There might be other deacons and priests having ex bishops along with Father Z:
Copied from the blogging Deacon’s Bench:
“GET OFF SOCIAL MEDIA AND GET IN FRONT OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. STOP WATCHING SO MUCH NEWS AND START READING THE GOOD NEWS. SPEND THE TIME ON VOLUNTEER SERVICE TO HELP THE POOR INSTEAD OF WRITING ANGRY EMAILS.”
Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin has released a letter to his clergy that was reprinted today in Our Sunday Visitor.
He says, in part:
All Catholics have to be careful to engage in political life in a manner that reflects the Gospel, but clergy need to exercise special caution so that their political activity is consistent with their vocation in the Church. Bishops, priests and deacons, as individuals and citizens, obviously can vote and hold political opinions. As pastoral leaders and members of the hierarchy, however, our task is to preach and teach the Catholic faith to the laity and to lay out the revealed priority of moral issues (and indeed for pastors to fail to preach the truths of our faith is to fail in loving our people). The task of the laity is to form their consciences and apply the teachings of the Church to the spheres of politics, economy, society, and culture. Clerics should not be publicly voicing overt and purely political opinions regarding individuals, parties, election results, the current news cycle, nor engaging in ad hominem attacks. Such actions threaten to politicize the Church and divide our people even more. Furthermore, canon law places legitimate limits on clerical engagement in political activities. This is not a matter of being timid or politically correct, remaining neutral on moral issues, or protecting the Church’s tax exempt status, but of acknowledging and honoring the respective roles of the clergy and the lay faithful.
I have a suggestion for everyone, including myself. Let’s spend these months leading up to Easter in deeper prayer, penance, and almsgiving. Instead of pointing accusatory fingers at others, let’s point one at ourselves. How can I be more patient, kind, gentle, and compassionate to others, especially those I disagree with? Get off social media and get in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Stop watching so much news and start reading the Good News. Spend the time on volunteer service to help the poor instead of writing angry emails. Examine your conscience regarding the sins of calumny, rash judgment, violent anger, and malicious speech. And then go to confession.
I am not implying that we should be silent in the face of evil, injustice, and wrongdoing, but we need to stick with the moral issues and refrain from the personal attacks. If we do not even desire to heal the divisions among us, how can we ever rediscover our unity in Christ? The painful experience of these past months tells me that we as fallen human beings can become divisively tribal. We instinctively associate with the people who think, act, and live as we do. While this may be a reflexive human response due to our fallen nature, Jesus Christ calls us to a far greater reality, indeed a supernatural unity, founded in the very life of the Most Blessed Trinity.
Bishop Hying, you’ll recall, was until recently the bishop of Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, a.k.a. “Fr. Z,” who garnered some attention a few weeks back for conducting “election exorcisms.”
17 comments:
Of course this bishop will be supine and not condemn Biden for his pro abortion executive orders. We need to stop supporting bishops and priests for voting for evil. I won’t contribute a dime to these spineless enablers of evil
Father, I love your blog, but for heaven's sake, you've just re-ignited another festival of self-righteous denunciations of Fr. Zuhlsdorf.
Did you have to do this?
I am in his corner, if he stays off the net, too. And also castigates society in general and especially his flocks in such strong terms, as everyone DOES have more important matters to attend, such as Jesus.
But what I find particularly malevolent are priestly trolls invading another priest's blog under own and assumed names, as well as directing other troublemakers to the blog. If he wants a soapbox to debate, let him set up his own soapbox on his own dime.
Otherwise, he is only an agent of evil, a vandal, a specialist in sabotage. THIS is VERY disturbing. THIS is the type thing bishops should surely come down on hard with an iron shod boot. That is the most unpriestly behavior ever seen on the internet. Anonymous trolling surely needs to be shut down in the most vigorous way possible, and internet security folks called in to unmask what needs to be unmasked, because whatever it is, it surely is no priest deserving to represent his bishop to others.
Catholic news & opinion on social media, yes.
Beefcake beach photos from Tybee, maybe not so much.
Not one to argue with a Bishop, but I have found the "priestly blogs" extremely helpful. That includes both yours and Fr Z's and some others. I have enjoyed the general conversations on contemporary topics and things such as the importance of Latin and the Liturgy and even the homilies. As for exorcism's and politics, a whole lot more exorcism's are needed in that theater. A whole lot more !
Well said, my Lord Bishop - take good heed!
There is nothing controversial or ungentle about this message--and Fr Z is definitely not the only local priest he has in mind. For that matter what Bp Hying has to say would have been good advice to his predecessor Bp Morlino too. When Bp Hying first came here as our bishop he said repeatedly to people who asked how he liked it that he felt like he'd died and gone to heaven. There's a lot that's right about our diocese thanks to Bp Morlino, even if his legacy of partisanship might not have been one of those things.
