REGISTERING THE SUBTLIZERS

...and then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.

– C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

Any Canadian Catholics perusing this blog will have noticed that, on the left sidebar, I once had the masthead icon of the Catholic Register (based out of Toronto) with the following text affixed: "All the crap that's unfit to print". "Why?", you may ask. This periodical is pro-life, it advocates the "Year for Priests", they have loyal Catholic commentators like Michael Coren, and so forth... window dressing.

Core control lies in the editorial staff. They dictate and delegate. While keeping in mind the quote from Lewis made at the outset, now consider this editorial published by the CR staff on December 9, 2009:

[TH2 analysis in bolded square brackets]

DO RIGHT BY NATURE [ascribe "rights" to the natural environment]

World leaders are descending on Copenhagen this week for a UN climate conference that seeks an aggressive strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.[an event hyped by the media that turned into a total fiasco] Their ultimate goal is a new international agreement to replace the failed 1990 Kyoto accord [i.e. to redress green socialism into a more palatable pastische for the populace]

It is an ambitious undertaking and, even before it starts, Canada has been cast among the villains.[to which CR staff gleefully agrees, notice that self-loathing so characteristic of liberals] The UN General Secretary [now there's someone Catholics can trust] has singled out Canada as lacking stringent reduction targets. Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has been targeting the Alberta tar sands as a threat to the planet’s survival. [here CR staff implicitly agree will this now proven charlatan and opportunist]. The left-leaning Guardian newspaper [as if the CR staff are not left leaning!] of London published a column that called Canada a "corrupt petro-state" that, more than any other nation, has been trying to sabotage a new climate agreement.[recall: this was written just after the Climategate e-mails were released into the blogosphere, making international news, excepting, of course, with the MSM]

Canada has never been a leader on climate issues.[i.e. most Canadians have not been suckered in by the bromides spewed by socialistic nature worshippers] The Liberals under Jean Chrétien scored significant public-relations points by supporting the Kyoto accord [Chrétien, of the Liberal Party, was Prime Minister for many years] but then thumbed their nose at the treaty. Chrétien’s successor, Stéphane Dion, tried to remake Canada into a white knight of the environment but was slayed by his own party [notice: they make Dion into some kind of ecological martyr, he was "slayed"]. The Conservatives under Stephen Harper have candidly admitted that, rather than lead, they prefer to see what the Americans do and then meekly follow.[notice again: the Conservative Party is portrayed as ignorant, humble servants of the Americans]

The climate debate is largely about society [not "society" - a generalization, but specifically those socialist-leftist inclined, like the CR staff] trying to balance its addiction to material comforts [inference that free market advocates are like drug addicts] against a moral obligation to respect [read: worship] God's creation. [i.e. elevate the created over the Creator] People long for luxury in our cars, homes, appliances, vacations, food and clothes, and expect governments to build economies that provide the jobs and institutions to support a consumer lifestyle.[note the anti-bourgeois sentiment, making the middle class feel guilty for success in life] Polls may suggest ["may suggest"? which ones? please specify? facts please?] society is searching for a moral high road to save the planet [What about saving souls? Should that not be a primary concern of CR? Naaahhh] we spend and the way we vote often suggests otherwise.[yes, Canadians, we are all hypocrites, because the CR staff says so]

The position of the church is clear. The planet is a gift entrusted to us by God and we are called to exercise stewardship over nature in a way that protects it, cultivates it and uses it responsibly for our legitimate needs.[the divine injunction in Genesis is to "subdue the Earth", which is primary, which makes humans preponderant to the natural world] When that stewardship conflicts with lifestyle choices and economic policies that promote exploitation and degradation of the planet, we are called to review our consumerism before it inflicts catastrophic environmental harm.[Why don't you go to collectivist countries like China or the former USSR and see the state of degradation of their environments, due directly to the outlawing of political and economic freedoms - and then compare that to the high technology, relatively greater freedoms and cleaner environments of the West?]

