Apostasy?

We read in the Forum Catholique that Alessandro Gnocchi has joined the Russian Orthodox Church. Actually, he seems to have taken this step in 2019, but more recently, breaking what appears to have been a long silence, he has published a book on the subject (which I hope to read soon). Readers may recall that Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro (1968-2014), working as a team, were among the earliest and most perceptive critics of Pope Francis. For that unforgivable crime, the authors’ positions with Catholic media were terminated – this is the way the Roman Catholic Church dialogues with those perceived as adversaries of the governing establishment. Need I add that the early critiques of Gnocchi and Palmaro have been all too terribly vindicated? Now Gnocchi has joined the Orthodox Church. It is a step that in recent years other prominent Catholics, most notably Rod Dreher, have felt compelled to take.

Professor Roberto de Mattei has written on this tragic situation, accusing Gnocchi of “apostasy.” Now although we all esteem Prof. de Mattei, this judgment seems to me far too strong – after all, the Orthodox Church, in Catholic understanding, is only schismatic. If we understand “apostasy” to mean repudiation of the Catholic or even of the Christian faith, we must seek it elsewhere. For the most notorious apostates of our day are the controlling powers of the Roman Catholic Church: the German Catholic Church, the Jesuit order, etc. The primary blame for Gnocchi’s decision lies with them. Let us alway keep in mind the substance of what is going on, not the legal formalities so dear to conservatives.

Prof. Luc Perrin has written a perceptive coomentary on this affair, rightly focusing on the primary role of the institutional Roman Catholic Church as the obsequious servant of the New World Order. The natural consequence of its misdeeds is a movement towards the Orthodox Church, less infected by modern deviations. For all its faults, the Orthodox Church, in contrast to the West, as a church has preserved the Christian liturgy. It has also preserved the contemplative life and mysticism. Now, of course, within the Western Church traditionalists have preserved the liturgy, just as contemplative monasteries survive and even flourish. But the Roman Catholic Church as an institution, works either to supress or at least marginalize these manifestations of spiritual life. We should always remember all this before critiquing the choices of men like Alessandro Gnocchi.