Press Release

Dear Readers:

Five decades of, “It’s ‘untenable’ that Apostle Matthew wrote that Gospel” seminary instruction affirmed by the USCCB — https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/0, last paragraphs — have brought the Church to the brink of Schism.

In effect, “It’s highly doubtful, seminarians, that Peter or any pope of history had the ‘Keys.’ — They were ‘Given by Jesus’ in Mt 16:15-20, but by an anonymous writer whose motives are unknown. The Keys were clearly not given by Jesus in Mk 8:27-30. We’re just one of tens of thousands of Christian faith traditions.”

In my Q & A Spotlight video with Logan Crawford, “Restoring Gospel Truth in Catholic Seminaries and Universities,” I refute what is taught to our seminarians as “a package of epoxy glue without the second tube,” https://youtu.be/pEQfsnrnVWE. This is also refuted in detail in “The Key to Restoring Catholic orthodoxy” and other articles on my website, https://7stepcatholic.com.

I write in the prayerful hope that you share this concern and would like to bring it to the attention of your viewers with me and — as indicated below and in the Spotlight video — assure them of the authenticity of the Gospels.

________________Restoring Gospel Truth in Catholic Seminaries and Universities
Like the Titanic going down after hitting an iceberg, Catholic faith and practice is in sharp decline after its own catastrophic post-Vatican II event. The sinking of the Titanic was accidental. The gash in the hull of Catholic orthodoxy was apparently deliberate.

So I indicate in my book, The 7-Step Reason to be Catholic, 2nd Ed.: Science, the Bible and History point to Catholicism (Imprimatur), With Addenda clearing the Historical Critical Fog. It was republished last year, 2022, by Proisle Publishing Service LLC, New York. My website is 7stepcatholic.com.

Whether or not Catholic bishops foresaw the widespread, salvation-jeopardizing, “I can live as I please; everyone goes to Heaven” mindset that resulted, the gash was apparently deliberate, as is, apparently, the five-decade failure to repair the damage.

 

From its earliest days until just before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) — teaching Gospel Truth as written by the four Evangelists, affirmed by St. Irenaeus and other Early Church Fathers — the Church thrived, reaching its 1950s Golden Age.

What soon poured through the bishops’ “gash” into Catholic seminaries and universities was the Reformation-rooted “Markan Priority Two Source Theory of Gospel origin,” first proposed by Protestant theologian Gottlob Christian Storr in 1796. The Catholic version of this theory denies that apostle Matthew wrote that Gospel and casts doubt on Mark and apostle John as writers of theirs. At this writing the article, “(Introduction) The Gospel according to Matthew” on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states:

“The unknown author, whom we shall continue to call Matthew for the sake of convenience, drew not only upon the Gospel according to Mark but upon a large body of material (principally, sayings of Jesus) not found in Mark . . .” called “Q”: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/0, last paragraphs.

With Mark given priority, i.e., credibility over Matthew, Mt 16:15-20 (Jesus promises the Keys of authority to Peter in the “Church,” singular he is founding) is superseded by Mk 8:27-30 in which there in no mention of Keys or Church.* With Markan Priority nullifying the authority and writings of Peter and all popes of history, the Catholic Church becomes just another of the tens of thousands of faith traditions carrying the Christian banner; well-suited for Ecumenism; not at all for Evangelization.

A priest who was a seminarian in the 1970s wrote to me:

Dear Jerome: I was taught the Historical-Critical Method [specifically, the Markan Priority Two Source theory] in the seminary in the 1970’s … [by] Fr. Raymond Brown . . .. I saw seminarians lose their faith in my class when exposed to the unbridled use of this meth¬od . . . [It] calls into question . . . miracles of Christ and his physical death and resurrection. It really opens old heresies already resolved by the Church.

St. Irenaeus makes it crystal clear that it was Matthew the apostle-eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus who wrote the first Gospel — not some later pseudo-Matthew: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103301.htm.

The credibility of St. Irenaeus is indisputable. He was taught by martyr St. Polycarp who was taught by apostle John. The author notes that in the indexes of four books he has by Fr. Brown that span Brown’s teaching career, including his last, there is no mention of St. Irenaeus.

In Q & A format in my Spotlight video with Logan Crawford, “Restoring Gospel Truth in Catholic Seminaries and Universities,” I refute this Two Source theory as “a package of epoxy glue without the second tube,” https://youtu.be/pEQfsnrnVWE.

“The good news is that the USCCB has no authority over any bishop or leader in Catholic academia. For those leaders it all comes down to their personal responsibility before the Lord to provide instruction conducive to eternal salvation — and to this question:

Will I continue Gospel instruction through the lens of Gottlob Christian Storr, rooted in the Protestant Reformation,

or, will I restore Gospel instruction through the lens of Irenaeus, rooted in Christ?”

With an open letter signed by more than 1,500 Catholic scholars and priests accusing Pope Francis of heresy sent to Catholic bishops in April, 2019, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5983408-Open-Letter-to-the-Bishops-of-the-Catholic.html, it seems this Two Source theory has paved the way for a church untethered to the Gospels and to Christ. May the thoughts expressed in this book, articles and video be considered before this momentous decision is made.

* Mark’s omission of the Keys Jesus promised to Peter is consistent with Irenaeus: “After their departure,

Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter.” Apostle Matthew in his Gospel clearly reported what he heard Jesus say about Keys and Church. In Rome, with Nero’s agents alert to any threat to the Empire, Peter would not have brought his preaching to an abrupt halt by calling listeners to a “Kingdom” to which he held the Keys.