CK, thanks, I have never ever been complimented with that term.
Anon 8:40 - A person who disagrees with this or any other blog owner is not automatically, an "agent of evil, a vandal, a specialist in sabotage."
If you find disagreement "VERY disturbing," then I pity those who, in your own life, disagree with you face to face.
This seems to indicate that you think your utterances are indisputable, that there should be no possibility of disagreeing with you. Or you think the same of this blog's owner.
If you are a regular here, you know that the blog owner often ends his posts with the invitation, "Discuss." Is it your understanding that the invitation really means, "Agree with me or go get your own blog"? That's not what it means to the blog owner or to anyone else.
The world does not revolve around the opinions of this blog's owner nor you. If you want to hear no disagreement, go to your room, close your door, and blog to yourself in some way that never allows disagreement.
Dear anon defender of troĺls....there is no defense for trolling anonymously or under false names, period.
I do not visit sites with which I disagree, nor do I do so especially anonymously or under false names, nor do I recruit others to do so. To do so IS evil and cowardly.
If you disagree so much with Father McDonald, go somewhere where you are happier. I very much doubt the priest on this blog visits your blog and throws constant firebombs. You likely have no blog at all and keep a private list of those with whom you communicate, where what you really need it to fund your OWN pulpit if you want to preach. Otherwise you are cheap and a coward. It is THAT simple.
Fr. Z is castigated for taking his faith/ religion seriously. Exorcism of evil by a qualified cleric can never be inappropriate. Does Bp H disbelieve in the efficacy of exorcism? Or is he selective which evil deserves it more? It was evident before the election that the most aggressive anti-life politics will come to dominate in this country should the Democrat presidential candidate win the election. Now we see Fr. Z's fear was not unfounded. Pres. Biden already restored funding the previous administration denied the abortion industry. He also abrogated the Mexico City rule so that Catholic taxpayers are and will be forced to advance this disgusting surgical procedure not only in the US but in foreign countries as well.
I do not disagree with the Bishop about many of the points he has made but his credibility sinks with me because on the quintessential moral issue for the Church: abortion, he seems willing compromise. Fortunately, the US Bishops' committee seems to disagree with him. Living close to Chicago may be a factor. Has Cardinal Cupich been in touch with him I wonder? Just asking. A bishop's job should be to advocate for the faith and and the faithful, especially for those priests who have the courage to do so.
P. John Zhulsdorf can deliver in one blistering diatribe more faithful instruction than does our spineless episcopate in a flurry of position papers. Biden has painted our bishops into a right tidy corner; will they choose Caesar or our Almighty God and Father?
New management with a style clash. It happens.
I do hope Fr. Z gravitates back to his blog's more scholarly origins (with recipes, foodie pics and wine recommendations etc. so the tone isn't oppressively serious).
Anon 10:40:
"I do not visit sites with which I disagree..."
I do. I don't think it is healthy to exist in an echo chamber of people who think like me. In fact, I think it is one of the prime causes of the ever-worsening divisions in our country - and our church.
I believe that an exchange of ideas, hearing other viewpoints, discussing and even arguing about substantive topics can be beneficial to all involved.
As for your disdain for anonymity, the discussions should be about ideas, not personalities, don't think think?
"If you disagree so much with Father McDonald, go somewhere where you are happier."
Your assumption that I am unhappy is . . . incorrect.
"Exorcism of evil by a qualified cleric can never be inappropriate."
Yeah, it can.
"Rev. John Zuhlsdorf also claimed he had permission to conduct the exorcisms from Madison Catholic Bishop Donald Hying — an assertion Hying has said is false as well. The exorcisms have since been removed from YouTube."
Z's "exorcisms" were directed against the "demonic" forces that, he falsely claimed, were driving the defeat of Trump.
When you misuse the rites and rituals of the Church to advance you own personal, partisan political agenda, pretending to do so with the blessing of your bishop, you deserve to get called on the carpet, if not worse.
Fr. Z needs to remember his "Say the Black, Do the Red" and the emphasis that it places on FOLLOWING THE RULES.
When you misuse the rites and rituals of the Church to advance you own personal, partisan political agenda, pretending to do so with the blessing of your bishop, you deserve to get called on the carpet, if not worse.
Fr. Z needs to remember his "Say the Black, Do the Red" and the emphasis that it places on FOLLOWING THE RULES.
YES, INDEED, AGREED!
Anon 10:40 - “ Dear anon defender of troĺls....there is no defense for trolling anonymously or under false names, period.”
Said by a commenter themselves posting anonymously - truly unbelievable!
Rank hypocrisy and beyond irony!! Lol
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