Vocabulary of Terms Commonly Used by Dissenters

Introduction

To better understand how the dissenters attack Church teachings and attempt to undermine them for replacement by their own man-made (or woman-made) faith, it is very helpful to be aware of the vocabulary (or vernacular) used. When one belongs to a particular group, one generally takes on the terminology used by that group. To illustrate, a practicing Catholic would speak of God the Father, Jesus, God the Son, Sacraments (e.g. Confession and Holy Communion), Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist, holiness, Our Lady, saints, virtue, beatitudes, charity, devotion, prayer, the Rosary and such. Therefore, one way to help discern if a person is a dissenter is to listen how they speak or read how they write. Such discernment is necessary because the dissenters work via verbal subterfuge rather than clearly and openly as Jesus taught [8]. This article intends to act as a guide to help in such discernment. Prayer, of course, along with study of the Catholic Faith, and most importantly actual practice of the Faith are the only practical means by which accurate discernment becomes possible.

Methods of Dissenter "Newspeak" [1]

There are several ways in which dissenters market their plot for the destruction of Truth. As the Church was warned millennia ago, the darkness masquerades as light and truth [9]. Since error spouted by dissenters would be obvious to those practicing their Catholic Faith, they carefully package their opinions into nicely sounding words to convince one of their positions. Discourses from "experts" who make (secular) rationalistic arguments intend to convince one of the relativistic truth of a matter are widely promulgated. Essentially, dissenters market error (e.g. heresy) and sin, all under the guise of good. Unfortunately, many Catholics do not practice their Faith, and therefore being partially blinded by lukewarmness (which Jesus does not approve [4]), may fall for the cleverly marketed dissident beliefs. However, it is one's duty to know truth from error and to avoid being part of a dissenting organization. Some dissenters say that it is appropriate to fight against the teachings of the Church. This is patently false, as shown by the Church's response in Biblical times:

Ephesians 5:6-10 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord."

1 Timothy 6:3-5 "If any one teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit, he knows nothing; he has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions,  and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain."

Galatians 5:19-21 "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit,  envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Acts 15:1-11 "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.  ...  The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, "...  Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." (the Pope settles the doctrinal matter with a declaration!)

1 Corinthians 5: 9-13 "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber--not even to eat with such a one.  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Drive out the wicked person from among you."

Commonly used dissenter "Newspeak" vocabulary tactics include:

• Use the word "Catholic" in their claimed religious affiliation or organization title. One example is 'Catholics for a Free Choice.' Just because the word Catholic is used doesn't mean an organization believes in or follows Catholic teaching. One must understand their mission and goals to discern the truth.
• Invent a new word, carefully chosen to elicit a feeling of negativity or imposing a phantom guilt. A good example is 'homophobia.'
• Usurp an existing word's meaning and change it's definition, but without explicitly telling you that their vocabulary has a different definition. An example is 'marriage,' and what types of "unions" are in the definition of a dissenter's version of 'marriage' versus the Church taught husband and wife.
• Choose words which on the surface appear acceptable but do not express the true meaning or intent. A good example is "reproductive health."

Commonly Used Vocabulary and Their Meanings (in Alphabetical Order)

The following listing of terms that have been gathered from various dissenter produced materials. By no means is this intended to be a complete list, or if the term is found in spoken or written material, certainty of the author's dissension from Catholic teaching is not guaranteed. In some cases, the term itself is more obviously related to dissent, such as feminist theology, while other terms depend on their context of use, such as the term rights. If you find a term not listed here, please document its usage and send it to the author so that this list may be updated.

Conscience

See Freedom of Conscience.

Common Ground

Common Ground is closely associated with dialogue, that being a set of compromise beliefs where we all just try to get along. This is catch-phrase for a false ecumenism built on a platform of pluralism.

Dialogue

Dialogue is a term that dissenters twist from its true meaning in Vatican II teachings regarding ecumenism. The dissenters intent is to modify the Truths of the Catholic Faith, via dialogue with other religions, to support their belief in pluralism. One well known forum for such dialogue is the "Common Ground" project by the late Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago. Other common phrases along this line are "can't we all just get along?" and "I'm OK, you're OK." Vatican II teaches that dialogue is the method by which Catholics are to better understand the non-Catholic Christians' point of view specifically to be better able to explain the fullness of the Catholic Truth. By no means is dialogue intended to change the Catholic Truth, but rather to help our separated brethren understand the real Truth. [14] As the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen so succinctly states; " Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is."

Dignity

Dignity is a word whose definition has been usurped and re-marketed to commonly mean support of homosexual behavior. In fact, the name of an active homosexual dissenter group is called Dignity/USA. In the more general case, dissenters use of the term dignity has been to support pluralism via uninhibited freedom of conscience. It is true that persons have dignity as taught by Vatican II (see Dignitatis Humanae), however this does not mean that a person's behavior is at all dignified. What does Vatican II teach?

It is in accordance with their dignity as persons--that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility--that all men should be at once impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth.

True dignity then means to learn the Truth and live your life according to it. Homosexual acts degrade the dignity of the person and have been condemned by the God and His Church, going back thousands of years to the Old Testament Biblical times.

Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is a Wicca-like belief system which worships Mother Earth and nature. According to one ecofeminist, it is: "Feminist environmental philosophy that draws parallels between the oppression of women and the oppression of Nature by patriarchy and which advocates the spiritual and political liberation of both." This self-definition makes it obviously pagan, and Liberation Theology borrows the Marxist liberation concept. The Catholic Church tells us to worship God, and not the earth (with a lowercase 'e').

Ecumenism

Ecumenism, which is focused on unifying the Christian churches, has been twisted by the dissenters into meaning support of pluralism. Vatican II (Unitatis Redintegratio) defines Ecumenism thusly: "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only." While dissenters pursue a Protestantization of the Catholic Church, where "democratically" elected clergy and women priestesses run rampant along with voting on doctrine, Vatican II pursues ecumenism as God wants it, that being according to Catholic principles. Vatican II succinctly warns us about the fundamental problem of Protestantism:

"However, many Christian communions present themselves to men as the true inheritors of Jesus Christ; all indeed profess to be followers of the Lord but differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ Himself were divided. Such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature."

What are the Catholic principles? Essentially they are to bring the separated brethren into the one true Catholic Faith [13]. Dissenters instead practice pluralism in which dialogue is pushed to compromise the Truth of the Catholic Faith with that of the Protestants. Rather than help the Protestants understand the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the dissenters promote that Catholics should accept errors from Protestant (or other) faiths in the spirit of compromise, as if the doctrine of the Church is a result of human reasoning or democratic vote. Vatican II, then, defines true ecumenism as working to incorporate all people into the Catholic Faith:

"For it is only through Christ's Catholic Church, which is 'the all-embracing means of salvation,' that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation. We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God."

Note that true Catholic ecumenism is also directed at achieving unity with the Eastern Churches, the Orthodox Christians, who split from the Church of Rome in 1054. However, dissenters are not generally concerned with them.

Empower

Empower is a term focused on the ability to choose, that being closely tied to a person's right. The typical dissenter usage focuses on the ability to choose error, that being pluralism via uninhibited freedom of conscience. As Vatican II teaches (see Dignity), Catholics are obligated to search for the Truth, and once found, live their lives by it. The Catholic Church possesses said Truth and therefore all Catholics are obligated for their very salvation to live their lives in the Truth (singular, not pluralism).

Feminist / Feminism

A feminist is a person, usually female but not necessarily, who believes in the concept of feminism, which is a belief that a fundamental principle of all human societies, sex-role differentiation, is essentially an arrangement by which some human beings oppress others. The oppressors are men in power, via a patriarchal society. Its aim is thus to create a new kind of human being living in a new form of society based on new ties among men, women and children, reconstituted in accordance with their ideological demands. This is the Feminism itself is a divisive belief since it flows from the concept that patriarchal men have for thousands of years oppressed women who must now fight to claim their rights at any cost. Feminism inherently pits woman against man, rather than following the Catholic teaching that men and women are of equal dignity, but do have different roles in society. What is important to understand is that feminism does not equate to femininity.

Feminist Theology

Feminist theology emerged with the assertion that traditional theology is grounded in the experience of socially and politically dominant men. As such, traditional theology is believed to assume that men's experience is normative for all of humanity. Their claim that the existence of an "andocentric" bias is a serious theological problem and feminist theologians attempt to develop alternatives for theological reflection. There is no one predominant feminist theology, but rather a variety of feminist theologies based upon women's experience of life and God. Given that feminist theology is experience oriented, that is a creation of humans, it clearly goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church which, in Vatican II, states that the Catholic Faith has been Divinely revealed by God [10]. Experience-based religious belief systems always demand the concept of pluralism and its sister tolerance because everyone has different experiences, and therefore these different experiences lead to different views of theology, i.e. each to her own. Feminist theology is also behind the promotion of goddess, a long-time pagan concept, and seeks to remove the so-called andocentric theological bias through implementation of "inclusive language," "God the Mother" and "SophiaChrist."

Freedom of Conscience

Freedom of Conscience is a term that dissenters twist from its true meaning as described in Vatican II. They would have you believe that freedom of conscience means that a person can choose to do anything they want. Essentially, freedom of conscience is a means to practice pluralism. Although some dissenters also add the qualifier of "without harm to the other person," that is clearly false. For example, abortionists and women who choose abortion purportedly claim their right as enabled by freedom of conscience but it is obvious that an innocent unborn baby is killed. This is a real example of [16] whereby those in power - the adults - force their erroneous belief on a person incapable of defending himself at the cost of his very life - the baby. Dissenters always quote the Vatican II Dignitatis Humanae opening statement:

"A sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary man, and the demand is increasingly made that men should act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a responsible freedom, not driven by coercion but motivated by a sense of duty."

Does this mean that anything goes, as long as one acts on his or her own judgment? That is what dissenters want, who further claim that the "restrictive old-fashioned" teachings of the Church are coercive and oppressing their right to choose. Of course, Vatican II teaches otherwise. Dissenters fail to - or most likely refuse to - heed the remainder of #1 of Dignitatis Humanae:

First, the council professes its belief that God Himself has made known to mankind the way in which men are to serve Him, and thus be saved in Christ and come to blessedness. We believe that this one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men. Thus He spoke to the Apostles: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined upon you" (Matt. 28: 19-20). On their part, all men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and His Church, and to embrace the truth they come to know, and to hold fast to it.

This Vatican Council likewise professes its belief that it is upon the human conscience that these obligations fall and exert their binding force. The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power.

