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A crisis of truth: The attack on faith, morality, and mission in the Catholic Church
Book by Martin, Ralph P.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1982
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Martin
103 books70 followersRalph Martin has been a leader in renewal movements in the Catholic Church for many years. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he did graduate work in philosophy at Princeton University and holds an MA in Theology from Sacred Heart School of Theology in the Archdiocese of Detroit, a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the “Angelicum”) in Rome. He worked for a number of years for the National Office of the Cursillo Movement and subsequently became a leader in the national and international development of the charismatic renewal movement in the Catholic Church. He was the founding editor of New Covenant Magazine, as well as the founding director of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office, currently located in Rome.
Currently, Ralph is president of Renewal Ministries, an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization (www.renewalministries.net). Ralph is also the host of “The Choices We Face” a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world. Renewal Ministries is accountable in its work to a Board of Directors in the United States, which Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, serves as Episcopal Advisor, and to a Board in Canada that Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto, serves as Episcopal Advisor. Renewal Ministries is also actively involved in assisting the Church in more than 30 different countries through leadership training, evangelistic conferences and retreats, and the publication and distribution of Catholic resources.
Ralph is also an associate professor and Director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit (www.shms.edu) and a Visiting Professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and was also appointed as a “peritus” to the Synod on the New Evangelization in October of 2012.
He and his wife Anne have six children and 14 grandchildren and reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Currently, Ralph is president of Renewal Ministries, an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization (www.renewalministries.net). Ralph is also the host of “The Choices We Face” a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world. Renewal Ministries is accountable in its work to a Board of Directors in the United States, which Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, serves as Episcopal Advisor, and to a Board in Canada that Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto, serves as Episcopal Advisor. Renewal Ministries is also actively involved in assisting the Church in more than 30 different countries through leadership training, evangelistic conferences and retreats, and the publication and distribution of Catholic resources.
Ralph is also an associate professor and Director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit (www.shms.edu) and a Visiting Professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and was also appointed as a “peritus” to the Synod on the New Evangelization in October of 2012.
He and his wife Anne have six children and 14 grandchildren and reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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September 23, 2024
THE CHARISMATIC RENEWAL LEADER LOOKS AT DOCTRINAL AND MORAL "ATTACKS" ON CATHOLIC TRUTH
Ralph Martin has been a leader in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for many years; he has written many books, such as 'Is Jesus Coming Soon?: A Catholic Perspective on the Second Coming: The Catholic Church at the End of an Age,' 'What is the Spirit Saying?,' 'Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization,' 'The New Evangelization: What It Is and How It Affects the Life of Every Catholic,' 'The Fulfillment of All Desire,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1982 book, "My discussion of the crisis of truth in the Catholic Church necessarily involves dealing with some specifically Catholic beliefs and practices, while acknowledging that many of the problems, and hopefully the solutions that are discussed, are also relevant to the situation of many of the major Protestant Churches...
"At various times while writing the book I have wondered whether its focus should be more broadly ecumenical but I have concentrated on the crisis of truth in the Catholic Church for a variety of reasons... I think that I am in a better situation to speak to Catholics with the kind of frankness this topic requires because I am a Catholic myself... I think this is what the Lord wants me to do... I do not intend this book to be the final or definitive word on this important area... This book is merely one contribution toward facing and responding to a situation where many contributions are needed."
He recalls, "During my undergraduate years as a student at the University of Notre Dame... The prospect of finding or discovering the truth threatened me. If I found the truth, I would have to submit to it. I saw that I had come to love the 'search for truth' more than the truth itself. I had to repent of such idolatry... Indeed, an attitude which lies behind much of the attack on truth in the Church today is a growing doubt that human beings can know ANYTHING with clarity and certainty. Perpetual uncertainty is an intellectual posture quite congenial to contemporary, secular culture." (Pg. 29-30)
He states, "scholars today ... approach God's Word ... on the basis of some previously held ideological commitment... The effort to control the grossly subjective and ideological presuppositions of this approach to scripture in the Catholic Church has not been totally successful. Even such prominent Catholic scholars as Raymond Brown can declare that Jesus and Paul were simply wrong in their belief in demons. Obviously, such opinions, disseminated widely in the Catholic press, affect the beliefs and actions of many Catholics." (Pg. 34)
He argues, "While the exploration of theological possibilities like [Karl Rahner's] 'anonymous Christianity' is certainly a legitimate part of the theological enterprise, and theology needs a legitimate sphere of freedom to undertake such exploration, the pastoral effect of what is in fact simply speculation has been devastating." (Pg. 68)
He points out, "it is worth noting the extraordinary success of pentecostal and charismatic movements in places where many of the mainline churches have given up. Even in places... such as Africa, the various pentecostal and charismatic independent churches are drawing the loyalty of many Protestants and Catholics with their fervor and freedom of worship, warmth of fellowship, and ministries of healing and deliverance where the power of God is tangibly manifest." (Pg. 73)
He asserts, "Christians who try to enlist Church resources in the Marxist plan of revolution have often completely lost their grasp of the distinctiveness of the Christian mission and its incompatibility with Marxist goals and methods... The remarkable suggestion that atheism be viewed as an expression of 'the freedom of the gospel' could only come from someone who utterly misunderstands what the gospel is, or who understands it but is working to undermine it. Similar efforts to bend Christian language to the support of certain political ideologies are widespread in areas where liberation movements are at work." (Pg. 92-93)
He says, "the poisonous ideas in books such as Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought have the gravest possible practical consequences. They jeopardize the salvation of millions of Catholics. There are not interesting ideas, plausible or implausible, possibly true, possibly false, to be analyzed at leisure in a graduate seminar on moral theology. They are powerful ideas which lead people into real sin. They are used to justify ... distortions of God's plan for sexuality as revealed to us in scripture, witnessed to in tradition, and reaffirmed by the pope and bishops teaching in union with him today." (Pg. 124)
He suggests, "One of the most remarkable developments in the Church since Vatican Council II has been the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the charismatic renewal. This has been accompanied by a restoration of some of the gifts of the Spirit commonly at work in the early Church, including the gift of prophecy... the Holy Spirit seems to be trying once again to communicate something of importance to the Church. It is a message as old as the Bible, but it is addressed TO US, here and now, and it demands as a response." (Pg. 189)
Although more than forty years old, many of Martin's observations are still quite pertinent to conservative and traditional Catholics today.
