Mel Gibson was recently arrested for DUI and it has since come to light that he went on a tirade about Jews and accused Jews of being behind everything that is wrong with the world today. Mel, of course, has released a statement saying he said dispicable things he didn’t believe.
Uhh… yeah… right…
Gibson is traditionalist Catholic. What does that mean? Think Fundamentalist Protestant without the funny hat and smoking purse. The media likes to portray the split with these traditionalists with the Vatican as having to do with language, but that’s just part of the story. The Vatican II didn’t just change the language of the masses, but also changed how the Vatican dealt with other Christian sects and non-Christian religions.
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The Error: An embracing of the false ideas of “religious liberty” and the radical separation of Church and State. This contradicts the oldest teaching of the Church, Leo XIII’s “Testem Benevolentiae Nostra,” etc.The Truth: While it may be prudent and beneficial to the common good to tolerate error at times, and while those in error must be treated with charity, error has no “rights.” A State whose laws are not based on natural law, whose laws don’t have the Christian understanding of the True, Good, and Beautiful at their center, and whose laws don’t have the good of the souls of its citizens/subjects at their heart is bound to lead to trouble with great eternal and temporal consequences.
The Error: The spread of a false ecumenism (movement toward unity between Christians) and incessant, fruitless interreligious dialogue (dialogue between Christians and non-Christians) that has as its goal a religious unity that doesn’t require conversion to the Catholic faith; that has served to water down the Catholic Faith in order to appease non-Catholics; and that has led to scandalous “interfaith” prayer and worship services that are based on sentiment and feelings rather than true charity which is rooted in Truth. This contradicts Sacred Scripture, Pope Pius X’s “Our Apostolic Mandate” (”Notre Charge Apostolique”), Pope Pius XI’s ”Mortalium Animos,” Pope Pius XII’s ”Humani Generis” and other documents.
The Truth: It is a dogma of the Faith that “outside the Church there is no salvation” (”extra ecclesiam nulla salus”). To gain a proper understanding of this teaching, see the relevant paragraphs on the page “Catholicism 101: A Brief Primer.”
Maybe Gibson didn’t mean he really thought the Jews are behind all the problems, but I find it hard, if not impossible, for him to regard Jews with complete respect and/or acceptance in light of his public stance as a traditionalist Catholic.