Lumen Gentium #36 explicitly requires the conscience to be Catholic and for the Catholic conscience to guide every action of the person all the time - no exceptions:

"Because of the very economy of salvation the faithful should learn to distinguish carefully between the rights and the duties which they have as belonging to the Church and those which fall to them as members of the human society. They will strive to unite the two harmoniously, remembering that in every temporal affair they are to be guided by a Christian conscience, since not even in temporal business may any human activity be withdrawn from God's dominion."

So how are Catholic consciences formed? Vatican II Dignitatis Humanae #14 tells us clearly:

"In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church. [Cf. Pius XII, radio message, March 23, 1952: AAS 44 (1952) pp. 270-278] For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth. It is her duty to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself, and also to declare and confirm by her authority those principles of the moral order which have their origins in human nature itself."

So Vatican II states obviously that humans can know how to behave via the Truths taught by the Church, that they are obligated to learn said Truths, and to live their lives - via a properly formed and informed Catholic conscience - according to those Truths.

Sedevacantists often pick on one point that they use to claim that the Vatican II Council is invalid, that being on religious freedom. They believe that in the past, many Popes have taught that religious freedom is against the teachings of the Church. Quoting again Dignitatis Humanae:

Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.

Simply put, what Vatican II teaches is that the unchanging Catholic doctrine is still, has always been, and always will be - in effect. Vatican II is by no means inconsistent with past Church teachings. What is made crystal clear is that civil society may not coerce a religious belief, such as forced in atheistic communist China, and that individuals cannot be forced to believe the Truth, even the Catholic Faith of the One True God. The Catholic Church is obligated to teach the Truth to the best of its ability, but the bottom line is that God endowed each person with a free will, and that person must - by that same free will - accept the Truth. Faith is a gift which must be accepted by the person, and it cannot be shoved down their throat. A person can refuse the gift of Faith, and their soul will suffer the consequences of their choices for all eternity after their particular judgment after death.

Those dissenters who want to "change the Catholic Faith" are really people who reject the gift of Faith and want to take others down with them - misery loves company as they say. Here we learn how totally hypocritical are the dissenters. True Catholics have the right to the Truth as taught by the Church. Dissenters are trying to coerce the Church to accept their errors and opinions which thereby pollutes the Catholic Faith. Therefore, by oppressing the Truth, the dissenters deny a true Catholic's right to a pure and proper Catholic Faith, which leads to eternal salvation. Obstinate dissenters should convert to the Truth or, failing that, just leave the Church and go find a religion which suits their pluralistic fancy. Of course, the father of lies, the author of dissension, [17] doesn't want dissenters to leave because his plan is to destroy Jesus Christ's Church. (interesting side thought: do feminists want a female devil too? We never hear about that!) Just remember that your soul has eternal consequences to pay for its choices.

Gaia

Gaia is another name for Mother Earth. The name "Gaia" refers to an ancient Greek goddess of the earth who was the mother of the Titans that ruled the universe until overthrown by Zeus. Some have proposed a "Gaia Hypothesis" as first stated by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in 1972 and now considered, by some, to be the "Gaia Theory." This theory states, in harmony with Wicca and pantheism, that that the dense network of mutual interactions between the organic and inorganic portions of the earth's surface form a single system, a kind of mega-organism, a living planet, named after the Greek goddess recognizable as an archetype (Jung) of the earth mother. According to the Gaia hypothesis, we are parts of a greater whole. Purportedly science is underway to prove this theory. In Catholic doctrine, nothing can be found about the earth being alive, rather it was created by God to support life, plant, animal, and human.

Gender equality

Gender equality is a feminist misnomer erected as a divisive barrier to pit men against women. The typical dissenter usage focuses on the feminist's desire to become a priestess. They purport a belief that disallowing women as priests is oppression, discrimination and gender inequality, therefore the only way for gender equality is to have women priestesses. The Holy Father has made an infallible declaration that women can never be priests in Jesus Christ's Catholic Church, but that has not stopped the feminist dissenters from whining. Their latest tactic has been to try and breach the Church's teaching by pushing women deacons, who feminists claim where ordained in the early Church. What feminists refuse to acknowledge is the actual role for women "deacons" as defined in the early Church. Women were never ordained in any manner in the Church. At that time, Baptism was done via full immersion of the person, so a woman "deacon" was used to assist a woman who was getting baptized to avoid any scandals with male priests and Bishops. Since Baptism no longer requires full immersion, the woman "deacon" role is no longer needed.

Homophobia

This is an invented word which asserts that anyone who does not accept active homosexuality as "proper" or "normal" (rather than the grave sin that it really is) has a problem. Notice the use of "homo" combined with the suffix "phobia" which is intended to increase credibility by implying this is a scientifically researched medical term. It is not. The suffix "phobia" imposes a problem on the person who believes what the Catholic Church teaches since that implies the person is "sick" and needs to be "healed" of his apparently deplorable "condition." Furthermore, the true Catholic believer is pressured to feel guilty if he doesn't accept the blatant homosexual "healing" agenda.

