Dear Friend,
Thank you for you stern but fair counsel and direction in this matter. At your request, and by your direction, I have decided to lay the facts out in the manner you prescribed.
First, it has been very painful to have had the Deeper Truth Apostolate that I founded stolen from underneath me and turned into something it was never meant to be.
There are 3 main reasons for this.
It was a port in the storm in what has been a very turbulent life over a number of years.
Because I truly love proclaiming and defending the Catholic faith.
It was a very vicious and totally unnecessary betrayal by a person I loved more than a brother.
For the purposes of this part of the letter, let's deal now with the 3rd point.
The problems really began in about September of last year when I very diplomatically raised some very serious concerns with Donald Hartley about egregiously false and erroneous claims being made on the Deeper Truth show by John Carpenter. These were not differences of opinion or interpretation but were just flat out falsehoods easily refuted by a 5 minute Google search.
Among these were the specious claims that:
There are over 2600 documented appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Medjugorje apparitions have been approved.
Bishop Zanic changed his position on Medjugorje because of communist pressure
The Vatican has reopened the case of Garbandal after a person (unidentified) changed his testimony.
These claims are not accurate. They are outright fabrications, in fact. I addressed these very serious concerns with the man who I shared a deep history with and I stated my position as follows. I loved him like a brother and trusted him.
First, There have only been 25 apparitions approved by the Catholic church. These are the only ones of which we can say definitively that Mary has appeared. Secondly, of those of which a determination has not been made, we can only assert that Mary is alleged to have appeared in these places. Third, and most important, we simply cannot use our blog and podcast to promote private revelations that the church has given an official negative judgement.
These were reasonable requests that were made to protect the integrity of our product and preserve our fidelity to the church. Unfortunately, they were stubbornly rebuffed and rebuffed with an obstinate refusal to even look at the factual evidence.
The main genesis of my objections concerned Garabandal which has been rejected by some 5 Bishops of Jurisdiction and the Vatican and Medjugorje which has been rejected by more than 20 Bishops of Jurisdiction and about which the Vatican has expressed very public skepticism.
That these two events are condemned is not a matter that is debatable or controversial. It is just a fact. The problem is that Donald insists it is true even as the Bishops have been so adamant that it isn't.
I then decided to investigate for myself and watched hours of video and read hundreds of pages from such esteemed persons as Historian Donal Foley, Catholic Answers apologist Patrick Coffin, Former Vatican Exorcist Andreas Gemma, Sensus Fidelium Priest Father Shannon Collins and The late Father Ivro Sivrick. Father Sivrick grew up in Medjugorje and meticulously transcribed the earliest, and most important, messages.
Their findings showed for certain that Medjugorje was not only false but absolutely diabolical.
This video is just a small example of what I found.
My research led me to understand why Mostar Bishops Zanic, Peric and Palic have all stated that Madonna has never appeared in their diocese and that 19 Yugoslav national Bishops voted unanimously to reject these events.
In response to this, Donald Hartley and John Carpenter began to falsely report that the Ruini Commission was a Vatican approval (an outright falsehood) and began attacking my credibility.
As I dug further, I found that the situation was even worse than I thought. Carpenter was publicly promoting at least a dozen events officially condemned by the Vatican. Including this one.
Donald refused to even look at the evidence. This made me decide to leave Deeper Truth.
His response to launch an online smear campaign against me, Donal Foley, Patrick Coffin, Bishop Zanic, Father Collins and pretty much anyone disagreeing with him. The only person he stood by was John Carpenter who joins him in promoting what the church denounces.
As Donald's slanders got more vicious, he locked me out and refused to respond to the facts that so clearly convicted him. He even blamed his behavior on a stroke even after I rallied around him and checked on him daily. This stroke came after he had been publicly attacking me for months.
The fact that Donald, to this day, refuses to dispute the facts I have presented proves he knows he is guilty.
This video I made with Deeper Truth member Gregory Thompson lays the facts out in an unassailable fashion.
That being said, I must confess that I have taken the betrayal from Donald very personally because of his complete absence of contrition.
Donald knew the deepest secrets of my life and how I have suffered incredibly. Yet, he betrayed his trusted friend, anyway.
I must confess that I have responded to this with uncontrollable anger and a remarkable lack of charity. Sins, I must atone for.
Though there is no question I am right on the merits and that everyone knows it, this fact has not- and will not- bring me peace. I must commit this matter to prayer and move forward. Too often I have fallen into the trap of congratulating myself for my Catholic knowledge and debating skills as if I had some merit for the knowledge God has given me. I repent bitterly for the sorrow I have caused for this- and a thousand other things. I allowed myself to imagine I had been aggrieved beyond measure.
I remind myself that I don't know what sorrow is.
Please forgive me and help me move forward proclaiming Jesus.
