I had the opportunity to be re-directed to Petersnet.net -- now called, CatholicCulture.org -- again today. I haven't wasted my time with that site in quite awhile. For anyone who doesn't know about them, Petersnet.net is a website that presumes to rate Catholic websites on a number of issues, but mostly on the websites' fidelity to the magisterium.

CatholicCulture.org caught my attention today, more so than in the past, because they gave negative ratings to some very positive Catholic organizations and websites; essentially slandering them on their fidelity to the magisterium for no other reason than the organizations or sites have takes on issues that differ from those of CatholicCulture.org. Surprisingly, even Catholic.org got a negative rating from them; and I would have thought they would be on the same page. So I took a mosey around CatholicCulture.org to see if I could find a bishop, say, or a diocesan censor who could be weighing in on other people's fidelity to Church teaching

As listed on their site, they have nine staff members; none of whom are even clergy, much less a bishop or diocesan censor. Admittedly, they have a lot of programmers and web developers among the staff. I guess that qualifies them to analyze a web site's technology; and, by extension, a web site's fidelity to Church teaching. And of course their President and Founder, Jeffrey Mirus is especially qualified to evaluate other people's fidelity to Church teaching. He has a PhD, after all, from Princeton University in, of all things, Intellectual History! You couldn't ask for better credentials than that.

Of course, Jeffery Mirus has a prior history of trying to decide for other people what the magisterium teaches; or what Catholics, according to his own authority, are supposed to believe. After all, he himself is also Founder and President of Christendom College; a college that exists for no other reason than he, on his own authority, decided Catholic colleges were not Catholic. I guess there were too many Democrats at Notre Dame.

Out of curiosity, I looked to see how they rated CfD. CfD didn't turn up on there list, though. I guess we're not important enough. Of course, I already know how we would be rated, should we ever catch their attention. We would be rated among their WARNING! list. We have too many Democrats here, too. But their rating would not matter to me. When it comes to fidelity to the Church, I will hold my own opinions and defer to those who have proper authority -- say, for example, the bishops -- on what it means to be faithful. I will not defer to Dr. I got my degree from Princeton and believe that makes me the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.