By BRIAN CLOWES
(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of the book Call to Action or Call to Apostasy, consisting of a detailed description of the current forms of dissent and how to fight them, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org).
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Take Advantage of the Experience of Others. After God makes His will known to you regarding what action He wants you to take against dissent, and after you find others who will assist you in this fight, you must get organized. Meet with your recruits as soon as possible and decide exactly what your mission is and how you intend to accomplish it.
The most important principle to remember is to not take action until you are properly organized and trained. Going into battle unprepared will lead to inevitable defeat, destruction of your group’s morale, and eventual failure of the organization.
Whatever course of action you take, it is often very helpful to have an experienced dissent buster speak to your group in order to train it in strategy and tactics. If you do not have outside expertise, you are much more likely to fail in your mission, because the struggle between truth and dissent at the diocesan or parish level is fraught with pitfalls and concealed obstacles.
You may even be able to bring in several speakers and hold a mini-conference open to the public, which would be a great recruiting tool. After the conference, you could have the speakers instruct the leaders of your group(s) during a confidential session in the art of thwarting dissent.
Again, it is also absolutely necessary that you have an orthodox priest as your spiritual adviser. When you finish your preparation phase and step out to fight the dissenters, you will encounter spiritual obstacles you never dreamed existed.
A good priest can help you navigate these difficult times and can help you prepare yourself for the abuse and ridicule you are likely to endure. He can also help you avoid the bitter and complaining nature that some orthodox Catholics develop, and can assist you in becoming an optimistic and effective fighter for the faith. Finally, this priest can give insight regarding diocesan and parish politics when you need such information.
The Mission Planning Statement. You can maximize your chances of success by writing a mission planning statement and sticking with it. This statement is a summary of the six elements;
First: The Mission. What exactly do you want to accomplish? How will you know if you were successful in your mission? The dissenters work by stealth and infiltration, so your primary objective is to raise their profile by exposing them and showing to the world what they really believe.
Second: The Focus. Whom are you trying to influence? Select your focus and tailor your plans accordingly. Are you trying to influence your bishop to withdraw permission for a dissenting conference to take place in Church facilities, or are you trying to focus your efforts on a DRE who refuses to remove a scandalous sex education program from your Catholic school?
Third: The Opposition. Who are the persons and organizations that will directly or indirectly try to stop you from accomplishing your mission, and what are the strategies and tactics they commonly employ? If you know this information, you can better prepare yourselves to blunt the reaction of the dissenters to your initiatives.
Fourth: Resources. What qualities, persons, and equipment will you need to accomplish your mission? If you are missing something vital, can you obtain it? The primary rule is: Do not bite off more than you can chew! Begin small and work your way up from there, giving your people experience and confidence in their dissent busting activities.
Fifth: The Environment. What are the physical and psychological conditions under which you must work to accomplish your mission? Are your people ready to operate in this environment?
Sixth: Tactics. What concrete methods will you employ to accomplish your mission or prevent the dissenters from accomplishing their mission?
Really Learn Your Faith! Do you know how to confidently and accurately answer a dissenter who claims that “we can use birth control now, because the Vatican said that we can use our consciences in the Declaration on Religious Freedom”?
Can you clearly explain the Church’s “double effect” principle as it applies to abortion for the mother’s life and to sterilization?
Can you convincingly demonstrate why the Church cannot ordain women to the ministerial priesthood?
If you can do all three of these, congratulations — you are among the select group of only about one percent of Catholic lay people who can do so.
These are the issues you will encounter when you fight dissent. You will not just hear them from professional dissenters and agitators; you will also hear them from friends, family members, fellow parishioners, and even uninformed priests.
In Hosea 4:6, God laments: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Learning how to defend the faith is a difficult process, but it is mandatory if you are to be effective. The best way to do this is to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other relevant Church documents in detail, with the same level of attention as you would give a college course. It is best to study and then meet on a weekly basis for a couple of hours with the other members of your dissent busting group to strategize and discuss difficult concepts and how to explain them clearly.
You can find the best explanations of crucial dissent related issues in the great treasury of Church documents available on the Vatican’s website. Foremost among these brilliant documents is the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (On the Doctrine of the Modernists), by Pope St. Pius X. Written more than a century ago, this neglected encyclical could have been written yesterday, it seems so fresh and current. Aspiring dissent-busters should begin here, with the writing of a great saint and defender of the faith.
Two of the documents promulgated at the Second Vatican Council provide a firm foundation on the role of the Church and its place in the world: Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) and Dignitatis Humanae (Declaration on Religious Freedom).
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has provided three documents that deal specifically with dissent: Magisterial Documents and Public Dissent (1997); Donum Veritas (Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian) (1990); and New Vatican Norms on Theological Dissent (1997).
Regarding the question of the impossibility of women’s ordination, we have the benefit of two apostolic letters by Pope St. John Paul II: Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women) (1988); and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone) (1994), as well as the CDF’s 1976 Inter Insigniores (Declaration on the Question of Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood).
Learn the Battlefield! You cannot be an effective soldier unless you know the topography of the battlefield and exactly where your allies and enemies are located. You must educate yourself about the Church’s situation. You can do this by reading good books on the history of dissent, learning about its origins, history and current forms.
Then you can become familiar with the current situation in the Church by subscribing to one or more of the journals and blogs which are dedicated to fighting dissent and promoting the truth. The purpose of all of this reading is to familiarize yourself with both the theory behind dissent and current news and trends in the Church.
There are scores of magazines, journals, and discussion sites devoted to fighting dissent, abortion, euthanasia, the homosexual rights movement, pornography, population control and other evils. When fighting dissent, you should subscribe to a couple of the best orthodox journals and magazines that specialize in this area or at least address it on a regular basis.
Your dissent-busting organization may wish to purchase books written on the topic of dissent and make a “mini-library” your members can borrow from. You can find catalogs from orthodox book publishing companies online: Ignatius Press and Sophia Institute Press, among others.
One More Step. So far, we have covered the first three steps in fighting dissent with the POPE — Pray, Organize, and Plan. The next article will cover the final step, which is Exposing the dissenters.
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