MARIO DERKSEN STILL HAS NO ANSWER

MARIO DERKSEN STILL HAS NO ANSWER:
His Latest Webcast is More “Smoke and Mirrors”

Mario Derksen

   For over a decade, Mario Derksen of NovusOrdoWatch.com has been the big bully on the Sedevacantist playground. He continuously issues inflammatory and demagogic articles and webcasts that denigrate Catholics who refuse to subscribe to the ludicrous theory of Sedevacantism, which maintains that a Catholic must judge for himself whether the man lawfully elected Pope and recognized as such by the Church is, in fact, a true Pope. Derksen has also made us the chief targets of his internet campaign, for publishing articles against Sedevacantism, even though we had never attacked him personally or even mentioned him in any of our articles. Engaging in unsolicited attacks on others is evidently behavior that Derksen learned from the bad example of his mentor, the flamboyant Fr. Anthony Cekada, who has been mocking and ridiculing non-Sedevacantists on his own website for years.

Fr. Cekada

      Derksen carries out his agenda by masquerading behind his website and his pen-name (“Gregorius”), while pretending that he is actually part of a larger organization of unidentified Sedevacantist apologists (he refers to his work as “we” did this and “we” did that). He creates these appearances to cushion himself against the massive criticisms that his unscholarly work consistently engenders (he never personally takes credit for any of his work, under his own name, and it’s no wonder why). This way, he can pick and choose what he wants to take responsibility for, all the while he broadcasts his webcasts from “an undisclosed location” (his words). 
       Since his life’s work is devoted to defending the Sedevacantist sect and attacking anyone who disagrees with him, one would think he would have had something of substance to say, by now, about our book True or False Pope?, since it has been out for over two months. This is especially so since Derksen began releasing material that attempted to refute the book before it was even published! We even received a threatening e-mail from one of Derksen's friends (before the book was released), that included the warning: "wait until you see what we have planned for you." Surely, if anyone was primed and ready to tackle this book head on, it was Mario Derksen, right? Apparently not.  

       As we have well-documented, Derksen has been unable to offer a single, theological rebuttal to the book. Not one. What is Derksen’s excuse for this?  Believe it or not (just listen to the webcast), he actually says he “doesn’t have time” to answer all of our arguments. Referring to himself and his imaginary colleagues, Derksen says “we like to think before we speak.” He then complains that we

Mario Derksen

(Salza and Siscoe) are “taking advantage” of the fact that our book is so long! Is Derksen serious? Does he really think people will buy these arguments? And what is it that Mario has to think about?  After all, before the book was even released, he mockingly boasted on his website that the book will only repeat the same old arguments that have already been refuted.  But if that's the case, why is there now the need to ponder our arguments for months before responding? Could Derksen have come up with a more embarrassing excuse for why he has been unable to live up to his bold threats? And this from a man who had enough “time” to critique our book and try to discredit it, before it was even published!  Mario even registered a domain name with our book’s title, and set up a special section of his website dedicated to refuting the book. But now that the book is published, all of a sudden, Mario’s schedule just got a lot busier! (Can’t the unidentified “staff” at NovusOrdoWatch help poor Mario out?) It is clear that Derksen needs more time to think about our arguments because he does not currently have an answer to them. After boasting and bragging about how he would destroy us and our book, he was caught completely off guard and has no answer.  He evidently figured he had to put out something on his website, so conspicuous and public has been his silence and lack of competence to respond, after bragging and boasting to his few followers. Instead of admitting to himself and his readers that he has no answer to the theological arguments, he puts out a 57 minute smoke screen of a webcast that addresses nothing of substance. 

       What makes Derksen’s excuse about his suddenly busy schedule even more laughable, is that he evidently did have the time (and plenty of it) to address the most peripheral, irrelevant and non-theological arguments, which he made the subject of his hour-long webcast (how many hours did that take to produce?).  Specifically, Derksen zeroed in on the fact that, in our chapter on "The Bitter Fruits of Sedevacantism," we called him out for using such juvenile descriptors as “idiotic,” “dumber,” “asinine” and the like in his article against John Salza, title “The Chair is Still Empty” (to which John Salza replied with a devastating critique that, like the rests of our articles, remains unanswered). Derksen actually took the time to wade through his 70 page article (he had enough time for that) to see how he actually used each of these inflammatory words, and then attempted to qualify their usage based on the context. Is this really the kind of material that Derksen, the self-proclaimed Sedevacantist apologist, thinks belongs in a webcast defending Sedevacantism? And Derksen even says that his use of such demeaning and juvenile invective against Salza was not all that bad.  Why?  Because, as he said, his “article is between 63 and 74 pages” which averages out to only one bad word “every 10 pages” (Really, that’s what he said. Just listen to the webcast). Is this guy serious? He also said that he was justified in displaying Salza’s face with a clown’s nose in another feature because the caricature “is grounded in reality.” Grounded in reality? The only reality is that Mario Derksen has lost this debate, and, after bragging and boasting for years, is now using smoke-screens in an attempt to conceal it from his readers.  He has spent over a decade further confusing already-confused and scandalized Catholics, no doubt leading some out of the Church and into his sect, and now his errors have been exposed. Someone finally stood up to the bully on the playground and he has no response.  

