Why This Page @ TraditionInAction.org

Polemics

Why This Page?

Why this Page?

TIA has been requested by many friends and visitors of its Website to expound arguments and defend itself in face of so many attacks. There are some people who will not cease their talk against articles and books by TIA members. This obliges us to constantly repeat arguments that have already been written and published in various places. To avoid this continuous repetition we decided to place our public polemics on TIA's Website. From now on we can invite our friends - or our enemies - to come here and read our actual positions and our replies to attacks.

Who Is Attacking Us?

Unfortunately, the persons who are attacking us in the large part are conservatives. One would suppose conservatives would be the natural supporters of TIA's cause, since our aim is to conserve the true Catholic doctrine and customs. Why do they make detractions against our books and articles? Why do they want to stop our action? It is difficult to understand.

What do they want to achieve? One can only ask if they represent an authentic reaction that pressures the religious authority to change its orientation and return to the path of Catholic perennial principles? Or do they only want to maintain a slow speed in the march that travels the same road and in the same direction that progressivists are also treading? It seems that the place to deal with the answer to these questions is not this Introduction. Perhaps after reading the items of this page, the reader will arrive at some answers. We leave this task to him.

TIA raises these questions to make it obvious that the people who are coming against us are not primarily progressivists, as would be normal, but a particular type of conservative. By simply traveling through our Polemic Page in the Face-to-Face section the reader will be convinced of this reality.

TIA members who write books and articles are receiving many written challenges. In addition to the "blind-conservatives" above mentioned, there are various other circles of critics.

Many letters come from sede-vacantists who do not agree with our position of resistance to the orders and teachings of the present day religious authority that are objectively contrary to the prior Magisterium of the Catholic Church. (see We Resist You to the Face). This position of resistance although firm, is respectful of the Pope and clearly takes him as the visible representative of Christ on earth. The sede-vacantists do not agree with TIA members, colleagues and friends who adopt this position, since they consider that John Paul II is not a valid Pope before the Church. The critiques coming from this milieu easily number over one hundred letters, pamphlets and books.

TIA, together with The Remnant, made a first public response to many of the criticisms coming from this milieu (see Resistance versus Sede-Vacantism). As we did the first time, we will allow a sufficient time to pass in order to summarize the major arguments before we make another statement.

Others criticisms come from progressivist leaders or supporters. As far as we know, direct criticisms were issued by three American progressivist Prelates. These were private letters to friends that did not demand public responses. Given the private nature of the correspondence, we will not reproduce them here. In many newspapers and magazines one can find indirect criticisms or simple mention of our position of resistance that comes from different progressivist sectors. Until the moment our policy is to not answer these indirect attacks.

A different kind of criticism comes from apocryphal enemies. At times, some persons hide behind false names on the Internet and send emails challenging us to prove this or that. Other times, they ask us to resolve complicated theological questions under the appearance of a scholarly debate. From time to time, they enter Internet discussion lists to make their attacks.

The Internet by its nature permits this kind of prank, and it is almost impossible for us to find out whether the person is a honest reader or a ghost enemy who is setting doctrinal traps or trying to make us lose time in futile responses. An astute friend gave us this advice: "These people are trying to keep you busy and delay your publications. Ignore them and go ahead." A wise counsel.

Since it is impossible for us to know whether we are dealing with a sincere reader or a bluffer, TIA has decided not to answer Internet critiques. Alas, the innocent pays along with the guilty. Therefore, if you have a bona fide question or critique, please do not use the Internet. Write to us at P.O. Box 23135 - Los Angeles, CA 90023 and we will do our best to answer you.

Who's Who in the Conservative Milieu?

An initial word about the terminology is necessary for clarity's sake. We sincerely respect the conservative position, and we admire many of those who situate themselves in this milieu. Many of our supporters are in this circle, and we are gratified by their actions. Therefore, we have conservatives who applaud our work and conservatives who combat it.

How shall we distinguish one from the other? We will call the latter "blind-conservatives" to distinguish them from the former, the true conservatives. The expression blind-conservatives is used as an abbreviation of another concept, i.e., that these persons situate themselves in a position of blind obedience to the religious authority no matter what the authority says and does, even when it teaches error and acts scandalously. We do not apply the expression "blind-conservatives" with the intention of deprecating the conservatives who have attacked us. The term was coined in order to distinguish who's who.

Other Topics of this Page

The Polemic Page also will deal with other topics. To be truthful, if our own horizon were limited to that of the "blind-conservatives," we would collapse from asphyxia. Therefore, we also will analyze the aims of the more expressive part of the progressivist wing as well as the actions of the official religious authorities that seem to favor those goals. The reader can find these evaluations under the title Hot Topics.

In a section titled Challenges, TIA will bring to the attention of our readers and visitors some of the challenges we have made and, until the moment, have not been answered. Should an answer appear, the exchange will be transferred to the Face-to-Face section. Under this title we will post the principal public debates in which TIA members have engaged.

In the near future we plan to have a section on this page to answer objections that visitors are making either about TIA or the books and articles we sponsor. This section will be called Sed Contra. This name is taken from St. Thomas Aquinas who in the Summa Theologiae always begins the answer to his objectors with an argument that stops the march of the adversary; it is his famous sed contra [but in the contrary sense]. After laying out the principal argument he responds to the details of each objection.

Our Method

TIA does not respond to oral attacks. Perhaps, if we will have time, when our Sed Contra section will be available we will place some of these objections and our answers there.

As noted above, if you have a bona fide question or critique, please do not use the Internet to send it to us. Write to us at P.O. Box 23135 - Los Angeles, CA 90023 and we will do our best to answer you.

Included in this Section

Face-To-Face

Challenges

Objections

Hot Topics