heretic – to proclaim his error as truth and to undermine the faith of a few thousand more Catholics.  It’s more than shameful.  It’s diabolical, to present the man who, I agree, has probably done more to destroy the Church in Canada than any other person (and that’s saying something, because the Church in the US is like 13th Century France compared to Canada) as some great hero and inspiration.  It tells us, I think, all we need to know of Fr. Rosica.

The relevant portion in the video below begins at around the 3:00 mark:

Rosica does have some very powerful friends, it seems.  The progressive faction is still pretty dominant in Canada.

This video contains much more, the most relevant portion beginning around 4:00:

Michael Voris fisks this damnable interview quite well, so I’ll only add one bit.  When Fr. Rosica tries to sell his vision of a progressive church enlightened by the “spirit of Vatican II,” is he appealing to people’s better angels? Is it an appeal to people’s better angels to encourage them to terminate their children, sterilize themselves, engage in perverse sex, radically redefine marriage no matter the devastation that may be caused in individual lives and the culture, etc?  Is this a call to virtue?  Or is the attempted duping of minimally involved Catholic masses, who might “buy” the concept of the Church “changing her teachings” for the carrot of radically relaxed obliterated moral standards, an appeal to the very basest, most fallen aspects of mankind?

One final note on Baum, which sort of puts that whole sordid period of the Church in perspective.  That former nun/sister he married?  She was already divorced, and they divorced a few years later.  Baum has never reconciled with the Church.

UPDATE: I forgot.  Fr. Rosica made this condescending, self-serving reply to Voris here.  What do you make of that?  To me, Fr. Rosica has no argument to make in response to Voris’ very well placed ire. So, he tries to change the subject.