Inclusive / Inclusiveness

The dictionary defines inclusive as "taking everything into account, comprehensive, or including the limits specified." Dissenters distort the meaning to one that, as usual, creates divisiveness by implying any person who does not agree with the dissenters' position is practicing "exclusiveness," that meaning the disagreeing person is oppressing the dissenters' rights or looking to withhold some rights from the dissenter. The usual topic hidden within this is the feminist drive for women priestesses, and is just another coercive angle for the gender equality divisive argument. The other dissenter topic hinged on inclusiveness is the feminist plot to change the very name of God, which is covered in the Inclusive Language article. What the dissenters refuse to take into account when considering everything - the proper definition of inclusive - is God's Will and His plan. God speaks to us through His Church, and His Church requires a Christo-centric priesthood. Vatican II Lumen Gentium states:

#12. "By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium), and obeying it, receives not the mere word of men, but truly the word of God (cf. 1 Th. 2:13), the faith once for all delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3). The People unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life."

Inclusive Language

The term inclusive as applied to Liturgical language is actually a misnomer, an invention of the feminists who want to change the very name of God. Instead of God the Father, feminists want "God the Mother" and to erase all references to masculine pronouns with reference to God. This is all consistent with Feminist Theology. For an in-depth discussion, see the Vertical Inclusive Language article.

Intolerance

See Tolerance.

Liberate / Liberation / Liberty

Liberty in the dissident sense has been to obtain freedom from oppression via unrestricted rights as choices with total freedom of conscience. The dissenter cry of liberty is marketed to help obtain their practice of pluralism, after all who could argue against liberty? This freedom from oppression concept is woven throughout the Church condemned Liberation Theology. Vatican II does speak of liberty. Starting with Chapter IV - The Laity in Lumen Gentium, Vatican II tells us that true Catholic liberty are the following freedoms: [18]

• from sin and eternal death (avoid hell),
• to pursue a life of holiness and enter Heaven - to become a son of God,
• to practice the one true religion to worship the One True God, uninhibited by secular / societal coercion,
• to remedy secular institutions to conform to God's justice, which favors the practice of virtue instead of sin,
• to receive in abundance the help of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially that of the word of God and the sacraments from the pastors.

Marriage

Marriage is a term that dissenters have quietly twisted to mean something quite abnormal in two ways. First, that marriage is just another matter of choice such that divorce and remarriage is allowed by said choice. Second, and much more disgusting, is that marriage is defined as any "union" between two consenting people, whether of the same sex of not. One dissenter organization called Rent-a-priest performs "ceremonies" for such abominable homosexual unions. Those supporting such homosexual unions further demand that children be part of the so-called "family." Obviously, adoption is the only choice here since homosexual unions cannot beget children naturally. Of course, one can imagine that gene manipulation and cloning will be used in the future to "create" children for such a "couple." The Church teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that it is indissoluble. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 19:5-6 "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."

Mother Earth

Mother Earth is a personified, deified name for our planet that is one instance of Sacred Creation - the essential phrase which embodies ecofeminism. One will notice the capitalization of the words which confirms the naming aspect. The 'Mother' reference pleases the feminists while the term itself shares a belief consistent with pagan religions of Wicca and Taoism. While creation is good because it comes from God, creation itself is not a person nor is it sacred. Jesus tells us how much more important are people than creation in Matthew 12:12; "How much better is a man than a sheep?" While dissenters reverence the creation of "Mother Earth," true Catholics specially venerate (hyper-dulia in Latin) our Blessed Mother Mary (see Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium, starting with #52). Lastly, one will notice that dissenters always downplay or ignore, whether in their theology or beliefs, Our Lady as our true Mother.

Oppression

Oppression is the sword wielded by dissenters to cut through the Church teachings - which come from God Himself - and enter into realm of error. Dissenters inherently believe that God's Commandments and morality are oppressive and want the freedom to choose sin, although they claim to choose personal good via freedom of conscience as their true guide. The condemned Liberation Theology is also driven by the freedom from oppression concept. What is true oppression? It is the obscuring of the Truths of God, such that a person becomes spiritually blind and falls into sin. The world, and the prince of this world, satan, has always wanted to oppress God's Truth. Vatican II tells us in Lumen Gentium that:

#7. " On earth, still as pilgrims in a strange land, following in trial and in oppression the paths he [Jesus] trod, we are associated with his sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may be glorified (cf. Rom. 8:17)."

#8. " Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to men."

#27. " [the Bishop] taken from among men and oppressed by the weakness [towards sin] that surrounds him, he can compassionate those who are ignorant and erring (cf. Heb. 5:1-2)."

Papist

Papist is a denigrating term invented to describe anyone who obeys the Pope and his rightful promulgation of the teachings of the Church. Prior to the modernist infection of the contemporary Church, a person who obeys the Pope would simply be called "Catholic." The hidden and implicit underpinning of such a term is one of "choice" whereby obeying the Pope is just one "choice" from many beliefs (see pluralism). This term also imposes a defensive position on faithful Catholic who is required to obey the Pope since "choice" via " freedom of conscience" is implicitly marketed as a better method of Faith. Vatican II clearly states that all the faithful are always to obey the Pope - see Lumen Gentium #25.

