Catholic Universe & Catholic Times Closed – Celebrate! Thank you Covid!
Pope Francis, Traditional Latin Mass, The Catholic Church, Morals, Bishops, Modernism, Interfaith, Dogma of Infallibility, Health, Tradition, Communism, Blasphemy catholic truth, catholic times, catholic universe, monsignor basic loftus 32 Comments
It's difficult to describe my delight on hearing that two of the worst of the allegedly Catholic newspapers have bitten the dust.
Westminster Fly, our well-informed blogger from south of the border, alerted me to this news, with a hint to the effect that it surely demands a celebratory thread. You bet! Consider it done.
Modernist to their fingertips, despite their claims to orthodox Catholicity, there is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained from their passing. RIP.
In the case of the Catholic Times, the stated aim was to "Follow Peter" – Yeah right. It was tailor made to Follow Francis, but Peter? Not remotely. As for The Catholic Universe – great for wrapping fish 'n chips.
Both publications were always apparently reluctant to publish letters from readers displaying symptoms of orthodoxy, while those with outright "traditionalist" leanings had more chance of being published in the Morning Star.
This was particularly annoying because some of us were trying to have important errors corrected, notably those peddled by Monsignor Basil Loftus in his column in the Catholic Times week after week after week until his column was cancelled – I believe in 2018. Until then, however, he'd done untold damage.
He regularly mocked the traditional Latin Mass (for which he appears to have a particular hatred), and he challenged various dogmas, including the physical Resurrection of Christ and His Real Presence in the Eucharist. Loftus denied, too, the infallibility of the Church's moral teaching and the impossibility of authorising the ordination of women. He was "woke" before "woke" was invented.
Hence our dismay when we discovered that, on the odd occasion when a letter of concern about his column was published, the Editor also published a letter from Loftus right alongside, where he was allowed to defend his statements and repeat his errors for good measure. Incredible. It was easy to deduce, therefore, that the Editor held the same beliefs as Loftus, that he adhered to the same heresies and errors. So, the old saying "what goes around comes around" sprang to my mind on hearing this wonderful news of the death of this rag and its sister rag, the not-so-Catholic Universe.
We did challenge the refusal of the Catholic Times to publish a letter of correction about Catholic Truth some years ago, by lodging a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission. We won. The Editor – silly man – was forced to publish my letter and thus shown up for his unjust censorship. Numpty.
Then, of course, there was the matter of plagiarism. That was one fun edition, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing up – our November, 2004 edition. Headlined The Catholic Times – like a thief in the night, we revealed that our September 2004 report on Koran readings permitted at Mass in a Glasgow primary school by the unrepentant priest who said that, not only would he not apologise for arranging those Koran readings, he would do the same thing again. Well, blow me, didn't the Catholic Times use our report without acknowledging the source. Lamely, they tried to defend their theft, but the evidence, needless to say, was on the side of Catholic Truth. We still await their apology. Don't suppose we'll get one now. Still, the closure of the Anything-But-Catholic-Times is compensation enough…
What about you… Do you lament the passing of these two newspapers or are you, like me and moi, absolutely delighted that the March of Modernism in the UK has been stopped in its tracks, at least for now? There's still the Catholic Herald, mind you, and the awful Tablet but the latter is mostly read by Anglicans (or was, last time I checked); in any event, shouldn't we now be thanking the Lord for small mercies? And what about that virus, then? Who'd have thought it? It was bound to do some good, eventually… 😀 Thank you, Covid! Now go away!
Carlos Carrasco Reply
May The 'Catholic' Reporter on the US side of the Pond follow them into the grave and soon!
editor Reply
Carlos,
Hear hear. It's a pity the two papers have such similar names in the USA – the National Catholic Reporter (dissident rag) and the National Catholic Register, which I think is OK? Not sure, but I think it steers clear of outright dissent.
Margaret USA
National Catholic Register is owned by EWTN so it's definitely more orthodox than the "Reporter" 😫
westminsterfly Reply
I'm delighted. Good riddance to bad rubbish. As Editor's introduction states, these rags were so often vehicles of dissent, made all the more dangerous by tossing in the odd article which would appeal to orthodox / traditional Catholics. I was always suspicious about their circulation claims as well. Were the numbers based on how many copies were sent to churches or how many were actually sold? I also suspect that they were largely kept afloat by their exorbitant advertising fees, and I'm aware of the experiences of those I knew who did advertise with them, that the money spent on advertising rarely – if ever – generated a response which warranted the cost. Also, blogs like CT must take a bow in helping to bring about the demise of these papers, as most traditional Catholics turned to sites on the internet which were and still are reliable (and free) and stopped getting these papers many years ago. I remember back in the 1990's visiting the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in Rome. We spoke with a Monsignor (I can't recall his name but I must have it somewhere) and he expressed his dismay to us at the standard of journalism in the mainstream Catholic press in the UK. I don't think it ever improved. But anyway, this is great news. Hopefully the Catholic Herald and The Tablet will follow the Universe & Times into oblivion very soon.
