By Mike Church

Mike Church is a national radio broadcaster and host of the Veritas Radio Network. He features Brother André’s weekly Reconquesta program. Mr. Church was our guest speaker at this year’s conference and his radio program ran our two-day conference live across the nation. His own talk was on the “Deformation” of the misnamed “Protestant Reformation.” After an entertaining introduction filled with humor and commentary on our present day situation in the USA, Mr. Church compared the cleverness and zeal that went into The Great Train Robber, a book authored by Michael Creighton (1975), with the vices and virtues that, employed for an evil purpose, went into the corrosive work of the Protestant destroyers. The vices that aided and abetted the revolution of the “reformers,” he noted, were “pride, lust, greed, injustice, and (on the part of the deceived) sloth.” Quoting Brother Francis, our speaker noted that the four cardinal virtues were needed for the success of any major crime: the plotters had to have prudence, justice (at least distributive among themselves), fortitude (as in a brave boldness) and, of course, temperance (they had to keep their wits and sobriety). Mr. Church talked about how the Faith came to England as early as the second century and how it endured until the mid-sixteenth century. He introduced us to a work that he is publishing, The English Reformation, by Father Gerald Caulkin. It is a concise history chiseled down to thirteen chapters. Caulkin, who was a gifted historian, was determined to offer the Catholic truth for English speaking readers who, he said, have a duty to defend the Faith against the lies and “black legends” of Protestant English history. This was a fascinating presentation, given by a man used to the microphone, and used to keeping an audience riveted and anxious for more.

From 2016 SBC Conference