       And this is not the first time Mario Derksen has been led out of the Church by heretics, and then used the internet in an attempt to lead others out of the Church with him.  Derksen himself admits, in his own bio, that he was deceived by Protestant Fundamentalists earlier in life.  He joined their ranks, became an anti-Catholic Protestant, and used the internet to attack the Catholic Church, in the hope of leading Catholics into his heretical sect.  He eventually saw the error of his ways, reverted back to the Catholic Church for a brief time, before being once again led right out of the Church - this time into the Sedevacantist sect.  And what is Derksen doing now?  The same thing he did as a Protestant: using the internet to further confuse already confused Catholics in an attempt to lead them out of the Church and into his new sect. The leopard did not change his spots. And now, after years of mocking us and our friends on his website (just like he no doubt did to Catholics while he was an anti-Catholic Protestants), Mario suddenly got busy and now has to think before he speaks.  No one is buying it Mario.

       While Derksen claims he doesn’t have the time to respond to our 700 page book or recent articles (which he accuses us of treating “as one step below Divine inspiration” - anything to discredit us), he evidently had enough time to read up to page 678, since Derksen, in his webcast, criticizes us for pointing out, on this page, that the Sedevacantist apologists (such as himself) are the most hardened in their views, since they have publicly sold out for their position.  We stand by this statement.  Time will prove if our assertion is correct, when we find out how many Sedevacantists who convert were actually public apologists for the movement. 

       And we know for sure that Derksen didn’t skip over the first 20 chapters and jump to the last chapter (which is the only non-theological chapter), since he discovered a meaningless typo in chapter 20, which he immediately scanned and posted on the internet, in a vain attempt to discredit us and the book (yes, a typo!). In fact, Derksen has studied the material in the first 20 Chapters so carefully that he also discovered that a citation we provided from Cardinal Journet’s book, The Church of the Word Incarnate, included a quotation from a book that had been placed on the Index, which Derksen also used in attempt to discredit the book, even though it was Cardinal Journet who cited it!  And he used social media to spread both the typo and the quotation from Cardinal Journet's book all over the internet, using it in a vain attempt to discredit the book. This behavior shows just how desperate Derksen has become.

        Clearly, Derksen's behavior reveals that he has no answer for the theological arguments contained in the first 20 chapters of the book, which is why he spotlighted an instance, in Chapter 21, where we were merely pointing out the rhetorical tactics used by Sedevecantists, which he thought he could exploit. Derksen’s mentor, Fr. Cekada, was forced to use the same diversionary ploy (focusing on the only non-theological chapter of the book) in a video he released, which we addressed in our feature article, titled “Fr. Cekada Plays Leapfrog with True or False Pope?” Since Derksen needs more “time to think before he speaks,” perhaps he will huddle up with his mentor at St. Gertrude the Great and strategize how they can keep the wool over the eyes of the remaining members of their little sect.  Perhaps they can persuade their followers not to read the book, which is probably the only tactic that will work.  Maybe Mario or his mentor  will discover another typo or two, or some other completely irrelevant point that they can seek in vain to exploit? 

       If Mario had any honesty at all, he would concede that he has no answer for our arguments and then publicly admit that he is currently re-evaluating his position.  But that would require a tremendous act of humility on his part; and let’s face it, if there is one virtue that is lacking in the proud, arrogant, and always-boastful Sedevacantist apologists, such as Mario Derksen and his mentor, it is the virtue of humility. 

