Please forgive me my internet friends for having taken so long to post something of substance! I’ve actually intended to post several items concerning the Emergent/Emerging Church, politics and Christianity, and my frustration with women. Hopefully these will all eventually get perfected and published here, but today I want to talk about a seminar I recently attended, presented by Gerry Matatics.

Gerry is the Founder and President of the Traditionalist Roman Catholic apostolate known as Biblical Foundations International. He’s a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, a former-Protestant, and the first ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) to ever convert to Roman Catholicism. In recent years Gerry has adopted a theological position known as “sedevacantism” (to be fair, he uses that term reluctantly when describing his current views).

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts with a Master of Divinity degree, Gerry ministered in a PCA church. In order to stop his friend and seminary class-mate Scott Hahn from “swimming the Tiber,” he began intensely studying the theology, history, and claims of the Catholic Church. Gerry eventually converted himself, and quickly became one of the most popular Roman Catholic apologists in America, working at the most well known mainstream Catholic apologetics organization, Catholic Answers.

Gerry then made yet another “conversion,” this time accepting the “traditional” Roman Catholic faith. Today, he rejects what he terms “counterfeit Catholicism,” which includes nearly all of the doctrinal, liturgical, and moral changes that have taken place in the Roman Catholic Church in about the last fifty years.

The topic of Gerry’s seminar was “Counterfeit Catholicism: How Faithful Catholics Come to Realize That Vatican II, The New Mass, and Benedict XVI Are Not What They Claim to Be.” His message, according to the presentation, is summarized in one sentence:

“The Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church are the one true Faith and the one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation, but the authentic Roman Catholic Faith and the authentic Roman Catholic Church are no longer found at local Catholic parishes, in the local Catholic dioceses, or even ruling from the Vatican in Rome today.”

Overall, the seminar was an absolute whirlwind. Gerry is the only man in the world I know who can speak faster than me. He spoke non-stop from 7 to 9 p.m., presenting fact after fact in support of his argument, and stayed several hours afterward for a Q & A.

A somewhat humorous aside: Of the 40-50 people in attendance, I was the only non-Catholic in the room, and throughout the entire seminar was surrounded by traditionalist priests and seminarians. How’s that for being outnumbered!

Anyway, here are some quick highlights from the talk:

- Gerry demonstrates that the post-Vatican II Catholic Church teaches and practices some of the very things that have been clearly condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in the past.

- The apostasy of the “counterfeit” Catholic Church should not, according to Gerry, be a surprise to Catholics, given that the apostasy has been foretold by the prophecies of Sacred Scripture, the Virgin Mary, and many saints of the past.

- The Roman Catholic Church has undergone many similar crises in the past and, Gerry says, Catholics should not be shocked regarding the current crisis in the Church.

- Without shame, and with much documentation, Gerry labels every pope since Pius XII – John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I & II, and Benedict XVI – as heretics and “anti-popes.”

- Gerry shows that the Roman Catholic Church’s Vatican II council officially adopted many heretical positions, such as the New Mass, a denial of Biblical inerrancy, and ecumenism.

- There is nothing in his positions, Gerry claims, that are contrary to the teachings of the historic, orthodox Roman Catholic Church. In fact, his current view is the only one logically consistent with the teachings of that Church.

Gerry’s presentation was well-done and very informative. Most of the issues covered were, to a Protestant like me, a bit immaterial, but interesting nonetheless. It was my lengthy one-on-one talk with Gerry afterwards that was the greatest reward of the evening. We discussed in great depth the Protestant doctrines of Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide, views which Gerry once held but now unabashedly condemns as heresies.

Now, while I would love to discuss this seminar further, the reason I post this is to ask for something from y’all. My talk with Gerry, previous (positive) challenges from friends and other circumstances have led me to take on an enormous reading project, one I ask for your prayers and encouragement.

I have begun reading all the classic Christian works, and will work my way through the beginning of the first-century up to the present-day, in addition to studying Roman Catholicism from the lips of its own proponents. My purpose is to better understand the history of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation, and to sharpen my owns theological views and practices.

So, in the coming days and weeks and months, please pray for me, question me, and challenge me!