The Empire Strikes Back: Vortex

Yes, it’s a Vortex kinda week…and there will be one more tomorrow, I suspect. 

But this one will knock your socks off.

Today is the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist – a fitting day for CMTV to air the current Vortex, because if the Church of Nice could have its way, Michael Voris’s head would be served up on a platter as well!

As MV says, “When you strike out against the Church of Nice, you better be ready for them to come back at you guns blazing”. He gives a couple of examples: the reprisals CMTV itself faced for airing a program with their findings that the CCHD routinely hands money over to groups who support abortion, contraception, and other evils; and the recent news that, following the American Life League’s criticisms of Catholic Relief Services, that agency abruptly cancelled its contract with AKA Printing and Mailing – a company owned by Paul Brown, husband of Judie Brown, who just happens to be the president of ALL. MV notes:

CRS, in a letter from Bishop Gerald Kickanus said, point blank, that because of ALL’s charges against CRS, that CRS was going to yank its publishing contract with [AKA Printing and Mailing], whose owner Paul Brown, again, is husband of Judie Brown, head of ALL.

MV then “switches gears” as he says, and discusses the finances of some of the mainstream media groups. Following the disclosure of financial shortfalls by Catholic Answers,

…some enterprising com-boxers dug up official numbers that the top dogs at Catholic Answers all make at least a hundred thousand a year, with Karl Keating pulling down a cool quarter a million, and Jimmy Akin and Tim Staples each over a hundred thousand.

EWTN and Ave Maria Radio execs make the big bucks too, it seems.

…no wonder these groups NEVER say anything about the collapse of the faith being pinned on the bishops. They all make HUGE salaries and aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them.

MV also discloses that at CMTV, the highest salary paid is his own - $40,000 per year; everyone else, he says "makes barely that or much less." 

I am reminded of a statement Rod Pead in his talk/paper “Sword of Unity”: 

I guess affluence and Catholic faith have never been good bedfellows: food on the table and a warm bed at night does little to encourage the vigorous prayer life required to sustain the truly Catholic mind we need in order to act justly.

Indeed.

The script:

How to put this somewhat politely… hmm… When you strike out against the Church of Nice, you better be ready for them to come back at you guns blazing.

Aside from the personal experience we have had here at ChurchMilitant.TV in this regard, we know this to be the case.

We had a tussle over email a couple of years ago with a very well-known bishop who has the reputation of being very orthodox and very outspoken. He gets praised from and by many Catholics who are very faithful. They hold this man in high esteem.

But let me tell you: you cross some of these men, and they turn on you like no one’s business. We had simply challenged the origins of the bishops’ annual CCHD collection program – an organization founded in the spirit of Jewish atheist Saul Alinksy. After much research, we aired a program with our findings that the CCHD routinely hands money over to groups who support abortion, contraception and so forth. This particular bishop went through the roof – again, someone WELL KNOWN, with a reputation of being VERY conservative.

We exchanged emails for almost the better part of the day. The next day, we received emails from two – not one, but two – different Catholic TV outlets who had been airing our shows for years, [saying] that they would no longer be airing them.

One-sentence emails… no explanation, abrupt, rude and definitive. Coincidence? Well, we explored further and had our deep suspicions confirmed: this “conservative, orthodox” bishop had worked his will behind the scenes and stuck a knife in our back.

We have never revealed this before publically because there was no reason to. It happened about four years ago and the bishop is no longer in his previous diocese, but in another prominent one.

But given what has just happened in the escalating war between the US Bishops Catholic Relief Services and the American Life League’s charges that point to more scandal, we thought it would be helpful to give some context.

The American Life League (ALL) has been fighting the war against the culture of death for as long anyone can remember. Like many faithful Catholic outfits, they came to realize that much of that war’s efforts are hampered by self-serving Catholics from WITHIN the Church. More on that later.

ALL’s founder, Judie Brown, is married to Paul Brown. I have met each of them personally, and they are outstanding examples of Catholic laity. Paul Brown owns a printing company: AKA Printing and Mailing. For quite a few years, AKA has been the contractor for CRS, Catholic Relief Services, printing and mailing their donation requests. When you get an envelope in the mail from CRS asking for a donation to help fight poverty, it was printed and mailed by Paul Brown’s AKA.

But when JUDIE Brown’s ALL, American Life League, went after CRS for giving grants to international organizations that support abortion, condom distribution programs, contraception programs and so forth .. weeeellllll, CRS got mad.

…But also decided to get even. CRS, in a letter from Bishop Gerald Kickanus said, point blank, that because of ALL’s charges against CRS, that CRS was going to yank its publishing contract with AKA, whose owner Paul Brown, again, is husband of Judie Brown, head of ALL.