       For those who are truly interested in the truth, please go to our Sedevacantist Watch tab at www.trueorfalsepope.com and read the feature articles we have posted about the theological errors of Mario Derksen, to which he has been unable to respond. They are:

·         MARIO DERKSEN’S ELEMENTARY ERROR ON FACT VS. LAW (January 17, 2016)

Derksen’s answer: Nothing

·         SEDEVACANTIST ERRORS ON FACT AND LAW: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER (January 20, 2016)
Derksen’s answer: Nihil

·         HYPOCRISY ALERT: MARIO DERKSEN HAS NO ANSWER (February 2, 2016)

Derksen’s answer: Nada

·         POINT-BY-POINT REFUTATION OF MARIO DERKSEN ON NESTORIUS (February 7, 2016)
Derksen’s answer: Niente

·         MARIO DERKSEN’S PERVERTED ANALOGY ON THE PASSION OF THE CHURCH (February 15, 2016)
Derksen’s answer: Rien

        Do you know how Derksen characterized these articles in his website?  He said they were nothing but “gratuitous, stupid, arrogant, unprofessional stuff,” and then said he hasn’t decided if he wants to respond to “the petty little side things,” as he calls them. He went on to ask: “Are people really interested in following such detailed little skirmishes or not? My guess is, no they’re not. Because this is ultimately not important!” He says the real people “care about the theology” and then asks his audience “Should we respond to all those little things which are ultimately of no real relevance to the issues?”

       No relevance to the issues? Here is what one reader said after reading our point-by-point, 25 page reply to Derksen regarding the case of Nestorius:

“My goodness, I've read some good articles, and I've read some great articles, but your latest is about the best I've read in a long time and will go down as just that.  I'm on the fourth point and still reading, and it is already a slam dunk in more ways than one. Derksen and company, if they are honest, aren't going to like this a bit are they?  I will be very interested to see if they attempt a reply.”

       Instead of a reply, Derksen attempted to dismiss our argument as “petty little side things”.  No one is buying your excuses Mario. We are almost embarrassed for Mario Derksen, so pitiful is such a characterization of our articles and the theological work that went into them. Perhaps Derksen can humor us by responding to just one of the articles, for the sake of those who “care about the theology”?  

       And as we stated in our features against Fr. Cekada, if our theological positions are so easy to refute, then why not refute them, instead of characterizing them as “petty,” “irrelevant,” “gratuitous,” and “stupid”?  And if you don’t want to waste time on arguments you claim are irrelevant, why produce an entire video to respond to irrelevant material contained in the only non-theological chapter of the book?

       Because Mario Derksen is so used to being a bully, he couldn't resist ending his webcast with the following threat:

       “We are going to issue occasional refutations of various arguments. This is just warm up stuff. The real refutation will be comprehensive and will come much later. WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT SO DEVASTATING THAT THEY WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM IT. Let them party right now. They will see that their declaration of victory is mighty premature and their pompous attitude about it now will come back to haunt them later.”

      Promises, promises. Little Mario would be a good politician. Caught up in the emotions of his own embarrassment, the arrogant demagogue at NovusOrdoWatch.com decided to threaten us, guaranteeing that he will, in fact, refute our book to such an extent “that we will never recover from it.” Note well, Mario: You are now on the record, and we are going to hold you to it. And when you don’t deliver, it will be you who will “never recover from it,” so bold and rash a threat you have made. 

       What we are seeing here, ladies and gentlemen, is that the playground bully has picked a fight he now knows he won’t win. And he didn’t expect this outcome, in the least, since almost all the Catholics he has vilified over the years have not bothered to respond to him like we have (and that’s because Derksen is not taken seriously among Traditional Catholics). But now that we have directly, systematically and publicly refuted Derksen with one painful article after another, he has been backed into a corner and forced to say something. But all he has done is “buy some more time,” by producing webcasts in which he focuses on completely irrelevant issues (like contextualizing his own vulgarity), and making bold declarations of how he will refute us on some undetermined point, and at some undetermined time in the future (yeah, sure), all to keep his simple audience appeased, at least for the moment. And that’s because his audience (the nominal, unsophisticated fan-base that actually listens to Derksen’s drivel) is getting restless, as we have learned from those who wish to remain anonymous.

       Derksen’s recent webcast, like the rest of his mumbo jumbo, is nothing but a smokescreen for his own inadequacies and inabilities to engage at our theological level, just like his mentor, Fr. Anthony Cekada. Let’s face it. If Mario Derksen – the self-appointed Sedevacantist apologist, who has erected an entire webpage devoted to refuting us and our book True or False Pope? - has not come up with a single theological rebuttal to our book by now, and has not even responded to our shorter articles which directly expose his errors, it means that HE HAS NOTHING.

HE KNOWS IT. WE KNOW IT.
AND HE KNOWS THAT WE KNOW IT.