Contending For The Faith---Part 46

 

In St. Jude 1:3, we read, "Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." [Emphasis mine]. Contending For The Faith is a series of posts dedicated to apologetics (i.e.,  the intellectual defense of the truth of the Traditional Catholic Faith) to be published the first Monday of each month.  This is the next installment.

Sadly, in this time of Great Apostasy, the faith is under attack like never before, and many Traditionalists don't know their faith well enough to defend it. Remember the words of our first pope, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1Peter 3:16). There are five (5) categories of attacks that will be dealt with in these posts. Attacks against:

• The existence and attributes of God
• The truth of the One True Church established by Christ for the salvation of all 
• The truth of a particular dogma or doctrine of the Church
• The truth of Catholic moral teaching
• The truth of the sedevacantist position as the only Catholic solution to what has happened since Vatican II 

In addition, controversial topics touching on the Faith will sometimes be featured, so that the problem and possible solutions may be better understood. If anyone had suggestions for topics that would fall into any of these categories, you may post them in the comments. I cannot guarantee a post on each one, but each will be carefully considered.

Beware Charles Coulombe 

There's a new internet platform for the R&R, "Pelican Plus." It has the usual cast of characters with their half-baked theology, wrong premises, and false conclusions (See pelicanplus.com). The "Founding Collaborators," as they call themselves, come replete with titles: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski "Tradition & Sanity" (more like "Novelty and Schizophrenia"); Kennedy Hall "Mere Tradition"("Mere Ramblings"); Timothy Flanders "The Meaning of Catholic" ("..is the Opposite of What he Thinks");Dr. Edward Schaefer "The Collegium" ("Kindergarten Katholic"); Nicholas Cavazos "The Traditional Thomist" ("...For Those Who Don't Know Philosophy"); and Dan Sevigny "Restoring Christian Culture Initiative" ("Not With Vatican II You Won't").

It's sad as what passes for "Traditional Catholicism." Novus Ordo Watch made this insightful remark on "X:" 

Some Semi-Traditionalists are putting together a new internet platform called 'Pelican Plus'. It will feature content from some familiar recognize-and-resist gatekeepers (and others): Kwasniewski, Flanders, Hall, Cavazos. https://pelicanplus.com They are declaring their stuff "content you can trust", of course, but that is not terribly meaningful. Furthermore, although they acknowledge the Vatican II Church's hierarchy to be the legitimate Roman Catholic authority having the care of souls, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will not make the content on Pelican+ dependent on the prior approval of any 'Catholic bishop' who's currently in charge of the diocese where they reside or a diocese or territory where the content is hosted. (Emphasis mine).

To me this platform was nothing very newsworthy until I saw Pelican Plus make the following announcement on X:

We’re thrilled to welcome Charles A. Coulombe (@RCCoulombe) to Pelican+!

A celebrated author, historian, and storyteller, Charles has spent decades writing, lecturing, and exploring the intersections of faith, culture, and history. From Oxford debates to royal palaces, his life has been anything but ordinary.

Now, Charles is bringing his unmistakable voice to something new at Pelican+. A bit of chaos, perfectly under control. (Posted on 11/13/25). 

Charles Coulombe's life has definitely been "anything but Catholic." Coulombe has been deeply involved in the occult (he claims to have repented of that) and remains a Feeneyite heretic (to his credit he is not a follower of Fred and Bobby). He also denigrates the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, the surest sign of one who has broken with the Catholic Faith. 

This post will expose Coulombe and it will be apparent why any "Traditional Catholic" platform that sponsors him is not "Catholic" and should be avoided.

Charles Coulombe: Involved with the Occult

Between 1987 and 1999, Coulombe wrote no less than seven articles for the occultist magazine entitled Gnosis Magazine.  Although it is no longer published, there is access to back issues, and the content is pure evil.  The editors, Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney, wrote a book entitled Hidden Wisdom. Here is how it is described:

The co-editors of Gnosis magazine explore the many esoteric traditions that Western culture has to offer. While terms from Eastern spiritual practices such as zen, mantra, and karma have become part of our daily lexicon, the traditions of Western spirituality have been largely unexplored by people searching for non-mainstream routes to spiritual experience. But for those who identify with Western culture, Western religious traditions have their own wisdom teachings that are more suitable to their needs and expectations. Many of those searching for alternative religions are not even aware that Western civilization has always had its own traditions, which are often hidden. In this fascinating introduction to non-mainstream Western spirituality, the coeditors of Gnosis magazine--today's leading journal of mystical spirituality--guide you through the teachings of Jung and Gurdjieff, the Kabbalah, neo-paganism, shamanism, alchemy, Sufism, and more. Explaining the history and practice of each tradition and describing its important figures, the authors present the ideas, strengths, and weaknesses of each tradition and offer a wealth of resources for those interested in pursuing these paths further.

