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Saturday 2 May 2015

Michael Coren is something else

Michael Coren has given an interview with the National Post. I am posting it because of certain points he has made, otherwise I would just leave him to himself.

Before I highlight the points let us be clear.

Four years ago, this man wrote a book Why Catholics Are Right. He made money from groups and then betrayed those same people and groups. He comments now in public that he was worshipping as an "anglican " for a year and he still took their money. He says he cannot be a "hypocrite," well, he has been something else. He has taken the money of the Interim, Catholic Insight, the Catholic Register, Legatus, the Toronto Traditional Mass Society, Una Voce Hamilton and dozens of others whilst not believing what he was saying.

Michael Coren, you made your choice. Go and worship God in a false church founded upon adultery and murder.

"An obsession on contraception and on life that Jesus never mentioned" said he.

I feel sorry for you and I feel sorry for you wife.


May you find your way home. Quietly and humbly.

"Right-wing Catholic bloggers" made your departure from the Church an issue.

Now, I am done with you.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/religion/i-felt-a-hypocrite-author-michael-coren-on-why-he-left-the-catholic-church-for-anglicanism?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Q: Some people see you as a Catholic champion against an amoral, secular world. How have they reacted?

A: It’s brought out the worst in the Catholic right. If you look at some of the comments, there’s a little tinge of anti-Semitism there (Coren’s father was Jewish), a lot of very sectarian hatred. The Catholic right is very frightened and very aggressive right now, because they have a pope who they no longer think is one of theirs, and so they’re feeling very defensive.

Vox: What is this "Catholic right" Coren speaks about? He no doubt means people such as me. He has referred to this blog as a "right-wing blog" and and "extreme" one at that on the now defunct SUN News and in the National Post. What does "right wing Catholic" mean? One who accepts the teaching of the Church? I have seen no anti-Semitism in any comments. The rest of his commentary is ignorant, pedantic and juvenile.

Q: Even as Pope Francis is welcomed with unprecedented vigour by the popular culture?

A: That’s one of the main reasons they can’t stand it. They don’t want to be accepted.

Vox: "Can't stand it?" What? that the Pope is admired by the UN enviro-fascist movement? That NARAL has used his careless words to their advantage? That homosexualists have also used his words to beat the Truth of the faith? If the world loves the Pope something is indeed wrong. So, I'll give Coren this, but he fails in what he is not saying.

Q: You left the Catholic Church for three years in the 1990s, worshiping in various evangelical and Anglican churches. Why did you leave?

A: Not really for particularly good reasons. I had written a piece about (the late) Cardinal (Aloysius) Ambrozic for Toronto Life, and that’s a very long story, and I still don’t really think I did anything wrong, but it was a very difficult time. I was being sort of personally attacked by the Cardinal and his people. I quoted him saying things that were not very Christ-like, I suppose. He had called someone a name. He was a very harsh man. … I just thought I needed a closer relationship with Christ at that time. I just wanted something simpler, a relationship rather than a religion.

Vox: Speak well of the dead, Michael. You did not know Cardinal Ambrozic or what his own issues may have been. You did not seem to understand the problems that this woman whom he called "that bitch" now a former Anglican/, then Catholic Nun, then married Catholic woman, then divorced Catholic woman and now a lesbian Anglican priestess caused. Really Michael, I've heard you say worse over coffee in your living room! You said much that day and on numerous phone calls to me over a few years; I'll keep all of that to myself.

Q: What brought you back?

A: It was really the pull of the Eucharist. It really was that. That is a centrepiece of worship for me.

Q: It is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. The same sacrament is given elsewhere.

A: That’s why I’m now in the Anglican Church.

Vox: Really Michael? There is no Eucharist in the Anglican communion unless it is from a priest ordained through an Old Catholic line and then, it is illicit. You are receiving a piece of bread and you know it. 

Q: You say you could no longer worship with integrity as a Catholic. Why not?


A: I could not remain in a church that effectively excluded gay people. That’s only one of the reasons, but for someone who had taken the Catholic position on same-sex marriage for so long, I’d never been comfortable with that even though I suppose I was regarded as being a stalwart in that position. But I’d moved on, and I felt a hypocrite. I felt a hypocrite being part of a church that described homosexual relations as being disordered and sinful. I just couldn’t be part of it anymore. I could not do that. I couldn’t look people in the eye and make the argument that is still so central to the Catholic Church, that same-sex attraction is acceptable but to act on it is sinful. I felt that the circle of love had to be broadened, not reduced.

