One may wonder how or why St. Gabriel's "Catholic" Academy dares to present itself as Catholic. Let's examine the problem - it's called sophistry (which means "false reasoning").
As I made clear years ago, Christian means Catholic and Catholic means Christian. But thanks to modernism and its child, ecumania, the unthinkable is happening: Protestantism, erroneously believing itself to be Christian, now begins to call itself "Catholic." We should have seen this one coming.
Christian means Catholic and Catholic means Christian; that much is clear from all of the long-standing Church documents. So modernism, that schizophrenic heresy which is so adept at changing and adapting in order to sustain itself while simultaneously deceiving the unwary, coyly steps in. (Yes, it's "Modernism and the Borg Queen" all over again.) Still, all the semantics in the world cannot change the unchanging Truth that Christianity and Catholicism are one and the same. We are not speaking of Protestantism, which thinks itself Christian but is not.
The non-acceptance of that one truth - even amongst Catholics from all walks of life - is one reason why so-called "Christian" educational academies (that are only singular entities which cling to the heresy of Protestantism, which itself takes hundreds of forms) are gaining Catholic adherents. Since Protestantism is an erroneous "belief system," it is a false religion yet one that wrongly considers itself "Christian."
Today, the serious error has progressed even further, to the point that at least one of these false Christian organizations now calls itself Catholic. What a twist on "Catholic means Christian, and Christian means Catholic" - and that twist is nothing but a flagrant example of the modernist heresy at work.
Over a dozen years ago, armed with clear and concise Church doctrine, I warned my fellow Catholics that so-called "Christian" materials are "Red Flags" for Catholic homeschooling families. Why? There are many reasons, the first and foremost being the Church's doctrine on the Christian education of youth.
The key words in that last sentence above are "the Church" and "Christian." There is only one Church established by Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, and His Church bears four marks. The Church is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic - and these very words are used in The Apostles' Creed of the Church. Therefore, the one and only Church of Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church, simply known as "the Church" for many centuries. Today, however, Catholics are practically forced to say "Catholic Church," since those who accept the various Protestant heresies (and its many variations) and gather together to "worship" call themselves "churches."
To continue with the theme of Christianity means Catholicism and Catholicism means Christianity: Neither term means Protestantism. Protestantism is a heresy; it is not Christian, because it refuses to acknowledge that Jesus Christ founded the Church, which is one, holy, Catholic and aposstolic - e.g., the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism is a heresy because it rejects one or more of the tenets of Divine Revelation. Protestantism, therefore, is not Christian because it is not Catholic, which means universal. Even with the word universal, we must now be careful, due to its new modernist definition.
The heresy of modernism redefines all the truths, down to every minute detail, of the Faith. Catholics hoping to avoid the traps laid by modernism should often refer to Pascendi Dominici Gregis; it is an infallible papal document, issued by the Holy Office, in which the "Doctrines of the Modernists" are well-explained and condemned. Modernism is the foundation of ecumania (literally, "a mania for ecumenism"), but ecumenism itself has been redefined by modernism! The modernist definition of ecumenism wrongly teaches all sorts of errors (heresies) as true doctrines of the Church - e.g., that all religions are good and equal; that the Church must conform herself to modern times; that the Mystical Body of Christ can learn a few good and worthy things from heretics (forgetting that if they teach anything that is good, it is because they retained a few Catholic truths); that the Church must seek for deeper understanding not only of herself but also of other "churches," and much more nonsense. Most of all, modernism insists that the Church must assimilate heresies into her very doctrines. Of course, the true Church (meaning Eternal Rome, the kingdom of God on earth, the Bride of Christ) will never officially define heresy as Truth, but individual Catholics within the Church can and do accept (and spread) modernist errors. Why? They dismiss the teachings of Tradition as "not relevant to today" (which itself is a modernist teaching!).
The end result is that modernism claims that the "universal" Church is one in which all belief systems are accepted as true, valid and acceptable to God. This claim is an evil deception; modernism is the worst heresy that has ever afflicted the Church. In fact, one of the popes succinctly defined modernism as "the synthesis of all heresies," and so it is.
One may wonder: What does all of this have do with Catholic homeschooling? Too much, actually. We have long known that Protestant home study programs, academies, and services wrongly proclaim themselves to be Christian. With modernism so prevalent, it follows that it was only a matter of time before we began to see Protestant organizations daring to present themselves as "Catholic." Modernism is usually subtle but always cunning. We've already seen at least one example in which a Protestant home study organization pretends to be Catholic by including the word "Catholic" in its legal name... and it may be there shall be more to follow.
To clarify a previous blog entry under the Red Flag section, the legal name of St. Gabriel’s is St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy. The mailing address is 10 Shurs Lane Philadelphia, PA 19127.
Catholic parents familiar with “Red Flags” sent the following information and/or personal testimonies in regard to the allegedly Catholic online service:
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Note: July 31, 2009 UPDATE! Before continuing, it must be said at this particular juncture that since this post was first written in April 2008, St. Gabriel's "Catholic" Academy (SGCA) changed its website from www.stgabrielcatholicacademy.org page to another server. Its NEW home page is http://studioanino.com/clients/lbg/stgabriel/index.php?