WF,
Below, I recount my own experience of their Advertising Department, so I won't repeat that here.
Thank you for that "nod" to CT and other outlets which did our best to keep the feet of these rags to the fire.
Unfortunately, my own favourite report on the Catholic Times is in the November, 2004 edition which is not available via our archive. We were unable to save, online, those early editions. That report did first appear on our then blog, so I wonder if it would still be found by someone with the necessary expertise, hint, HINT!
I've actually tried and failed. I'm like that. I keep trying things and I keep failing them. Still, even I knew that "elephant" was the right answer here…
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q5PHdJLmwyg/Ujc_inCbL9I/AAAAAAAAO7Q/o8XIvl8dreQ/s1600/Epic-Fail-Very-Funny-Photos+(3).jpg
https://www.thatsnonsense.com/larger-elephant-moon-hoax/
catholicmanoftheyear Reply
Someone is sad about it: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/cardinal-expresses-sadness-as-universe-catholic-media-ltd-stops-trading/?fbclid=IwAR3GJHratE5ePDU7kbK_s9UUyUJbdmjWO-pVfzmINoNRLmKRWSJ3uS64zWw
One less platform for him.
Faith of Our Fathers Reply
As one who has never read any of those Newspapers ,I take that the Comments and the ED are without a Doubt telling The Truth, something that appears to be absent in what Has now become mostly Protestant Newspapers and Magazines within Our Catholic Church. As for Loftus and Co their seemingly Hatred of The Latin Mass seems astonishing, but then their only following the Godfather. The other useless Catholic supposedly Apologist that seems to Have Risen to the Heights of Greatness under the Godfather is that no user Faggolli . My God if that is the Future Voice of The Catholic Church av no Doubt that the Heavenly Angels would Even be angry. As for myself If my Parish stops The Latin Mass I Honestly don't think I could go back to The Protestant Service. Especially now that am ,as the Priest said a few years ago a Certified Traditional Nuncase. I suppose now al just Have to update my Subscription To The Tablet . ( only Kidding ) How that can profess to be anything Catholic beats me. I Emailed them on One Article on Transgenderism of which they supported, I never of course got an Answer. As am Simple the Email was Simple. Is Homosexuality and Transgenderism wrong. As I said I never got an answer.
RCAVictor Reply
Sounds like a case of good riddance to this:
https://quincyquarry.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/fish-wrap-1b.jpg
RCA Victor,
Love it! I mean, seriously. I love fish!
You'll never know the half of it. Faithful Catholics have been fighting the so-called 'Catholic' press in this country for literally decades. The 'Catholic' press has definitely been used as a platform for dissidents and a tool of subversion. I'm sure the USA has its equivalents – especially after reading the first comment on this thread. The problem over here was that a couple of them masqueraded as orthodox, which muddied the waters for many of the ill-instructed in the pews. At least The Tablet laid its cards on the table and declared its open and almost total dissent from Catholic teaching for all to see, but others did it more sneakily by mixing orthodoxy with dissent. I remember way back when, when many Catholics were cock-a-hoop that William Oddie had taken over as Editor of the Catholic Herald. If I were to tell you the errors, falsehoods and general rubbish that was promoted during his tenure, I doubt if WordPress would have enough space to accommodate it all. And yet, because he had a few supposedly 'orthodox' writers in, many lauded and praised the Herald. Oddie died years ago. I think The Herald is still published. It is online, certainly. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
And the Catholic Herald's sister paper is the Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO), so I assume we'll be stuck with that unless and until the Herald falls…
At least the advertising department at the Catholic Herald once rang me to offer a deal to advertise one of our Conferences with them – I assume they would advertise in the Herald (can't recall) but I remember saying that the SCO would never, not in a million years, advertise anything for Catholic Truth. The gentleman on the other end of the phone assured me that they would certainly take the advertisements, that the command would be given from on high, so if I were interested in accepting their (very reasonable, I have to admit) offer, just say the word and the several ads would appear over the next few weeks before the Conference. I was delighted and accepted.
