Miscellaneous Rambling
So I'm listening to a recent Open Line Wednesday with Mitch Pacwa yesterday while gardening. A caller asked about Charlie Johnston. Johnston is a supposed seer who supposedly communicates with (supposed-heavenly) angels, and he says massive economic and military disruptions are coming soon. Pacwa said he has met Mr. Johnston and found him to be an ordinary, likable guy. He also said that Johnston discusses his locutions with three priests before disclosing them, just to make the locutions are in accord with Church teaching in general. That being said, Pacwa emphasized that he (Pacwa) has no role to determine whether a seer is legitimate, so every person needs to come to their own conclusions. I've never much gone in for the contemporary mystic stuff, even Fatima. So even though I believe what occurred at Fatima and stuff like Charlie Johnston intrigue me, my interest pretty much stops there. I guess my general feeling is, even if they're right, it all comes down to timing, and I'm simply never comfortable with open-ended predictions like "soon" or "after the Pope dies." Such things could mean 200 years down the road. And on top of that, you got the obvious problem: Mr. Johnston might be delusional. * * * * * * * If you're interested in seers and mystics, what might be driving them, and whether they can be trusted, I recommend Fr. Benedict Groeschel's Spiritual Passages. * * * * * * * I really dig Fr. Pacwa. Whenever I hear intellectual snobs bash EWTN for its "anti-intellectual" content, I wonder if they listen to Pacwa. Granted, Pacwa is answering ordinary laymen questions and so isn't tangling with the most intricate theological issues, but he's clearly packing serious academic wallop and it constantly shows. * * * * * * * A reminder to the snobs out there: Just because something is made accessible to the average person doesn't mean it's not intellectually sound. Scott Hahn does it. C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton did it. Lots of great historians produce books that the armchair historian enjoys. If you feel the need to grapple with the obtuse, subscribe to academic journals. * * * * * * * Also heard over the weekend: the Black Lives Matter movement was started by a white guy. But so was the NAACP, so it doesn't strike me as a big deal, but it does lend some irony to the movement's anti-white tone.