Vox: Michael Coren, you are wrong and you have publicly misrepresented the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church does not exclude "gay people." You know this as you have had a Brother Knight (until you left our Council) on your program. You know him from the parish. You know well that he was never mocked and always welcomed. 

Michael, you may not want to be a hypocrite but you are something else.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm tossing his book in the trash today. I never did read it. God help him, and the rest of us too...

Lee said...

This entire situation is very sad. Michael is leaving because of personal reasons and sentimentality??? Where is the supernatural faith within your soul Michael? Is it because God has allowed you to be exposed? These public crosses are to be embraced, not tossed to the ground. Nor do we as Catholics pick and choose the moral teachings that suit our personal tastes or likes.
One more thing Michael, I am not a rad trad, ultra right wing Catholic ; I am simply Catholic. I hope it makes you "feel" better, bashing the True Church that has been paying your bills for the last few years. Why do you need to be heard, why can't you just be one of the sheep? The dangers of so-called " professional Catholicism"
I will pray for you to get over yourself Michael. It's all about Jesus, not you!

In JM+JT,

Lee www.canadiancatechist.com

Anonymous said...

Don't do that, Anonymous. Instead take the book back where you bought it and get your money back. Throwing the book away leaves your money in Coren's pocket.

Dymphna said...

Never trust a convert who is making money from it.

Anonymous said...

Dymphna,
Exactly! I am tired of "professional Catholics." Part of me always wonders how much attention their faith would be receiving, if it were not earning them a paycheck. Please do not confuse what I am saying to include priests, nuns, brothers, etc... But when Mark Shea slams traditional Catholics, it is the height of hubris and ignorance. We have far too many individuals right now who want to be on the Catholic speaking engagement circuit.

Dorota said...

It does not take a catholic to observe that a homosexual act is unnatural to rational beings, that it is misdirected, that it deviates from norm. Love requires that we desire what is best for another. It can not be best for another to engage in irrational, senseless activity, even if it gives them pleasure.

To a catholic (a rationally chosen identity in Michael Coren's case, at certain point in his life) pleasure is not a worthy goal. Salvation is, achieved through obedience to God and through following Jesus.
It takes a grown, rational catholic, to know the law of His God and the teaching of his Church.

To a person capable of using logic in thinking about God, Church. natural Law, norm and deviance, the fact of the occurrence of unnatural or unlawful desires doesn't annul the laws of nature. In a way it strengthens them. A lack of any unlawful and unnatural desires would make the Law, the Decalogue, sin, struggle for obedience and virtue, senseless. God is Wisdom, God's Law is not senseless. He created as free to disregard His Law.

Am I mistaken, is my reasoning wrong? If not, knowing that Michael Coren's level of intelligence is probably above average (by the grace of God) and possibly above my own, I have rational reasons to worry about him. It is rational of me to ask: What got into him? Who does he think we are, we witnessing his nonsense?

Brian said...

Vox

I have a copy of Why Catholics are Right. If it wasn't a gift from my son, I would have tossed it a couple of years ago, about the time Coren (peace be upon him) began "drifting", on Sun News and in his Catholic Insight articles. These statements, especially on homosexual issues, were signals that he was struggling, yet he kept up his speaking engagements, at Catholic gatherings$$$$$$$$

Anonymous said...

On Facebook, Father Paul Nicholson reported Raymond Arroyo cancelled his interview with Coren he also gave the following link to an article in The Catholic World Report: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/3851/michael_coren_goes_anglican_denounces_catholic_moral_teaching.aspx

Lynda said...

This says that Michael Coren was lying for years when purporting to uphold the unchangeable truths of the Faith and of morality. One either upholds the truth or one rejects the truth - the truth doesn't change. Mr Coren seems to have lost all logic. He didn't like the truth anymore and wanted it to be changed to suit. This man is under diabolic influence - shown by his lack of honesty, his distortion of truth and abuse of logic, and his desire to uphold grave and unnatural intrinsic evil.

Lynda said...

What on earth could cause such a subversion of reason, logic and aversion to objective truth, the unchangeable moral truth revealed by God and natural reason? Only the devil. May he repent and come back to God.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I had bought a couple of his books too. The logic he applied in those books has now been jettisoned by him. His soul is in great danger as he knows that what he is doIng is wrong but doesn't care.

Unknown said...

Michael Coren is a brave man who feels very deeply about his faith. I meet Michael recently and He is the man you see on Tv and read in columns. He is a man of conviction who made a difficult decision to go with the Anglitans. I am considering the same path. God bless and keep him well.

Michael Rogers