Dear TIA,

For some time now I have been studying the debate on Distributism that has been going on in Catholic circles. While watching carefully, I remained outside the debate until an article on Peter Maurin written by Fr. James Doran, SSPX was published in the June 2006 issue of The Angelus magazine. I was simply astounded by Fr. Doran's praise of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, and the Catholic Workers Movement (CWM).

Not wishing to publicly expose Fr. Doran's erroneous idea of the CWM, I did some research on Dorothy Day and wrote to the publisher of The Angelus expressing my disapprobation of the article having been printed. Not surprisingly, I did not hear back from the publisher, nor has a retraction of Fr. Doran's article been published in the magazine.

Since that time, I have been looking more closely at the apparent infiltration of the traditionalist movement by a left wing, pro-socialist ideal that operates under the façade of Distributism. What I have found is very disturbing and points to a much deeper problem than I had previously suspected. It was very heartening when Dr. Carol Byrne, the assistant editor for Mater Dei magazine (the voice of the SSPX in the UK) published the first part of an article written by herself that is a masterful exposé of the CWM.

For those without a subscription to Mater Dei, the article titled The Catholic Worker Movement: To Russia With Love (of Revolution) may be read on line. From Dr. Byrne, I have learned that the (traditionalist) League of Christ the King in the UK has been publishing a brochure that promotes radical Socialism; republishing the writings of Dorothy Day, Dom Virgil Michel, and others of the 'Catholic Socialist' (pardon the oxymoron!) type. The League has its supporters in the USA as well.

It is sad to note the many uncharitable, one might almost say vicious, attacks leveled against those who dare to speak out against Distributism. The 15 February 2007 edition of The Remnant had a bitter letter to the editor against Dr. J. Christopher Pryor's website: The LeFloch Report. The gentleman who wrote the letter leveled charges against Dr. Pryor, albeit not by name, for daring to disagree with the great Belloc, Chesterton, McNabb etc. and accused him of twisting the papal encyclicals (to support his stand against their social-political ideals, I guess, the gentleman does not really say). This, the author maintains, is not Catholic! It is really incredible these days how it has become a crime practically on par with heresy to disagree with Belloc and/or Chesterton! And yet, I cannot seem to find any evidence of either having been canonized or raised to the dignity of a Doctor of the Church.

I appreciate the work that Mr. Patrick Odou has done in exposing some of the errors of distributist writers. I hope that TIA will continue to publish work of this sort to enable people to discern true Catholic social teaching from false. It is to be desired that some of Mr. Odou's articles could be republished in The Angelus, but at this time I think that must remain wishful thinking.

In the meantime, keep up the good fight and God bless you all.

     Sincerely in Christ,

     L.P.

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