Patriarchal

Patriarchal is another denigrating term promoted by feminists who cause division between men and women. Dissenters typical usage of Patriarchal is to simultaneously attack the all-male priesthood and the hierarchical nature of the Church leadership. The former is viewed by feminists as an affront to women since their self-proclaimed 'right' to "priestess-hood" is being 'oppressed.' The Church teaches infallibly that the priesthood is a male-only role because Jesus Christ is male and the priest acts "in personna Christi" which means in the very person of Christ. Of course the feminists are pursuing the 'female christ' called "SophiaChrist." The latter attack against the hierarchical nature of the Church is to push a "democratic version" of the Catholic Church. What is clear is that such dissenters, while spouting the Spirit of Vatican II, refuse to accept the direct teaching of Vatican II in that the Church is hierarchical! Begin with Chapter III #18 of Lumen Gentium or see the shorter subset reference [12] for proof. Many Protestant churches support both women clergy and doctrine by democratic vote - why don't the dissenters move into those churches?

Pluralism

Pluralism is the concept whereby many belief systems exist and that each one, with its set of rules, is equivalent to another. Popular belief systems hatched from pluralism include "situation ethics" and the modernistic, but false, version of ecumenism whereby "one religion is as good as another." Co-dependent with pluralism is " freedom of conscience " since with many belief systems to choose from, a person requires " freedom of conscience " to pick what belief system best suits that person, which is considered their "right." Vatican II specifically teaches that the Catholic Church has the complete fullness of Truth, and that it is the (singular!) Church founded personally by Jesus Christ [11]. There is one true Church and one true Faith. Pluralism has clearly been condemned throughout Church history, all the way back to Biblical times as shown by the Scripture at the start of this article (see also Unity). In the dissenter view, pluralism is proposed as a good concept and positions those that deny its validity as "oppressive" or "intolerant" or "denying persons their rights." Usually, pluralism is not spoken of directly, but is instead peddled primarily through the indirect means of "freedom of conscience." The Church teaches that pluralism, which inherently lacks the concept of a transcendent unchanging Truth, leads to a totalitarian society. [16]

Pro-Choice

Pro-Choice is the innocent sounding term for support of abortion, which is the killing of an innocent unborn child. As any true Catholic knows, abortion is clearly against the teachings of the church. In fact, what may be less well known is that anyone who obtains or actively participates in performing abortions is automatically excommunicated (Canon 1398), which also means that they do not have access to the Sacraments except for Confession to obtain forgiveness (after true repentance from their grave sin). As with the other "choice" related dissident terms, pro-choice is marketed as as positive, which cleverly reinforces the other dissident beliefs of "rights" and " freedom of conscience " (pluralism). Pro-choice inherently establishes a divisive atmosphere since dissidents utter negatives of "anti-choice," "oppressive" or "denying their rights" against anyone who disagrees with support of abortion.

Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights

Reproductive health is the innocent sounding term for artificial birth control. Some artificial birth control methods are actually abortions in disguise, such as the "morning after pill." Reproductive rights is simply the assertion that Catholics can choose to use artificial birth control, which is directly against Church teachings.

Rights

The dissenter clamor for Rights is their basis for a pluralistic religion via uninhibited freedom of conscience. God our Father did create us with a right to choose - that being called our free will. With this free will, each of us is expected to choose good, that is to obey God's rules as taught by His Church. Jesus says quite plainly; "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ... He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."  ... "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." (John 14:15,21,23-24). While an individual can choose error and evil, with a consequence of eternal hell for unrepentant dissenters, the demand of dissenters is to force the Church to sanction such error and evil by changing it's teachings to conform to such error. They do this by twisting the real meaning of Vatican II, which teaches many things about human rights. The primary teaching distorted by dissenters is the right to religion freedom as described in Dignitatis Humanae. See the discussion under freedom of conscience for details.

Sacred Creation

Sacred Creation is the dissenter's phrase for raising creation to a level of deification. This concept is consistent with Pantheism and Wiccan belief systems. While creation is good because God made it (Genesis 1:31), reverencing or worshipping it is simple idolatry. Bringing nature to the same level as humans is just as bad. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) #343; "Man is the summit of the Creator's works, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures (Genesis 1:26)." CCC #342 tells us clearly "the hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the 'six days,' from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures (Psalm 145:9) and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: 'Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!' (Mt 12:12, Lk 12:6-7)"

The way such subtle idolatry is peddled is cleverly disguised under the "eco" (ecology) label. Eco-concerns are pushed and blown out of proportion. For example, such dissenters spend much time supporting whale saving while at the same time support child killing via abortion. "Eco" is also a key driver in the belief system of eco-feminism or the more general eco-spirituality. It is true that humans, as the stewards of the earth, are to take care of it. Unnecessary pollution or destruction of the environment are not good. However, the earth is not sacred, nor does it take priority over the salvation of human souls.

Spirit of Vatican II

Spirit of Vatican II has become an infamous phrase that has become the mantra of modernist dissenters everywhere who pretend that Vatican II supports their beliefs. Many dissenters use this mantra without any specific backing behind it, while others quote various texts of Vatican II which, taken in isolation and on the surface, appear to support the dissenting beliefs. Some also claim that certain non-Vatican II documents, such as those which "require" Church building "modernization" to be completed, including the moving (or hiding) of the the Tabernacle from the most conspicuous place in Church and removing Communion rails or kneelers to prohibit kneeling. In fact, some of these documents are nothing more than an internal Bishops committee document which have no binding weight or authority. A real Catholic follows the actual Vatican II teachings, not the "Spirit of Vatican II."

Spirituality

Spirituality is a generic term of worship that pagan religions also have. True Catholics pursue spirituality that brings holiness.

