Perhaps some number around 70 Bishops publicly denounced it or wrote letters to the University. There are close to 300 Bishops and auxiliary Bishops here in the US of A. Could not even 1/3rd stand up and make a demonstration of some kind? The bishops could perhaps have foregone the next USCCB meeting, and transferred all the money dumped into those pits of waste and instead gotten plane tickets to South Bend to protest and call Obamanation to account. They might have all gotten arrested, but what a real witness that would be. I would have been glad to do so myself except that I can't afford a plane ticket to see my mother let alone make a political demonstration. There were some notables present to be happily arrested in the cause of life, Alan Keyes being one, Norma McCorvey (the Roe of Roe vs. Wade now converted) being another. Some Notre Shame seniors also protested Obama. All very good. However the Bishop's, whose positions are quite secure, who can easily afford to make the trip out there, who have few pressing issues that can't wait for a weekend, where are they? One can understand priests with parishes and the pastoral needs of their faithful not able to make it down (first law is the salvation of souls). But the Bishops?
In the aftermath, we have seen nothing from Bishop D'Arcy but a stunning silence. He could have suspended Fr. Jenkins' priestly faculties, or suspended faculties for all the priests operating at Notre Shame, he could have demanded the mandatum from heretics like McBrien, or he might even have stripped the university of its Catholic name. No, he will not do that, nor will any other Bishop suggest it. If the Bishops ever ponder why they are not respected, why no one cares when they speak and why their expensive meetings in fancy hotels are useless for promoting the faith, let this and Terri Schiavo be a lesson to them.
However let's move away from that for just a moment. Let us consider a few things. First there is the rem of Obama's speech. It could be boiled down to: Let's just get along. We're not going to agree, but let's be civil and work together for important issues like the economy.
In reality this boils down to pro-lifers shut up, you must accept abortion. That is all it really means. Completely contradictory propositions can never attain mutual respect or mutual cooperation. I believe the unborn have dignity and a right to live, Obama and his ilk believe brutally dismembering children in the womb is perfectly alright. You can't make common ground off of that. It is simply impossible. So when Obama says "let's not worry about this, let's work together", who does he think he is fooling except for the dimwits on the left and right who are prepared already to be his slaves? Working together means that those who want to murder children get increased funding and increased support, those who think children in the womb have the same human rights as those born get shunned, or labeled as terrorists by the department of Homeland Security. Notre Dame, in giving Obamanation this platform gives the impression that the Catholic Church supports this position. All the disclaimers in the world will not eviscerate that from the mind of numerous Catholics. It also brings wider acceptance to the proposition that abortion is just one of many issues, bringing to mind the heretical teaching of Cardinal Bernadine that Catholics need not be concerned with some doctrines as long as they are concerned with others because they are all interconnected (seamless garment argument). That all the doctrines of Christ are connected is true, but it is a false proposition that there is no hierarchy to their importance, or that some doctrines are trumped by others. This argument simply allows some on the left to care more about convicted murderers than the unborn.
Should anyone be surprised that nothing happens and no ecclesiastical penalties befall Notre Dame when only 70 out of 244 bishops (or less than 1/3rd) speak out against this monstrosity? Sure they all applaud D'Arcy, hiding behind 5 letters (USCCB) and in the shadow of anonymity. Where is the courage of Bishop Hughes? Where is the notable witness of Bishop McCloskey? Where is the fire of Bishop Sheen? Drowned in committee no doubt. Even Bishop Ireland, who many in the 19th century believed was an Americanist, would have roused the Catholic vote at the hint that evils such as abortion should be legalized.
Moreover, we recently saw two more Bishops from the USCCB working hard on climate change documents (which is a complete waste of time), and others talk about immigration reform. When are the Bishops going to start handing down the faith entrusted to them by the apostles, instead of hoping all these lay organizations they have empowered will do it for them? This is not to attack lay organizations as such, although I have misgivings about most, some are good and some are bad, and they may continue, but when are the bishops going to stop abdicating their authority to someone else?
