MhFM's House of Cards: An Edifice of Deception
"For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." - Romans 1:22
House of Cards:
A metaphor pertaining to something of a fragile or volatile nature.
A structure, situation, or institution that is insubstantial, shaky, and/or in constant danger of collapse.
I recently watched a YouTube video published by a Dimondite (i.e. a loyal MhFM acolyte), who in a ludicrous attempt to defend the Dimond Brothers’ self-serving ridged misinterpretation of certain controversial theological / doctrinal positions coupled with their flippant draconian insistence on the need for strict adherence to their non-pastoral interpretation of those same issues, stated with a snide … “Gotcha”:
“The monks are NOT the ones who came up with the rules ... the Church did!”
I wish to applaud and commend this “Dimondite” for inadvertently shinning the proverbial spotlight on the fundamental reason as to why the MhFM is actually a dubious secular “House of Cards” and NOT a true Catholic religious order.
Try as the Dimondites may to insist that their religious community’s founder, Joseph Natale (1933-1995), received permission in 1961 from then Archabbot Denis Strittmatter of St Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, PA, to leave that Benedictine community and to start his own religious order … the documented evidence obtained from St Vincent Archabbey states otherwise, denying / negating the Dimondites pretentious and preposterous claim.
The truth of the matter is that in 1961, after a brief stint of less than one year as a novice at St Vincent’s Archabbey, Joseph Natale left on his own volition “unprofessed” and with no religious credentials other than that of having been a Benedictine candidate. That is an irrefutable fact.
Concerning a “Fact”:
It is extremely relevant and worth noting that Dimondites are obliged and/or expected to accept what is written on page 333 of Fred (a.k.a. Bother Michael) and Bob (a.k.a. Brother Peter) Dimond’s book "The Truth about What Really Happened to the Catholic Church after Vatican II", where it is emphatically declared:
"Against a fact there is no argument."
It’s utterly amazing that, even when presented with the verifiable / unadulterated truth about the inception of the MhFM, Dimondites still refuse to accept the fact that the purported religious community Joseph Natale created in 1967 (i.e. the Oblates of St Jude that later became MhFM) was then and remains now self-constituted and/or secular in nature.
Dimondites remain in a state of denial when it comes to accepting the fact that the Church (i.e. the diocese in Camden, NJ, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [CDF] in Rome) officially denied Natale’s 1968-1969 petitions / requests for a “canonical provision”; which by the laws of the Roman Church is an nonexempt prerequisite for establishing a new Catholic religious order (1917 Code of Canon Law - Can. 146).
Though Dimondites openly state “The monks are NOT the ones who came up with the rules ... the Church did.”, it is would appear that they are in effect “Cafeteria Catholics” who believe they are free to can pick and choose which rules of the Church they are subject to and those they are not.
In regards to the founding of their religious community (MhFM), the facts confirm that Dimondites have facetiously disregarded and placed themselves above the traditional rule of law that the Church has promulgated since the time of the apostles
For it is written: "And how shall they preach unless they be sent?" - Romans 10:15
St Paul provides, in that verse, evident and factual proof that speaks out against all such presumptuous teachers, who usurp to themselves a pastoral role in Christ’s ministry without having received a lawful commission, derived by succession from the apostles, as Jesus stipulated when he said:
“As my Father hath sent me, I also send you.” - St John 20:21
In a vainglorious attempt to circumvent that rule of the Church expressed by St Paul … Dimondites fallaciously declare Epikeia as being the justification used in legitimizing the creation of their religious order.
“Epikeia is a liberal interpretation of law in instances not provided by the letter of the law. It presupposes sincerity in wanting to observe the law, and interprets the mind of the lawgiver in supplying his presumed intent to include a situation that is not covered by the law. It favors the liberty of the interpreter without contradicting the express will of the lawgiver.” – Catholic Dictionary
An inconvenient truth about Epikeia, that Dimondites intentionally overlook, is that it cannot justifiably be claimed in matters relating to self-convenience (i.e. a personal dislike or disagreement over a particular rule or ruling of the Teaching Authority of the Church).
As relates to the inception of MhFM … it is an outrageous and audacious lie / deception for Dimondites to espouse that Epikeia was legitimately and justifiably used by Natale and the Dimond Brothers to override the expressed will of the law giver of the Church Himself (Christ).
“Amen, amen, I say to you: He that entereth not by the door (canonical provision) into the sheepfold but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door (ordained and duly commissioned) is the shepherd of the sheep.” - St John 10:1-2
MhFM is a secular House of Cards not a certified Catholic religious community in possession of a canonical provision or ruled over / governed by a duly ordained and lawfully commissioned bishop or a priest.
“The monks are NOT the ones who came up with the rules ... the Church did.”
“If anyone says that ... those who have been neither rightly ordained nor sent by ecclesiastical and canonical authority, but come from a different source, are lawful ministers of the word …: let him be anathema [cf. n. 960].” - Denzinger: The Sources of Catholic Dogma 967 Can. 7
Pax Tecum