Tolerance

Tolerance and its flip-side intolerance are often-used terms. Dissenters market tolerance as a good quality that all persons should have, while they label as intolerant those who do not accept their dissenting views. One would expect this because obstinate sinners do not like their sinfulness exposed to the light of Truth [5]. Therefore, anyone possessing the Truth as revealed by God through His Catholic Church is to be denigrated so as to silence them. A good Catholic knows that fraternal correction is not only an act of genuine love for the sinner, but an actual obligation as revealed to us by Jesus Himself [2] [3]. Further looking into the Bible also shows the only time that tolerance is used is for the negative sense, that being where wickedness (i.e. sin) is not tolerated [6]. Pluralism requires "tolerance" because, given that anyone can choose any belief, a relative "truth" defined for one person is different than a relative "truth" for another.

Unity

Unity as used by dissenters is twisted to mean acceptance of pluralism, whereas in Catholic teaching unity means that all have the same beliefs. The CCC explains the real meaning of Catholic unity:

CCC #815  What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in perfect harmony." [Col 3:14] But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible bonds of communion: profession of one faith received from the Apostles; common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments; apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God's family. [Cf. Unitatis Redintegratio 2; Lumen Gentium 14; CIC, can. 205.]

Jesus asks God our Father that we may all be unified and tells us that division brings down the house of God.

John 17:11  "And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one."

Luke 11:17  "But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls."

Mark 3:24-25   "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand."

Matthew 12:25  "Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand;"

Vocabulary Noticeably Absent in Dissenter Material (in Alphabetical Order)

The following listing of terms is noticeably absent in any material available from dissenters. The Truth of these words are oppressed because they remind one of the call to truly live the Catholic Faith which would result in salvation, that being with God in Heaven for all eternity. But it is the method of the prince of this world, the father of lies [17], satan, to oppress Truth and introduce error instead.

Confession

To a dissenter, Confession is an old-fashioned Sacrament which is no longer needed. Of course, when one doesn't worry about sin, there is correspondingly no need for Confession or repentance. How many dissenters at a Call to Action conference go to Confession? What's even worse, how many priests at a Call to Action conference even believe in or offer individual Confession? Typically, dissenting laity who still think that some form of Confession is necessary go to dissenting priests who offer invalid "general absolutions."

Devil

The devil, also known as satan or the father of lies [17], is our adversary, our mortal enemy. He lives in hell and wants to drag us down there with him so that we are prevented from living with God in Heaven. With such an enemy, it's no wonder that knowledge of the devil is oppressed by dissenters. It has been said that the devil's greatest victory is convincing us that he doesn't exist. After all, how can one fight an unknown enemy? 

CCC #392  "Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. [Cf. 2 Pet 2:4] This 'fall' consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: 'You will be like God.' [Gen 3:5] The devil 'has sinned from the beginning'; he is 'a liar and the father of lies.' [Jn 3:8; Jn 8:44] ."

 

CCC #409  "This dramatic situation of 'the whole world which is in the power of the evil one' [1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pet 5:8] makes man's life a battle: The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity. [Gaudium et Spes 37 ß 2]"

Heaven

Heaven is our true home for all eternity, where we live with God in perfect happiness. But we do have to work for it, as the Bible tells us: "Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-39). By the suppression of Heaven, dissenters help us to forget our true goal for life on earth. After all, one doesn't work towards something one doesn't know. The CCC explains:

CCC #1023 Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God forever, for they "see him as he is, "face to face:[596]

 

By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints ... and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, ... or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, ...) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature.[597] 

 

CCC #1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

Hell

Hell is the dreadful place where unrepentant sinners, those that hate God, choose to spend their eternity after death. Some dissenters maintain the belief that God is too kind to send anyone to hell. They are partly correct, since God does not send anyone to hell, but rather the sinful soul chooses hell by its own free will. The reality of hell is suppressed so that a person living do-what-you-feel-like life based on uninhibited freedom of conscience is not reminded of the eternal consequences. The CCC explains:

CCC #1033  "We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.' [1 John 3:14-15] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. [Cf. Matthew 254:31-46] To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called 'hell' ."

Holiness / Holy

Holiness is a term never seen in dissenter material. Rather it has been replaced by the generic term Spirituality. Holiness is totally focused on becoming like Christ by perfecting our charity and practicing the Virtues, that is Christ-centered. Spirituality of dissenters is instead a self-centered focus, that being self-improvement via occult concepts like the Enneagram.

CCC #2013 "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity." [Lumen Gentium 40 ß 2] All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." [Mt 5:48]

 

In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so that ... doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints. [Lumen Gentium 40 ß 2]

 

CCC #2014  Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments - "the holy mysteries" and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.

CCC #2015  The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. [Cf. 2 Tim 4] Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:

He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows. [St. Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. in Cant. 8: PG 44, 941C]

Redemption

Redemption allows us to obtain salvation. The redemption satisfied God's justice for our sins by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross and gained grace for humans. Since redemption was necessary based on our sin and the concept of sin is oppressed by dissenters, it is no wonder why the term redemption is also oppressed.

Repentance

Repentance means to feel contrition for our sins and to renounce our sinful behavior. Given that dissenters don't pay attention to sin, there is no pressing need for repentance in their typical belief system. With pluralistic beliefs of relative "truths," there is nothing to repent from - everything is "OK!" - we "need to be tolerant." Because sin is a reality, repentance is required.

