The overly suspicious hermeneutic of a conspiracy theorist.

I came across that line on another blog.

It just fits many people online today so well.  It's an attitude spiritual masters warn about.  Teresa of Avila often expressed exasperation with such a morbid spirituality, says she feared those who saw the devil behind every undertaking than the devil himself. 

It's good to know there are still healthy Catholics online.  The problem with many tradsters, as well as locution and private revelation junkies, is they live in a little Catholic bubble of sorts.  In turn, they judge and relegate their opponents into other little bubbles of identity, heresy, or whatever disqualifies them from communion with their perfectionist version of Catholicism.

There has been a parallel Church in existence, since the Council, which, according to the newest generation of devotee is spreading - especially among younger people.  I'd say trending, as opposed to spreading.  There is nothing wrong with that, except the more vocal among their online spokesman view everything through the lens of an overly suspicious hermeneutic of a conspiracy theorist.  They feel persecuted and sidelined, while on another level they reject anything to do with the post-Conciliar Church.  Especially Pope Francis.

(Art: Andrew Hunt)

I know I always write about this stuff and I am tired of doing so.  Yet Catholics online keep feeding this monster of misinformation and lies.  I just ran across a friend speculating on details of the Third Secret again.  The fake messages continue to be promulgated.  Feeding morbid curiosity and suspicion, adding to the confusion so many complain about in the Church.

Even priests and bishops can fall into this trap.  Some are misled by these Catholic conspiracy theories which spread  online.  The worst deception may be perpetrated by the locutionists they so easily give credence to, based upon some respected monsignor's claims about this one or that one.  If reading a horoscope, or doing yoga can open one to the occult, just imagine how following the locutions or private revelations of a dubious mystic or apparition can open one to delusion.  Is there no stable cardinal, bishop or priest to make the faithful understand this?  Aren't the fallen priests over the past few decades warning enough about these dangers?

Morbid fascination with apparitions and visionaries can lead one into error and away from the Church, which is why the Church has rules governing discernment of private revelations, in order to guard the faithful from error. Naturally, I'm thinking of the 'consecrate Russia' and everything will be fine theories, as well as blame the apostasy on the bad council/bad liturgy groups who are engaged in a war against so-called Catholic 'leftists' who support the Pope.

"Since the devil apes divine works, diabolical phenomena are known to occur at times among the mystics." (All quotations from Tanquerey.) "A revelation may be true in the main and yet contain some incidental errors." Thus, in private revelations the errors of the times as regards physical or historical science may get included in the interpretation of the revelations. So too the prejudices and training of the spiritual directors of the seers can affect the message. Details involving historical errors may also be introduced, sometimes arising from the seer's meditation or intelligence, often contradicting historical documents or revelations of the saints.

Private revelations may not only be wrongly interpreted, they "may be unwittingly altered by the seer himself as he attempts to explain, transcribe, record, or dictate the experiences to another. St. Brigid realized herself that at times she retouched her revelations, the better to explain them; such added explanations are not always free from errors. It is acknowledged today that the scribes who wrote the revelations of Mary of Agreda and Catherine Emmerich modified them to an extent difficult to determine." (Spiritual Life, Tanquerey, Book III, Chapter III.)

Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. - 1 Timothy 

What?