He was the darling of Catholic Answers back in 1990. He was their leading apologist, their poster-boy for seeing the light of coming home to Rome. I remember well debating Gerry in Denver on the Papacy, and seeing Karl Keating and Jimmy Akin (I think Madrid was there, too, but I am not certain) in attendance the first night of the two night debate. I remember him standing before an audience reading out of the index of the Jurgens 3-volume collection of patristic citations as if this was serious evidence for his side. He assured us that without an infallible papacy, established by God, we could have no certainty.
James Swan just directed me here, to Matatics’ website. Matatics is now a sedevacantist, one who teaches that there is no valid Pope in Rome. Check out some of these claims:
At each venue I speak on “Counterfeit Catholicism: Why Vatican II, the New Mass, and Benedict XVI Are Not What They Claim to Be,” a talk I am continually updating, refining, and adding new elements to. In it I try to provide everything necessary to understand the magnitude of the current crisis (the worst in the 2,000-year history of the Church):
• what Sacred Scripture, Our Lady, saints (such as St. Nicholas of Flue) and Doctors of the Church predict about the great apostasy
• the long-standing plans of Freemasonry, Judaism, and Communism to infiltrate and subvert the Church
• historical precedents in Biblical times, in the Arian and Nestorian crises, in the Great Western Schism, in the English “Reformation,” in 17th and 18th century Japan, and in other eras, each of them foreshadowing individual elements that have come together during the current crisis: antipopes on the throne of St. Peter, defections of whole hierarchies from their episcopal office due to heresy, massive apostasy on the part of lay people, lack of easy access by the remaining faithful to valid or lawful sacraments, etc.
• why Vatican II is another “robber council” like 17 others previously condemned by the Church
• the disturbing changes built into the New Mass and new sacraments (especially the new rite for the ordination of bishops) and their impact on the validity of these sacraments
• the errors of the new catechism and the immoralities of the new code of canon law
• the heretical beliefs of the usurpers John XXIII through Benedict XVI
Of course, his “Mega Tour” of 300 cities (he speaks in rented Holiday Inn rooms) has stalled because, well, his tribe is small, to be sure. But check out this assertion about his former colleagues:
$2500 a month is a shoestring operating budget. That’s only $30,000 a year. Compare that to the big name Novus Ordo apologists and apologetics organizations living high off the hog because they, individually, each rake in over a million dollars a year – all of it wasted singing the praises of Benedict XVI and the “New Springtime of the Church” they vainly claim we are now enjoying, and sending people to a counterfeit “Mass” and to counterfeit sacraments from the hands of counterfeit priests who cannot properly save these people’s souls.
And here I thought the Magisterium brought pure harmony and certainty in all things! How odd to see Matatics posting this, Sungenis taking on Hahn (and in the issues I’ve noted, Sungenis seems to be correct in identifying some pretty wild-eyed ideas on Hahn’s part)—all of these men “converts” to the “one true Church,” all men who have asserted that sola scriptura leads to “anarchy.” Hopefully the irony is not lost on you.
