To a fellow Catholic Mike Lewis,
A Rabbi once told a man that when you slander, besmirch and calumniate a person publicly those words can never be retracted. It’s like cutting open a pillow stuffed with feathers and throwing it to the four winds. The Rabbi told the man who enjoyed slandering others, “go and pick up every feather and bring it to him so they can put the feathers back in the pillow.” The man who had a wicked tongue said “that’s impossible.” The Rabbi said its impossible to take those words back that were projected into the cosmos and the injury those words caused are permanent – https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/812861/jewish/A-Pillow-Full-of-Feathers.htm.
The story I described shows you the power and danger of the spoken or written word. Your article on Fr Ripperger could be described as journalistic malpractice, or yellow journalism or character assassination. Remember, just because you’re a journalist doesn’t mean you have to comment on everything and everyone.
Your article [seen here: https://wherepeteris.com/the-bizarre-and-dangerous-views-of-a-celebrity-exorcist/] was classic ‘deconstructionism.’ This is a common tool of modernist, they, for example, like to cherry pick verses in Scripture in order to try and make it say what they want. ‘Deconstructionism’ is a modernist method of interpreting the Scriptures. Using this method, you can make Shakespeare, John Bunyan or John Milton say anything. It’s easy to cherry pick, build up a straw man and beat up on it like a punching bag.
Secondly, by way of analogy, your like a white belt who is criticizing a black in Theology and Spiritual Warfare. Anybody who read your article can see that your way out of your lane. You’re punching above your weight class. Have you seen Fr Ripperger’s curriculum vitae?
Doctorate in philosophy Years Attended 1995-1996
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Rome, Italy
License in philosophy Years Attended 1994-1995
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Rome, Italy
Masters in theology Years Attended 1989-1990
Holy Apostles College and Seminary Cromwell, Connecticut
Masters in Philosophy Years Attended 1987-1989
Center of Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas
Bachelors in Philosophy Years Attended 1984-1987
University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA
Bachelors in Theology Years Attended 1984-1987
University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA
Certificate of Completion Years Attended 1984-1987
St. Ignatius Institute (University of San Francisco) San Francisco, CA
Fr Ripperger has been driving demons out from people for almost two decades. His books are the locus classicus on the topic of Catholic Spiritual Warfare, Fr Ripperger has spilled 2,677 pages of ink on Spiritual Warfare, what other Catholic even comes close to that research. Here are his Spiritual Warfare books:
1] The Science of Mental Health – 692 pages. 2] Dominion – 586 pages. 3] Diabolic Influence – 810 pages. 4] Minor Exorcisms and Deliverance Prayers – 454 pages. 5] Deliverance Prayer for use by the Laity – 135 pages.
Mike, I would suspect that your resume is thin (and so is mine) compared to Fr Rippergers. Your credentials compared to his are “found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). You’re like someone who has read about ‘floods’ and you’re trying to teach Noah about floods. According to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (specifically in the Second Part of the Second Part, which deals with ethics), if a person surpasses our understanding on a matter due to their qualifications and authority in a subject, then we should defer to their judgment, as their expertise allows them to grasp truths that may be beyond our own cognitive capacity; essentially, this is the concept of “deferring to an expert.”
3rd, it’s easy to tear down someone’s argument when he is not there to oppose and explain his position. Proverbs 18:17 “He who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” The true art of rhetoric and journalism is to make the case for your position which you did not. You remind me of an 8 year old bully walking in the beach, he sees another kid who just built a sand castle which took him several hours. The 8 year old who has built nothing, out of sheer envy kicks over the sand castle in 2 seconds flat. Fr Ripperger has spent his life as a serious Priest, an academic and an exorcist. Catholic Priests are our officers on the battlefield. They need our prayers and we need to support them in their Priestly ministry and help them build up the kingdom of God and fight for souls, not tear them down with our keyboards with a bunch of innuendos!
Malachi 2:7 “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Your article also lacks a sense of propriety, courtesy, piety for God’s authority and his spiritual patriarchs (our clergy). Remember David a man after God’s own heart said about King Saul (Gods patriarch) who was trying to kill David: “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’S anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6 RSV). If you have a problem with a brother, go to him first, that’s what the Master said (cf. Matt 18-15). That’s what you should have done, instead, you cut a pillow and threw the feathers into the 4 winds and you have scandalized many good pious faithful Catholics. Our Lord warned us about people that scandalize “the little ones” (cf. Matt 18:1-7).
I ask myself, why a Priest who says he is an Exorcist and has a movie studio to reproduce what he claims happens in session gets a pass, no scrutiny for his work. Another Exorcist who does online deliverance sessions and ran the St Luke’s Treatment Center where under his supervision at St Luke Treatment center for Catholic Priest had a strange form of therapy for Priest called ‘Penile plethysmography.’ This treatment is debatable in the field of mental health by the experts. I wonder if you are interested in writing an article on these men of the cloth. However, Fr. Ripperger is under scrutiny for every word he speaks. It tells us a lot about your nefarious motives which are to get a good holy Priest cancelled. As Kyle Clement (spiritual warfare expert) says, “the demon always seeks a platform” and Mike Lewis, you are seeking a platform or someone put you up to this (going after Fr Chad Ripperger).
With all the evil problems in our world, country, the Church, and you choose to focus your intellect and energies on a Priest who has done so much good and simply strengthens the faith of more people in the mystical body of Christ then most Priests. That makes no sense. That’s like if your house is on fire, you run, grab the waterhouse and instead run to the backyard and water the corn instead. Wow, talk about missing the mark. I offer the following verses to you to reflect on before you get on your keyboard and rain innuendos upon a unique Catholic Priest in the future who has done so much good for the body of Christ.
Proverbs 13:2-3 “From the fruit of his mouth a good man eats good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence. [3] He who guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.”
Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”
Proverbs 21:23 “He who keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”
Numbers 6:24-26 to you and your family,
Jesse Romero