CCC #1439  The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father:[37] the fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father's generous welcome; the father's joy - all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life - pure, worthy, and joyful - of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.

Saint

A declared saint is a person officially recognized by the Church as one who lived a heroically virtuous life and achieved a great degree of holiness. The Church declares a person to be a saint through the process of canonization. Obviously then, a saint lives in Heaven with God. Since Holiness is oppressed, anyone reminding them of such a goal - the saint - is also oppressed. The other key loss resulting from such oppression is that of intercession and assistance. Some might remember patron saints, whereby various saints offer assistance via our prayer to them for particular issues. For example, St. Anthony helps find lost items, St. Christopher helps assure safe travel, and St. Thomas More helps with legal matters.

CCC #828  By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors.[303] "The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church's history."[304] Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal."[305]

Saints are an important part of the Church. The constant cry for renewal comes from the mouths of the dissenters, yet true renewal in the Church is derived from saints that God has raised up. If you want to renew the Church, get holy, live in Virtue, and only then get into the renewal process. Since dissenters skip the holiness requirement, their renewal is nothing more than a false man-made corruption, inspired by satan.

 

The saints in the Church Triumphant are in Heaven, where we are the Church Militant still living on earth working out our salvation, while the holy souls in Purgatory are the Church suffering.

CCC #1949  "Called to beatitude but wounded by sin, man stands in need of salvation from God. Divine help comes to him in Christ through the law that guides him and the grace that sustains him:  Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. [Phil. 2:12-13]"

Salvation

Salvation essentially means to obtain Heaven and live with God forever, which is the purpose for which we were created (to know, love and serve God forever). Salvation is possible only because of the redemption by Jesus Christ. Salvation is oppressed by dissenters, yet it is our first and foremost goal on this earth, to obtain Heaven, and it reminds us of our sin and required redemption by Jesus Christ. By oppressing the very truth of our existence, the dissenters have an easier time also oppressing the idea of sin and holiness. The CCC explains:

CCC# 54  God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning." [Dei Verbum 3; cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 1:19-20] He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.

 

CCC# 55  This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God] buoyed them up with the hope of salvation,  by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing." [Dei Verbum 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7]

 

Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the power of death .... Again and again you offered a covenant to man. [Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118]

Satan

Satan is one of several names for the chief devil, the others being the father of lies [17] or Beelzebub. See the devil section for the discussion.

Sin

Sin is practically impossible to a dissenter. This is because when one follows the belief system of pluralism, there is no absolute right or wrong, no objective Truth by which to measure anything. Without absolute standards or rules for behavior, sin, which is defined as choosing to go against God's absolutely objective and good teachings, becomes irrelevant. As Pope John Paul II keenly notices today, society has lost the sense of sin. However, sin is very real. The CCC makes it perfectly clear that those who deny the Revelation of God, as dissenters do as shown above, will not recognize sin. The dissenter clamor for freedom to exercise their rights is actually an abuse of the freedom God gives us.

CCC #386-387  Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.

Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.

The dissenters clearly oppress anything in which they do not believe. The Bible reminds us very specifically that anyone who claims they do not sin is a liar and will not go to Heaven.

1 John 2:4-5 "He who says 'I know him' but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected."

Soul

The soul is the spirit part of a human, who has also a body, which is the material part. The soul lives after death, while the body decays into dust. At the end of the world in the final resurrection, our soul will be reunited with our body, making it glorified, and we will live forever either in Heaven if we have followed God, or in hell if we have followed satan. By oppressing discussion of the soul, it is much easier to divert a person's attention to live for the experiences of the world and for their feelings rather than on the difficult spiritual battle to become holy.

CCC #1702-1703  The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the union of the divine persons among themselves (cf. chapter two). Endowed with "a spiritual and immortal" soul, [Gaudium et Spes 14 ß 2] the human person is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake." [Gaudium et Spes 24 ß 3] From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.

Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary, our Mother and perfect model for living in virtue to achieve holiness. As discussed in the Vertical Inclusive Language article, dissenters oppress our true Mother to replace Her with a pagan "Mother Earth." It is Our Lady who gives birth - via Her charity - to the believers in the Church.

CCC #829 "But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary": in her, the Church is already the "all-holy."

 

CCC #963 Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary ... is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer.... She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ' ... since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." [Lumen Gentium 53; cf. St. Augustine, De virg. 6: PL 40, 399] "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church." [Paul VI, Discourse, November 21, 1964.]

Virtue

A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions (See Corporal Works of Mercy and Spiritual Works of Mercy). The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. See the Faith section on Virtues for details. Dissenters do not focus on becoming more Christ-like, but instead just want their opinions stated as "faith facts," and hence oppress this knowledge as well.

Obtaining Your Consent

Once the seed of accepting error and its resulting sin has been planted using the deceptive vocabulary, the dissenters then work on getting your buy-in. They will use whatever methods are believed to obtain the maximum impact, especially those that appear to increase their own credibility. They use many tactics for this, as shown below. However, there are always defenses against such error, that being the Truth taught by the Church. Dissenters:

• Denigrate the teaching Authority of the Church, who is the Pope and Magisterium, and claim they are "old-fashioned," therefore requiring a change to be brought "up-to-date." This is simply Modernism, which has been succinctly condemned by the Church. What dissenters refuse to accept, deliberately or perhaps innocently (hard to believe), is that the method of teaching the Church Truths can change, but the Truth itself does not change. Vatican II did not promulgate any new dogma, it just repeated what the Church had already taught. The often stated "pastoral nature" of the Council is the essence of Vatican II, which is focused changing the method of how the Church teaches, and not the teachings themselves.