Larry Dossey, M.D. has said "this book is a treasure. Highly recommended." This book represents a distillation of the research and inquiry that the authors undertook as editors of GNOSIS Magazine.

(See gnosismagazine.com/about_gnosis/hiddenwisdom.html; Emphasis mine). 

Three of the articles he wrote are: 1. "The Esoteric Orthodoxy of Catholicism", on "Appreciating traditional Catholicism from an esoteric perspective"  2. "Portals of Sleep" explaining that "the ancient Celts, dreams were a door to the land of Faerie" and 3. "The Secret Church of John" on "An inquiry into the legend of the 'hidden Church of John - said to exist above and beyond the outer Church."

If all of this sounds disturbing, it should. However, it gets worse. Coulombe participated in Tarot card readings with a "Gnostic bishop," Dr. Hoeller (See vimeo.com/user107247931?fbclid=IwY2xjawKs3ThleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFPQ1o1NkZKZG9mOW93WU5iAR5ePtpm96Z5vFpxawSeJ9vY_Sqgb365Gd5c_4PZTiFHdhRxXVFMfxJ5yvBzSA_aem_fnVu0rsLRQhhyrA_z6vN9Q---for videos with Coulombe). 

Tarot cards are a form of divination. One of the most prevalent evils is that of divination. Divination has existed in all cultures throughout history. Its basic idea involves foretelling the future or accessing occult information by various means. Traditionally, the person who practiced divination was regarded as having supernatural powers. Despite its frequent modern reformulation in psychological or parapsychological terms (e.g., receiving information from “the unconscious” or “higher” mind), historically, divination has always been an attempt to communicate with the supernatural or “divine” realm in order to secure information from the “gods.” Its fundamentally pagan and spiritistic nature has never changed, regardless of how “modern” its practices have become today.

The condemnation of divination comes to us from the passages of the Bible (as rightly interpreted by the Magisterium) and the Church of Her own authority. According to theologian Slater:

On Divination. We here suppose that the devil, a wicked spirit of great intelligence and power, but subject to God, exists and continually interferes in the affairs of men in order to ruin them. This truth belongs to the Catholic Faith and cannot be denied without sin. The sin of divination is committed when the devil is invoked expressly or tacitly in order to discover what is secret and hidden. There is express invocation of the devil when his aid is expressly implored. The devil is tacitly invoked when altogether inadequate means are used to find out what is occult [hidden], means which are not sufficient for the purpose naturally, and which have not been ordained by God for that purpose. The devil is eager to be appealed to in order the more easily to attain his own ends, and anyone who uses such inadequate means  to find out hidden secrets virtually appeals to the devil to help him. A great variety of such means of divination has been in use from the earliest times among all nations; and periods which have witnessed a decay of faith have also witnessed a recrudescence [recurrence] of these superstitions...The devil sometimes takes possession of the body of a human being and manifests what is secret through it; this was called pythonism. The devil had his prophets as God had. In necromancy the devil answers through the dead called to life again...Divination is mortally sinful, for it is a great insult to God to hold intercourse with and seek aid from the devil, His bitter enemy; and besides, it is most dangerous to the parties concerned. He is wont gradually to insinuate himself until he has his victim within his power, and then he works on him his evil will. (See A Manual of Moral Theology, [1925], 1:141-142; Emphasis mine). 

Therefore, let no one say to you that divination (in any form) is "harmless," or "only used as entertainment," or is OK if you believe in God because He protects you (God will never protect someone who deliberately exposes himself to evil through sin). The Bible is very clear as to what God thinks of divination:

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

Do not practice divination or sorcery. (Leviticus 19:26).

He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger. (2 Chronicles 33:6).

Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds" (Jeremiah 14:14).

 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain girl, having a pythonical [telling the future] spirit, met us, who brought to her masters much gain by divining. This same following Paul and us, cried out, saying: "These men are the servants of the most high God, who preach unto you the way of salvation." And this she did many days. But Paul being grieved, turned, and said to the spirit: "I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to go out from her." And he went out the same hour. (Acts 16:16-18). 

Tarot cards probably originated in Italy in the 14th century since the earliest known explanation of their usage dates to 1391. The pack of cards, known as the Tarocco, is made up of 22 major enigmas, whose figures represent a synthesis of the mysteries of life; and 56 minor images incorporating 14 figures in four series (gold, clubs, swords and goblets). The 22 major enigmas correspond to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the number of hieroglyphs the ancient Jews used in divination. Each major enigma has an image with a particular meaning, e.g. Enigma I is the Minstrel, which signifies The Being, the spirit and creation; and Enigma XV is the Devil, which signifies magic, eloquence, commerce and mystery. Enigmas I through XI comprise the solar way, which is active, conscious, reflective and autonomous; while enigmas XII through XXII denote the lunar way, which is passive, unconscious, intuitive and possessed. The four series of the 56 minor images have the following significance: gold signifies intellectual activity; clubs, government; swords, military career; and goblets, the "priesthood." Practitioners of Tarot believe that these enigmas, images and series represent the sum of the knowledge of all sciences, particularly astrology, and in the permutations in "dealing the cards" are capable of revealing the future and solving all problems. 