Next thing, I received an email from the SCO essentially saying that Hell would have frozen over and been reported in the national news of every country on the planet before they would advertise anything to do with Catholic Truth.
I rang the London office of the Catholic Herald, spoke to above mentioned gentleman who was astounded. "Leave it with me…" he said and then later rang me with apologies to say that despite this instruction having been given from the "top of the house" (or some such description meaning "the boss") the SCO were steadfastly refusing to comply.
So, stand by for the next celebratory thread which will be to mark the demise of the Scottish-Anything-But-Catholic-Observer.
catholicmanoftheyear
In a way, I'm surprised they didn't take your advert. I thought these people would take money from absolutely anyone, about anything. I thought it was all about money and just a group of people keeping their jobs and getting their mortgages paid off the backs of the unsuspecting faithful.
CMOY,
That's probably true of the Catholic Herald but not so the Scottish Catholic Observer – they are like people possessed when it comes to Catholic Truth (and I don't just mean our newsletter etc.)
They once ran a double-page spread about us, having invited letters on the subject where I was dubbed Pope Patricia (among other things). We had the feeling that the bishops told them off for doing that, since the bishops have a policy of ignoring us (stated in the Catholic Times – don't laugh) so since then we've been out in the cold, so to speak.
However, to show you how ridiculous their whole advertising policy was and I assume still is, here's the kind of advert you would see in the SCO…
http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/funny-ads-9.jpg
westminsterfly
I know that guy – he's one of the 'sand people' from Star Wars. Do I get the reward?
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dEAAAOSwZVhWTu2T/s-l400.jpg
Westminster Fly,
LOL! That's brilliant!
Oh yikes!! You poor thing! Insulting you like that ought to get 40 days on bread and water plus a public apology.
Shame on them!
Westminsterfly,
We do have our equivalents – the first post here identified the worst and most blatant (National Catholic Reporter). My former Archdiocesan newspaper was so bad that faithful Catholics started calling it The (Occasionally) Catholic Telegraph. But that sorry rag was more the rule than the exception. I once did an issue of my old newsletter taking aim at the editor, and I must have hit the target because that issue elicited a very indignant email from her.
My current diocesan newspaper isn't much better, Before the election last November they published a syndicated column from a "Catholic" layman licking his chops over the prospect of having the first Catholic President (Biden) since JFK. It was nothing more than a poorly disguised endorsement.
You're absolutely right about the Catholic press – and it follows the Masonic pattern of putting the means of communication under their control.
Athanasius Reply
It's divine justice on two once-Catholic newspapers that helped after Vatican II to destroy the faith. They've gone the same way as so many seminaries, religious houses and parishes that endoresed Modernist heresies – into oblivion!
Athanasius I know your up to Scratch on most things and I maybe wrong Here but was the Terrible ( as far as am concerned) George Galloway not an Editor of a Scottish Catholic Newspaper I think it was The Observer . I checked him out on Wikipedia but it didn't say Anthony to that effect. The reason I say that the Now Moslem Galloway was an Editor . Was when He got attacked by Rangers Supporters in Glasgow Airport and said that the Rangers Supporters had done so because He was as He said a Catholic. That was of course the time he was Married to the Moslem Doctor. Also why am bringing this up is it seems that our so called Catholic Newspapers have everyone at the Top who are most certainly not Practicing Catholics.
FOOF,
I know you'd prefer to hear this from Athanasius and I'm not remotely jealous but…
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bb/d6/3c/bbd63cb94bbd14813b9886652e682dba.jpg
I can assure you that Galloway is a baptised but lapsed Catholic – he has probably never even heard of, let alone read, let alone edited, the Scottish Catholic Observer. Trust me on this and if Athanasius says anything different, do not believe him. He's merely trying to make me look bad…
I wouldn't dare contradict you on this. Besides, you're right.
FOOF
No, George Galloway was never involved in any way with Catholic newspapers. He's more likely to have been an editor with a "Red Clyde" equivalent of Pravda, but certainly not any Catholic paper.
It's a pity he's a Communist and apostate Catholic because he's actually quite a likeable guy and very honest in his comments about our rotten parliamentary system. He's also completely opposed to Scottish Independence. Such a waste!
And who could possibly disagree with you that these two newspapers "have gone the same way as so many seminaries, religious houses and parishes that endorsed Modernist heresies – into oblivion!"