Please take a look at St. Gabriel's Catholic Academy's "Homeschool Web Site Copyright Notice" which is now at [http://studioanino.com/clients/lbg/stgabriel/index.php?page=copyright]. The notice clearly displays the strong Protestant affiliation of this “Catholic” academy, including use of a Protestant "Bible":
Materials, code, scripts, html, Uniform Resource Locators and other materials located on or associated with this homeschool web site are copyright © 1999–2008 ELRN, Inc. and/or Learning By Grace, Inc. and/or other copyright holders. All rights reserved. Duplication is permitted, on public domain etexts only, other site content may NOT be copied. Some material may be © Copyright 1999–2008 J. Banfill, IDG, Inc., EVS, Inc., Christian Liberty Press, Inc., Learning By Grace, Inc., Learning By Grace Delaware Inc., Oliver Schulz, Tutorbots, Inc., TheSchoolResources.Com Foundation, How Great Thou Art Publications, Glory Math Education, Inc. and other copyright owners. Some content is a trademark of or a registered trademark of Learning By Grace, Inc. and/or ELRN, Inc. and/or St. Gabriel Catholic Academy. (sic) and/or other trademark holders. The St. Gabriel Catholic Academy (sm) is a service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. ‘Exploring Creation’ is a registered trademark of ELRN, Inc. used with permission. Scriptures marked as “(GNT)” are taken from the Good News Translation – Second Edition © 1992 by American Bible Society (www.americanbible.org, www.bibles.com). Used by permission. We thank American Bible Society for their generous provision and their historical mission. We thank Gutenberg Project for their massive contributions to the advancement in the worldwide availability of literature.
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I saw red flags on the St. Gabriel site, too. Dr. Bill Bright (now deceased) was well known in Protestant circles, but he was not Catholic. He was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization on college campuses all over the country which evangelizes college students to Protestantism. Catholics not firm in or not understanding their faith have been lost to the Church due to this ministry.
The St. Gabriel Catholic Academy religion course includes a [Protestant] book by Dr. Bright called "Living Supernaturally in Christ," so that tells me this could be a site with a hidden agenda or a very confused protestant (sic) trying to gain some Catholic homeschoolers…
If you compare the grade 9 Bible course of the [Protestant] Grace Academy with St. Gabriel Catholic Academy, you will see they are EXACTLY the same….[but]the Catholic faith and protestantism are not interchangeable. May we all be one in Christ one day, but it hasn't happened yet...
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Check this link:
http://www.learningbygrace.org/LBG_academies/compare1.php
St. Gabriel's [Catholic Academy] appears to be identical to the above linked "sister" academies. Although St. Gabriel’s isn't mentioned, it has [an] identical mission statement, objectives and curriculum. The webpages all seem too similar to be coincidence.
I wonder if Mimi Rothchild is behind it? Please see: http://www.learningbygrace.org/mimi_rothschild.php
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This is [the info] I sent to my home school group [on St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy). In addition, all these other [Protestant "sister"] schools [with which St. Gabriel's is associated] have a variation on their statement of faith.
The woman I spoke with was very evasive. She never answered my questions [in a satisfactory fashion]. She sounded as though she was saying what she was told to say. [e.g. - “canned” replies]
[It appears that] Mimi Rothschild is involved with this. She and her husband were involved in starting a virtual charter school in PA a few years ago that was a flop. Perhaps someone in PA could provide more info on that?
There are also numerous complaints I found on other blogs. There were red flags everywhere![St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy] is associated with Learning By Grace, Inc., which also runs other online Protestant schools. (All the schools share the same address in PA.)
I called to talk to someone at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy and while on hold I was treated to very holy music with monks chanting, etc. The woman with whom I spoke said they [St. Gabriel’s Academy) are an online curriculum provider. They do not give diplomas. You must register as a home schooler and they provide teacher "support.”
She said that the teachers are "trained in Catholic teaching" but are not necessarily Catholic. I could not get a straight answer as to who exactly runs this school or who started it or how they can claim to be Catholic.
So I asked about the other “Christian” schools run by them. She said that they "support those other academies as well.” I pointed out that they all appear to have the same curriculum. She said it is not the same [but] the "content is conducive to each religion." (!)
I then questioned her again as to whether the teachers at St. Gabriel's were Catholic and she said that "each teacher is an expert" in their area of study. (Why not let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no"?)
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St. Gabriel's [Catholic Academy]…is identical, right down to the curriculum, to Learning by Grace which is very protestant. [sic]
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St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy uses the same curriculum as Morningstar Academy, which is an Anabaptist/Sola Scriptura (“Bible only”) provider. St. Gabriel’s Catholic Academy is not Catholic, so why is it pretending to be? Presenting itself as a "Catholic academy" is an outright deception.
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The shared observations above are the latest information to date. As one can see, there appear to be extremely valid concerns in regard to the Protestant heresy which permeates the curriculum of this alleged “Catholic” academy.
This grave error only serves to once more prove that the Church's doctrine on the Christian (meaning Catholic) education of youth is our sure and sound mooring. The four pillars of true Catholic education (toward which Keeping It Catholic has consistently pointed for over a dozen years) must be present. For many years, I have explained the details of these four pillars on the Keeping It Catholic list, in my books, and in my various speeches.
The four pillars are solid anchors, but it seems that there are those who dare to use the Church's very documents in order to defraud Catholics. This is easily done when the word "Christian" is wrongly assumed to include Protestantism. Thus, when a Protestant site features excerpts from Catholic Church documents like Divini Illius Magistri or Militantis Ecclesiae which refer to "Christian" or "Religion," what other conclusion can we reach, other than their self-representation is a purposefully disingenous facade?
"...it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, and its teachers, syllabus and text books in every branch, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that Religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth's entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and the higher instituions of learning as well." (#80, Divini Illius Magistri - "On Christian Education of Youth" - 1929)
Always remember...a Catholic is a Christian, and a Christian is a Catholic, but be on guard any "new" definitions of the meanings!
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