An ex-tarot card reader admitted after she broke away from the practice, “It was after getting rid of them that there were several strange happenings, I began to feel the presence of a spirit, which kept visiting me between May and August. I realized the cards had actually connected me with ‘something,’ as I started to feel a presence which kept coming to me, very often, almost weekly. It came at any time … because I had finally broken the connection, and it was trying to keep it.” (See https://newagedeception.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/danger-of-the-tarot-cards-testimony-of-tina-an-ex-tarot-card-reader/).

 In 2002, a sniper who murdered several people left a tarot death card at the scene of one of his shootings along with the blasphemous message "I am God." The tarot cards were (of course) defended by an occultist. If a serial sniper sought by police left the "death" tarot card found near a shooting scene in Maryland, he or she likely doesn't have much of an understanding of tarot, says a woman who's produced instructional audiotapes on the fortunetelling cards.

"Anybody who knows tarot [knows] the death card is a good card in the deck," said Tori Hartman, writer and narrator of 12 Step Tarot and Learn How to Read the Tarot in an Hour. "It is basically transformation and it tells you that old ways of thinking are transforming." Transforming into something from Hell no doubt. (See https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=89996). 

This is what Charles Coulombe was using. To be fair, Coulombe pledged not to do further public tarot readings after a Vatican II sect "priest" reprimanded him, but his involvement in the occult goes back into at least the 1980s and was more than "experimentation:" his involvement went deep. I cannot help but question how a man who claims erudition and has written books on Catholic topics could get involved with tarot cards and a Gnostic sect. A plea of ignorance must be dismissed. 

Charles Coulombe: Feeneyite Heretic

Coulombe is the author of a book, first published in the 1990s under the pen name Thomas A. Hutchinson, entitled Desire and Deception: How Catholics Stopped Believing. It is now published under his real name. The book is one of the worst I've ever read; Fred and Bobby Dimond seem like top-tier authors compared to Coulombe. 

In summary, the rambling book explains that the Church misunderstood the dogma Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus for hundreds of years. This was due to the rejection of Neo-Platonism for Thomism. Apparently, the great Aquinas was responsible for the "heresy" of Baptism of Desire and Baptism of Blood. The Church was "saved" by the heroic actions of excommunicated Jesuit Leonard Feeney. 

Two aspects will be addressed: 1. Coulombe's attempt to rehabilitate and lionize the heretical monster Leonard Feeney, and 2. his denigration of the Angelic Doctor and Thomism.

A Feeney Sycophant

For a so-called historian, Coulombe is either culpably ignorant or less than honest when holding up Leonard Feeney as an ersatz "savior" of the Church. (Although validly ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1928, Feeney is not to be honored with the title of "Fr." since he was excommunicated a vitandus by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, with approval of Pope Pius XII, in 1953. Likewise, we do not call Martin Luther, a validly ordained Augustinian priest, "Fr. Luther" since his solemn excommunication by Pope Leo X). 

Here's what Coulombe OMITS. Leonard Feeney:

• was never qualified as a theologian or canonist  

• was disobedient to his lawful superiors and refused to report to the Holy See during the reign of Pope Pius XII and defend his teachings. He was subsequently excommunicated by Pope Pius XII

• taught a strange, mixed-up notion of Justification and Salvation which is rejected even by his modern day followers

• started a "religious order" consisting of married couples with children without ecclesiastical approval and in violation of Canon Law

• abused the children of those "religious" by raising them communally and depriving them of their mother and father as God intended

• taught that baptized infants were not somehow in the Mystical Body of Christ and could not be considered "children of Mary"

Leonard Feeney was no "hero," but he was a child abusing lunatic. (For more details see my post: introiboadaltaredei2.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-sickness-of-soul.html).

Contemptuous of Thomism

I'll let the Church speak on behalf of St. Thomas and his philosophy against the mindless rantings of Coulombe.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law:

Canon 1366, section 2.

Professors shall treat studies in rational theology and philosophy and the instruction of students in these disciplines according to the system, teaching, and principles of the Angelic Doctor and hold to them religiously.