Canadians, though, have been slow to embrace that message.[what a bunch of condescending, latte sipping tools. Who are you to speak for me?] A recent study found Canadians overwhelmingly believe climate change [before: "global warming", now expressed in ambiguous terms, as linguistic non-specificity is the ruse of the Vulgar Left] is mankind’s defining crisis and we have a moral responsibility to save the planet. [What the does "save the planet" mean? The Earth has survived catastrophes of all kinds for millions of years] But the same poll found half of Canadians said tax dollars put towards environmental cleanup would be better spent on health care and the national debt. [So are you saying that environmental health supersedes human and economic health? Hey dingbats - the health of the latter two is a prerequisite for the former] That ambivalence - recognizing the deadly perils of greenhouse gases [like carbon dioxide, necessary for plant growth... oops, sorry for bringing science into the discussion] but unwilling to make sacrifices to fix the problem - explains Canadian political inaction and our sagging international reputation.[spare us your self-righteous indignation]

For the most part, while acknowledging the moral argument [notice: moralization of nature, a sure sign of paganism], Canadians apparently still see climate change as primarily a political and economic issue. [That is because it is a political-economical issue - the Kyoto Protocol is, in the final analysis, doublespeak for international government control, massive taxation, etc.] That position, not the moral one, is what Harper will promote in Copenhagen. Unfortunately.[Fortunately for Canada, unfortunately for the crisis-mongering blowhards on the CR editorial staff]

Yet this is only one article from the Catholic Register. You can read the "In Exile" columns from Fr. Ron Rolheiser, the theologically ambiguous priest rarely pictured in clerical garb. In a recent report, Rolheiser is profiled, calling for a "culture of vocations" yet being sure to comment on "tribalism" in the Church between "liberals" and "conservatives", as if there is no authentic Catholic teaching, as if he rises above it all [see my post about this scoundrel here]. And then there is Associate Editor Michael Swan. Peruse through his 600+ articles in the CR Archive (link now dead) and see how the majority of his "reports" are focused on leftist causes, claims and personalities - all put in a positive light. This guy has been the bane of the Register for years. But this situation is not restricted to CR. Excepting Catholic Insight (edited by the great Fr. Alphonse de Valk), the abovementioned applies to all of the Canadian Catholic MSM.

You can go to the Western Catholic Reporter and find an article issued on March 15, 2010, by Joe Gunn, in his "Journey to Justice" column with the title/subtitle: "Light a Lenten candle this Earth Hour, A carbon fast reflects the true meaning of the Lenten season". Gunny transmogrifies the sacrificial time of a Christocentric Lent into a vulgar nature worshipping extravaganza [I have written about this crypto-Marxist schmuck here].

You can go to the Salt+Light TV website and see notices for programs on Papal events, praying the Rosary and so forth. But then you come across a blog by Fr. Thomas Rosica - the big cheese at S+L, the dominating face on most programs - where he castigated pro-lifers after the latter protested the public funeral of the pro-abortion extremist Ted Kennedy [LINK / see my analysis of the situation here].

And then there are the bishocrats and their lay handlers at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) - silence on the plague of liturgical abuses in parishes, relinquishing control of parishes to aging, busybody hippies and their multitudinous petty fiefdoms. But most of all, the bishops obstinate refusal to retract the Winnipeg Statement - a rejection of Humane vitae, that has for 40+ years steered Canadian Catholics down the road of debauched ruination.

At first glance, all seem to be faithful to the Magisterium, pro-life, deference to the Pope, and so forth. But this is just a surface veneer. Recall now C.S. Lewis: "mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger". Admix the most conspicuous of what it means to be Catholic with the subtly-advocated lies: "social justice" grant hording disguised as work for the poor and vulnerable, pantheistic nature worship disguised as balanced environmentalism, liberation theology disguised as "democratic socialism", pro-life outwardness yet vilifying those who rightly protest against abortion in the public square... and on and on. This is the evil trick of the subtlizers delineated herein. The core is rife with corruption and dissimulation and they must be expunged. To the Catholic Register, to the Western Catholic Reporter, to Salt+Light TV, to the CCCB, and to all those of like mind... You are a window and I can see through it.

REGISTERING THE SUBTLIZERS