• Attempt to prove that the teachings of the Church have changed over time, and therefore the dissident promoted belief is just one of a continually changing set of beliefs.

• Promote opinions of various theologians and clergy (i.e. priests and Bishops) to substantiate their claims while simultaneously denigrating the teaching authority of the Church. First, the theologians promoted are always liberal and are those that teach error, such as Rahner about the Eucharist. Second, a belief is not necessarily proper because a priest or Bishop says so. What most Catholics do not know is that nearly all the heresies in the past have come from clergy! There are many examples, a few being:

  • Arius, the Bishop of Nicomedia, was the source of Arianism, a heresy which arose in the fourth century that denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Many Bishops of Asia Minor and Syria took part in supporting this heresy.
  • Nestorius, a Bishop in fifth century, argued against the teaching that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos).
  • Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism (Lutherans today), was a priest.

  No matter what highfalutin logical argument or rank and number of clergy or theologian who promulgates said argument as the "truth," the sure norm we Catholics have is the teaching authority of the Church as the source of Truth. Bishops are required to adhere to the Truth also, and do not 'create' doctrinal Truth. Vatican II Lumen Gentium states:

  #12: By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium), and obeying it, receives not the mere word of men, but truly the word of God (cf. 1 Th. 2:13), the faith once for all delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3). The People unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life.

  #18: In order that the episcopate itself, however, might be one and undivided he put Peter at the head of the other apostles, and in him he set up a lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion. This teaching concerning the institution, the permanence, the nature and import of the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and his infallible teaching office, the sacred synod proposes anew to be firmly believed by all the faithful, and, proceeding undeviatingly with this same undertaking, it proposes to proclaim publicly and enunciate clearly the doctrine concerning bishops, successors of the apostles, who together with Peter's successor, the Vicar of Christ and the visible head of the whole Church, direct the house of the living God.

  What is ironic is that the dissenters would have you believe that their supporting prelates have the truth, but that the teaching authority of the Church does not. Yet these same prelates are obligated to submit to that same teaching authority of the Church.

• Use lobbying techniques of "political pressure" to force their views, including promotion of behavior which includes deliberate disregard for Church teachings or authority (other than their own). A frequently promoted tactic is to withhold donations to the Parish if the priest does not accede to dissenter demands. When studying the heresies of the past, one will notice that those which had political backing, from either some high-ranking clergy or, at that time, secular powers of state (i.e. kings), persisted longer and had a larger scope of negative impact on the Church.

• Claim that they represent the opinion of many or most Catholics, when in truth, they represent a small radical dissenting minority. This method implicitly asserts that the opinion of the laity is what sets the dogma and doctrine of the Church, which is clearly erroneous. The Church receives its dogma and doctrine from it's founder, Jesus Christ, Who continues His work through the Holy Spirit. Vatican II repeats this constant teaching of the Church.

• Spout the phrase "Spirit of Vatican II." This infamous phrase is an extremely common battle-cry that has become the mantra of modernist dissenters everywhere who pretend that Vatican II supports their beliefs. Many dissenters use this mantra without any specific backing behind it, while others quote various texts of Vatican II which, taken in isolation and on the surface, appear to support the dissenting beliefs. The appropriate defense against this claim is to know what the Vatican II documents really say. Read them here and learn them! When anyone claims that something is in the "Spirit of Vatican II," verify said claims with the actual documents of Vatican II - ask for a specific reference and look it up in the documents.

• Intimidate and calumniate you with uncharitable accusations of "judgmental," "close-minded," "narrow-minded."

• Hope to obtain implicit consent via the silence of Catholics. This is probably the most insidious method of dissenters and may be the most common situation today. First, if claims of a dissenter are not investigated but are just accepted at face value, then one is guilty of choosing to be lead by a blind man [7]. Furthermore, if one is aware of error, it is one's duty to make that error known.[3]  If truth is not spoken, then the darkness of sin truly triumphs. Of course to know if error exists, one must know the Faith to compare a dissenter claim against the sure standard of Catholic teachings.

The bottom line is that your Catholic consent is to be given to the Church teaching, and to the Church alone, [10] since the Church truly speaks for God. [15]

Conclusion

One will notice that the thread of "choice" runs through many of the terms and related concepts used. Given that God the Father has created us with free will, He expects us to make choices everyday. The difference between God's version of choice and the dissenter view is the object of the choice, e.g. what we choose. God expects us to choose His Will, His way and His law, and will judge us as such. Choices pleasing to God are following the 10 Commandments, summed up in the two greatest Commandments, love God above all and your neighbor as yourself. Obstinate sinners, however, demand to choose sin and error and to walk in the darkness.

Given the dissenters' sophisticated marketing of sin and error, today's practicing Catholic cannot just accept anything at face value. Digging into the details is critical to understanding, and such understanding can only come with proper discernment, which in turn requires prayer and actual knowledge of the Catholic Faith. Learn your Faith! As the Bible clearly tells us in Hosea 4:6; "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

Dissenters should carefully heed the words of Jesus Christ, since they place their souls in danger:

Mark 9:42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea."

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