Ralph Martin has been a leader in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for many years; he has written many books, such as 'Is Jesus Coming Soon?: A Catholic Perspective on the Second Coming: The Catholic Church at the End of an Age,' 'What is the Spirit Saying?,' 'Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization,' 'The New Evangelization: What It Is and How It Affects the Life of Every Catholic,' 'The Fulfillment of All Desire,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1982 book, "My discussion of the crisis of truth in the Catholic Church necessarily involves dealing with some specifically Catholic beliefs and practices, while acknowledging that many of the problems, and hopefully the solutions that are discussed, are also relevant to the situation of many of the major Protestant Churches...
"At various times while writing the book I have wondered whether its focus should be more broadly ecumenical but I have concentrated on the crisis of truth in the Catholic Church for a variety of reasons... I think that I am in a better situation to speak to Catholics with the kind of frankness this topic requires because I am a Catholic myself... I think this is what the Lord wants me to do... I do not intend this book to be the final or definitive word on this important area... This book is merely one contribution toward facing and responding to a situation where many contributions are needed."
He recalls, "During my undergraduate years as a student at the University of Notre Dame... The prospect of finding or discovering the truth threatened me. If I found the truth, I would have to submit to it. I saw that I had come to love the 'search for truth' more than the truth itself. I had to repent of such idolatry... Indeed, an attitude which lies behind much of the attack on truth in the Church today is a growing doubt that human beings can know ANYTHING with clarity and certainty. Perpetual uncertainty is an intellectual posture quite congenial to contemporary, secular culture." (Pg. 29-30)
He states, "scholars today ... approach God's Word ... on the basis of some previously held ideological commitment... The effort to control the grossly subjective and ideological presuppositions of this approach to scripture in the Catholic Church has not been totally successful. Even such prominent Catholic scholars as Raymond Brown can declare that Jesus and Paul were simply wrong in their belief in demons. Obviously, such opinions, disseminated widely in the Catholic press, affect the beliefs and actions of many Catholics." (Pg. 34)
He argues, "While the exploration of theological possibilities like [Karl Rahner's] 'anonymous Christianity' is certainly a legitimate part of the theological enterprise, and theology needs a legitimate sphere of freedom to undertake such exploration, the pastoral effect of what is in fact simply speculation has been devastating." (Pg. 68)
He points out, "it is worth noting the extraordinary success of pentecostal and charismatic movements in places where many of the mainline churches have given up. Even in places... such as Africa, the various pentecostal and charismatic independent churches are drawing the loyalty of many Protestants and Catholics with their fervor and freedom of worship, warmth of fellowship, and ministries of healing and deliverance where the power of God is tangibly manifest." (Pg. 73)
He asserts, "Christians who try to enlist Church resources in the Marxist plan of revolution have often completely lost their grasp of the distinctiveness of the Christian mission and its incompatibility with Marxist goals and methods... The remarkable suggestion that atheism be viewed as an expression of 'the freedom of the gospel' could only come from someone who utterly misunderstands what the gospel is, or who understands it but is working to undermine it. Similar efforts to bend Christian language to the support of certain political ideologies are widespread in areas where liberation movements are at work." (Pg. 92-93)
He says, "the poisonous ideas in books such as Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought have the gravest possible practical consequences. They jeopardize the salvation of millions of Catholics. There are not interesting ideas, plausible or implausible, possibly true, possibly false, to be analyzed at leisure in a graduate seminar on moral theology. They are powerful ideas which lead people into real sin. They are used to justify ... distortions of God's plan for sexuality as revealed to us in scripture, witnessed to in tradition, and reaffirmed by the pope and bishops teaching in union with him today." (Pg. 124)
He suggests, "One of the most remarkable developments in the Church since Vatican Council II has been the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the charismatic renewal. This has been accompanied by a restoration of some of the gifts of the Spirit commonly at work in the early Church, including the gift of prophecy... the Holy Spirit seems to be trying once again to communicate something of importance to the Church. It is a message as old as the Bible, but it is addressed TO US, here and now, and it demands as a response." (Pg. 189)
Although more than forty years old, many of Martin's observations are still quite pertinent to conservative and traditional Catholics today.
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