Canon 589, section 1

Religious correctly instructed in lower disciplines shall diligently pursue philosophical studies for at least two years and sacred theology for at least four years, adhering to the teachings of D[om] Thomas according to the norm of Canon 1366, section 2, according to the instructions of the Apostolic See.

Pope Leo XII:

Therefore in this also let us follow the example of the Angelic Doctor, who never gave himself to reading or writing without first begging the blessing of God, who modestly confessed that whatever he knew he had acquired not so much by his own study and labor as by the divine gift. (Aeterni Patris, para. #33).

In the Councils of Lyons, Vienna, Florence, and the Vatican one might almost say that Thomas took part and presided over the deliberations and decrees of the Fathers, contending against the errors of the Greeks, of heretics and rationalists, with invincible force and with the happiest results. (Ibid; para. #22)

Pope St. Pius X:

If the doctrine of any writer or Saint has ever been approved by Us or Our Predecessors with such singular commendation and in such a way that to the commendation were added an invitation and order to propagate and defend it, it may easily be understood that it was commended to the extent that it agreed with the principles of Aquinas or was in no way opposed to them. (See Doctoris Angelici).

In his greatest encyclical against Modernism, the saintly Pontiff recommends Aquinas and his philosophy as an antidote to Modernism:

 In the first place, with regard to studies, We will and ordain that scholastic philosophy be made the basis of the sacred sciences. It goes without saying that if anything is met with among the scholastic doctors which may be regarded as an excess of subtlety, or which is altogether destitute of probability, We have no desire whatever to propose it for the imitation of present generations (Leo XIII. Enc. Aeterni Patris). And let it be clearly understood above all things that the scholastic philosophy We prescribe is that which the Angelic Doctor has bequeathed to us, and We, therefore, declare that all the ordinances of Our Predecessor on this subject continue fully in force, and, as far as may be necessary, We do decree anew, and confirm, and ordain that they be by all strictly observed. In seminaries where they may have been neglected let the Bishops impose them and require their observance, and let this apply also to the Superiors of religious institutions. Further let Professors remember that they cannot set St. Thomas aside, especially in metaphysical questions, without grave detriment. (para. #45; Emphasis mine). 

Pope Pius XII:

In his encyclical condemning "false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine," Humani Generis of 1950, the Pontiff had this to say in paragraphs 31 and 32:

If one considers all this well, he will easily see why the Church demands that future priests be instructed in philosophy "according to the method, doctrine, and principles of the Angelic Doctor," since, as we well know from the experience of centuries, the method of Aquinas is singularly preeminent both of teaching students and for bringing truth to light; his doctrine is in harmony with Divine Revelation, and is most effective both for safeguarding the foundation of the faith and for reaping, safely and usefully, the fruits of sound progress.

How deplorable it is then that this philosophy, received and honored by the Church, is scorned by some, who shamelessly call it outmoded in form and rationalistic, as they say, in its method of thought. They say that this philosophy upholds the erroneous notion that there can be a metaphysic that is absolutely true; whereas in fact, they say, reality, especially transcendent reality, cannot better be expressed than by disparate teachings, which mutually complete each other, although they are in a way mutually opposed. Our traditional philosophy, then, with its clear exposition and solution of questions, its accurate definition of terms, its clear-cut distinctions, can be, they concede, useful as a preparation for scholastic theology, a preparation quite in accord with medieval mentality; but this philosophy hardly offers a method of philosophizing suited to the needs of our modern culture. They allege, finally, that our perennial philosophy is only a philosophy of immutable essences, while the contemporary mind must look to the existence of things and to life, which is ever in flux. While scorning our philosophy, they extol other philosophies of all kinds, ancient and modern, oriental and occidental, by which they seem to imply that any kind of philosophy or theory, with a few additions and corrections if need be, can be reconciled with Catholic dogma. No Catholic can doubt how false this is, especially where there is question of those fictitious theories they call immanentism, or idealism or materialism, whether historic or dialectic, or even existentialism, whether atheistic or simply the type that denies the validity of the reason in the field of metaphysics. (Emphasis mine). 

Conclusion

Charles Coulombe was deeply involved in the occult and cannot claim he was unaware of the Church's teaching on such, having studied Catholicism for many years. Although he claims to have sincerely repented of his occult involvement, he has not forsaken the Feeneyite heresy. He makes a "hero" out of the excommunicated, child-abusing lunatic, Leonard Feeney. He disparages the great St. Thomas Aquinas and his philosophic methodology, claiming against all Church teaching, that it has led to error and even heresy.

Now, an R&R platform, Pelican Plus, has this man writing for them as a "good Catholic." Are these "Founding Collaborators" of the platform ignorant of all this information? If not, why do they allow him to write for them at all? Stay away. The "+" in Pelican Plus is Feeneyism, and the denigration of Aquinas coming from a former occultist.