We just recently celebrated the 4th of July, or as a priest I know put it, where the Free Masons are taking away rights that on that date 233 years ago they revolted to gain. The moral degradation has now become so bad that there simply isn't a human solution to rescue it. We are also witnessing the fact that we are an unholy people. Most Catholics practice contraception, which means they are unfaithful to God's law and plan for marriage. Moreover, the majority of Catholics go to communion with mortal sins on their soul. This problem has been noted by many bishops and at the synod on the Eucharist a few years ago, Cardinal Arinze lamented that so many go to Communion but none to Confession. This means that at every Sunday Mass in this country (not to mention some daily Masses) there are grave sacrileges committed against Almighty God. Instead of meriting grace, that grace is impeded by the mass sacrilege of the faithless. We are an unholy people. That doesn't even begin to address other mortal sins, or the moral and spiritual disorders rampant among those calling themselves Catholic, nor does it chip the edifice of modern culture itself.
The fact remains that if we are an unholy people God will not bless the country, and neither will he rescue it. There is one chance left for America. The Blessed Virgin is the patroness of this country, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. If faithful Catholics begin prayer and fasting, and persisting in right faith, it is possible that the graces might be merited to overcome the pestilence of modern immorality, but we also have a great historical truth against us. No nation or people which has ever accepted homosexuality and fostered it in their culture has survived. None. This is why I wrote last year that America deserves Obamanation.
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9 comments:
The more I read your Blog Athanasius, the more I think why on earth did you not become a priest?
Well said Athanasius Contra Mundum. I have personally made similar arguments. It appears to me that Sanctifying Grace is diminishing more and more every day. While the N. O. Catholics (I don't like that term )are in grievous sin from the pill and receive the Eucharist unworthily, The Trads have other grievous sins which should prevent them from receiving too. I have read what you said about exorcisms and pornography. We need the Consecration of Russia, we need all Catholics to say the rosary, we need to make little sacrifices in reparation, we need the first Saturday confession and communion, in short we need to conform to those things which Our Lady asked at Fatima. These times are stark and bleak, this si our last chance.
By thy Holy and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, deliver us from evil!
Check out Our Lady of America:
ourladyofamerica.org/
If one reads the Old Testament and understands the way God redeems and saves people collectively, we see there is what could be termed a theology of the "remnant"; that though times are evil, God preserves for Himself a special seed, a remnant, a rump that will remain faithful and pleasing to Him. Like that verse where Elijah is lamenting that everyone has worshipped Baal, and God tells him not to be downcast because He has "reserved" to Himself a remnant of several thousand who have not bowed to Baal. While the disaster is tremendous, there is always place for hope.
Perhaps one good thing that came out of this event is it helped "ordinary" catholics to see university Catholics can sometimes lack simple common sense and staying close to the sources of God's grace protect us from beoing fooled by moral relativism which is what the essence of the speech boiled down too. Fortunately we have a Pope who has the intellect to see through such hollow rhetoric.
I agree with Boniface's idea of the remnant. But it will take heavy persecution to whitle away those dead branches which drag down the vine that is Christ. And it is coming under this emperor. Watch for it! When everything continues to fail, they will shift the blame to the Jews and the Christians.
The more I read your Blog Athanasius, the more I think why on earth did you not become a priest?
Because I'm not called. Plain and simple. If, God forbid, anything should happen to my family I would probably seek entry into Monastic life as a brother.
The Trads have other grievous sins which should prevent them from receiving too. I have read what you said about exorcisms and pornography.
This is one place where Trads need a lot of work. Ask any priest who hears confessions for Trad parishes, and they will tell you that the majority of sins confessed are against the 6th and 9th commandments. It brings demons into the home, and what some priests are finding now amongst Trad children is homosexuality, because of these generational curses which come in through effeminacy. Part of that is rooted in the gnostic attitude certain Trads take to the Church. "Everyone else is in apostasy, but I have the true faith, therefore it is not a big deal if I sin in this way, I'll go to confession but I know I'm more just than those NO catholics." Part of holiness is rooting out the sins. Committing them, especially as a recidivist brings generational curses and demons into the home. Trads often forget the effects of sin, and assume they're okay because they have the Traditional sacraments but it is not so. The spiritual writers whose life was rooted in the sacramental forms of Tradition tell us otherwise. If anything destroys the traditional movement it will not be the Pope, nor the Bishops, but Trads themselves. God has given us back the Mass against insurmountable odds, and if we are not Holy we will not maintain it, like the Israelites in the old testament.
I also read on the Abbe de'Nantes website that 70 Bishops dissented from Vatican II, but were ignored by Pope Paul VI as he declared unanimous approval by the Council Fathers!
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