BTW – you might recall that Bishop Kickanus was in line to become the next head of the US Bishops but when news emerged at the 11^th hour before the vote three years ago, that he had coddled and defended a seminarian, and advanced his cause toward ordination, who would later turn out to be a known homosexual priest child abuser – enough bishops turned their votes toward Timothy Dolan – who became head of the US Bishop by an extremely slim margin.

SO anyone who thinks for one moment that the Church of Nice really is NICE, don’t believe it. The Church of Nice is only kind and accepting and NICE toward dissidents and heretics and accommodationist milquetoast effeminate men in miters and collars.

Anyone who even thinks about trying to stand up and call us to our more pristine spiritual sides will be crushed like bugs if reputations or money is involved.

And speaking of the Church of Nice… to completely switch gears… a war in the Catholic blogosphere has broken out over the news coming out of Catholic Answers that they are in dire financial straits and are laying off staff due to a steep drop in donations and other revenue. Catholic Answers has done fine work in the area of apologetics and is to be commended for any souls they might have influenced to come to the Catholic Faith. Bravo!

But a few weeks ago, it seems like they made a major miscalculation – or perhaps an inadvertent blunder – highlighting something we have talked about here recently in the Vortex.

It seems they may have insulted a large portion of their own audience by doing what appeared to many [as] making fun of traditional Catholics in a Catholic Answers Live radio show heard from coast to coast.

You see, with the ever shrinking Church of Nice – of which many, rightly or wrongly, have accused Catholic Answers of being a vested player – the most invested players left in the Catholic world these days, on the ground, really, are the more traditional crowd. To insult them apparently has proven to be a bad move.

Then, on top of it, some enterprising com-boxers dug up official numbers that the top dogs at Catholic Answers all make at least a hundred thousand dollars a year, with Karl Keating pulling down a cool quarter a million, and Jimmy Akin and Tim Staples each over a hundred thousand.

That apparently set off a race among some bloggers to investigate how much other big name Catholic media people are pulling down. And a number of Catholics in the blogosphere are expressing shock.

EWTN bigwigs are all well into the six digit figures with funded retirement packages. Doug Keck and Michael Warsaw are each north of $130,000 per year, and Raymond Arroyo is over 100K per year.

Ave Maria Radio’s Al Kresta makes $115,000 a year, and Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariana earns around 150K. All of these figures, by the way, come from viewers who dug into the official IRS public numbers, and posted them online – available because these are all non-profits and must report salaries. They were spurred on by Catholic Answers’ recent financial plea.

Various viewers who have seen these salaries have expressed feelings ranging from surprise to shock to outrage. In various communications, the term “professional Catholic” has been asserted time and again and they are bothered that people are profiting from the Church in such a manner while at the same time begging for more money.

One viewer said to us, in particular, no wonder these groups NEVER say anything about the collapse of the faith being pinned on the bishops. They all make HUGE salaries and aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them.

With recent revelations a few months ago that in Boston, the top few chancery personnel there are pulling down hundreds of thousands in salaries each year, all this begins to undermine the peasant Catholics’ view of how things run in the Church.

For our part here at ChurchMilitant.TV, we would like to say, don’t have your faith undermined. From professional Catholics to vindictive agendas to money clouding people’s view, human nature is fallen and susceptible to all sorts of chicanery.

It’s important that all this kind of news be revealed so that people can have all the necessary facts they need to make reasoned judgments about who to support, what to believe, to make correct judgments about the state of affairs in the Church.

Years and decades of Modernism have taken their toll. The Church has been divided into all sorts of little camps – even among those who count themselves as faithful, and even among clergy in the faithful camp.

What is needed is a fresh transparency where all that needs to be is dealt with truthfully and above board. This includes admitting that many past bishops laid the groundwork for the catastrophic collapse we are experiencing. Their efforts have continued to be supported, willingly or unwillingly, by a class of largely weak, ineffective bishops unwilling to make a substantial move to reverse course in a hard decisive manner.

[MV discloses here that the highest salary paid at CMTV is his own - $40,000; everyone else, he says, “makes barely that or a lot less.”]

AND their supporters in large Catholic media enterprises have been accomplices to the lackluster efforts because they run large operations that need the bishops’ support to keep their seats at the table and keep getting their paychecks.

As we said in a Vortex a couple of weeks ago – this whole way of doing business needs one massive reboot. 

Now – with all these revelations from high salaries to vindictive bishops to mean-spirited business decisions, one thing is certain – it is very difficult to keep an eye on the prize of saving souls.