Not me, not moi 😀
Thanks for the information i just thought ( wrongly obviously) that in His earlier years he was in some way connected as a Writer or otherwise with a Catholic Newspaper. Am sorry Athanasius but I don't share your opinion on Him being a likeable Guy . I have of course never met the Man nor don't wish to harbour any ambitions to do so. Of course am sure that George would say exactly the same about myself. On the subject of Socialism and not Communism I would certainly say that in my Early years I was definitely a Socialist and I would like to put out there that Socialism got us out of some of the Hell Holes we lived in that were known as Houses I also say that Socialism in the 50s and 60s was far removed ( in my humble opinion) from Communism until the Likes of Union Guys like Jimmy Reid and others moved in and sort of took over. I myself was most certainly on The Miners side ,during that Strike ,as most of my Family were or had been Miners.
Also without a Doubt Thatcher and Her Henchmen were Evil.
crofterlady Reply
Years ago, we used to get the Catholic Times but, little by little, we became aware of the "little pieces of poison" tucked away in otherwise quite erudite articles. Then the amount of poison grew until we could no longer allow the paper into our home.
Yes, the "Catholic" papers have gone the way of erstwhile Catholic institutions. Also, has anyone noticed the way most priests are not very manly anymore? I was watching a clip on a US military chaplain(born 1929) and couldn't help noticing how manly he and his fellow chaplains were.
Crofterlady. In the post-conciliar church the priesthood has become a 'gay' profession. There's been a lot of books written about this phenomenon. Goodbye, Good Men by Michael Rose is a good place to start. Other books continue the sad story. Normal, orthodox males are weeded out during selection process, and supporters of the LGBT lifestyle and other dissidents are let through. Look at the recent UK/Rome scandal that CT reported on: https://catholictruthblog.com/2020/07/06/english-college-in-rome-supporting-gay-culture-is-no-barrier-to-ordination That priest was ordained at Westminster Cathedral https://gloria.tv/post/8waicRNZbnYJ1YiP8WGvT3MF4 I totally agree with you about The Catholic Times. When it first started, it was more or less OK (nothing fantastic, mind you) but the dissent was introduced stealthily over a period of years, little by little – so that under the cover of orthodoxy, many in the pews took in these errors.
I've read "Goodbye, Good Men" and it really does paint a very bad picture of seminaries and how they rooted out men who were not homosexual, and they were ruthless about it.
I think it will take the Church decades to recover from what has gone on in seminaries in recent years.
I checked out the gloria TV link in your post and it is reporting that this blog (Catholic Truth blog) named the "gay propagandist" seminarian. I wonder if it makes any difference naming them any more. It seems that the seminary rectors and bishops are quite happy with gay seminarians and priests. What a shocker.
WF and Josephine,
I've now seen that gloriaTV report – very interesting.
Naming him didn't make any difference – despite (or perhaps because of ) his links with LGBT + groups, Alex Balzanella was ordained a priest for Westminster, and our reports, together with goodness knows how many prior emails to his seminary superiors were ignored.
We did what we could, in the face of the blatant disregard of the seminary staff, and the then seminarian himself (deaf to our appeals to stand down from his forthcoming ordination) – we did what we could in the face of the blatant disregard of the seminary authorities for the Church's discipline on the admission of homosexuals to the priesthood. That discipline applies not only to active homosexuals but to those who have shown support for that way of life.
All we can do now is to pray for all concerned. Or, to put it another way… God help us all !
My suspicion is that because of all the publicity surrounding this now-named priest he won't return to Westminster Archdiocese, but will be given some plum job in Rome, when he finishes his studies.
It will be interesting to watch for that appointment – your suspicion may well prove to be correct.
John Rayner Reply
I know that I am late on the scene but I read the news herein with great pleasure.
Here's a very intersting radio interview from 1998 – Art Bell speaking to Fr. Malachi Martin. It's extremely lengthy at 2hrs 26mins but very engaging. I listened to most of it last night and got a great insight into the present apostasy, including why newspapers like the Universe and the Times have disappeared into oblivion. Very intriguing from the 59th minute onwards when Fr. Malachi Martin begins to speak about the Third Secret of Fatima.
This is a must-hear interview, even though it does frustrate slightly by not giving a greater insight into exactly what the Third Secret contains. What did catch my attention, however, is that Fr. Malachi Martin, who read the 3rd Secret, says it would shock Christians and non-Christians alike.
I'm sending the link to Cardinal Nichols, assuming of course he still has sufficient faith to recognise the truth of the tragedy he has actively been a part of for decades.
https://youtu.be/YCzryXT_whk
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