We live in very polarized political times. Some clergy seem to be more a member of one or the other of the political parties in the USA, than of the Catholic priesthood.
That’s is tragic and a scandal since most Catholics are either Democrats or Republicans. Some are independents as I am.
Clergy should keep their political affiliation a secret. Like me they should declare themselves independent.
Clergy should not be political hacks for this, that or the other political party. It is a scandal. Did I say it is scandal.
Clergy should stick to what they were ordained to do. Be an image of the High Priest, Jesus Christ, in all liturgical liturgies especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
They should apply moral principals to all hot bottom political issues, such as abortion and how we treat those we have allowed to enter this country either legally or illegally. They should not be identified as a being of any political affiliation. Being a Catholic priest should be sufficient, holding up the faith and morals of the Catholic Church and being a prophetic voice to secular politics but not identied with any political parity!
We should critique all political parties especially when they go beyond the laws of God as it concerns life, social Justice and the right to life of the unborn.
Clergy should not be public hacks, especially on social media!.
35 comments:
This is what the Demonrat Party is trying to defend. There is no moral equivalence between the Dems and the Republicans. The Dems promote intrinsic evils, the Republicans do not!
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/02/17/elon-musk-post-about-social-security-numbers-over-100-years-old-n2185681
You are a public hack here all the time. Relax.
More “Christlike” comments from K, a Democrat operative masquerading as a Catholic priest: abortion is healthcare
Hey K, this will REALLY give you the sadz and show how out of touch you are with your own parishioners!!!! Be careful, or your collections may go down!
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/02/17/more-cnn-sadz-frank-luntz-says-clinton-voters-who-flipped-to-trump-lovin-it-n3799922
TJM:
When I read about this claim yesterday, I immediately fact checked it, which clearly you didn’t even though I had asked if you would kindly perform that service for us before posting misleading and inaccurate items. This is not to deny that there is an issue with some improper payments by SSA, as there is with private insurance companies. For proper context on all this see:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/feb/17/are-150-year-old-americans-receiving-social-securi/
As for the Demonrat usage, I know this is popular on Fox News with Judge So-and-So, but it is all a bit childish, no? Others can easily play the same game with Trump and MAGA Republicans. Do we really need to go down that road?
Mark J.
Mark J,
I do not think you will see this as childish and pretty much demonstrates there are judicial activists masquerading as judges who are also deeply conflicted. This one is a doozey:
https://www.mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/blocking-federal-funding-freeze-judge-kept-millions-flowing-non-profit-he
When all is said and done, we will find billions in improper SS payments. That article from Polifact really does not refute what Musk is saying. One of the experts cited says for every dollar spent fixing the database, there could be $10 in savings. That would amount to a huge number. My antenna also went up when the acting heading of SS suddenly resigned. Where there is smoke, there is fire. By the way, I have a real life story and it's personal. My nephew's social security is being used by another person, I suspect an illegal alien. We are still trying to get this resolved.
This will drive K over the edge. Jonathan Turley referred to JD Vance's address in Europe as "Churchillian." That may be a tad of an exaggeration in terms of the language itself because there are very few who could begin to match Sir Winston. Alas Churchill would be gravely concerned about Britain turning their country over to third world types.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/vp-vances-munich-speech-praised-churchillian-moment-cbs-host-faces-criticism-response
100% agree. I'm appalled by those presbyters who choose to wear their politics on their sleeves. How, possibly, can they tend to their flocks with equality particularly those whose inclinations don't align? How can they provide guidance, or spiritual comfort being ruled as they seem to be by earthly cares. This life we have devoted ourselves to was, is and will remain countercultural despite any efforts by those hierarchs seeking to pervert the same!
Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox who follows the Constantinopolitan tradition, my base line, do not compromise, period! The faith is the faith not to he reimagined relative to current pop culture. Why cannot some Roman brothers do the same?
Byz - There is no difficulty in tending the flocks, "...with equality particularly those whose inclinations don't align?" It happens all the time. Every parish has Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Green Party members, Constitution and Natural Law party members. Per omnia secula seculorum.
It is entirely possible to be engaged in our nation's politics without being "ruled by earthly cares."
ByzRus,
Maybe because they are not very bright?
you misspelled saecula saeculorum - figures. Did you enjoy Biden putting prolife Catholic grandmas in jail for protesting outside of the abortionatoriums?
Fr., given the back and forth you and I have had in recent months, I'm doubtful that's the case.
Within portions of the RC, ideology and faith seem inextricably intertwined. So long they have existed in such circumstances, I do not think some adherents are capable of separating one from the other.
"Set aside all earthly cares" comes from the cherubikon, the thrice holy hymn which exhorts believers to exit the worldly so as to wholly focus on the divine.
ByzRus, a priest who is seen as a political hack for a pariticular political party squanders his moral authority and is seen as, well, a political hack. Catholic Clergy should teach Catholic moral principles which transcend the politics of a particular era or the people who hold political office. In this country, the winning candidate of whatever party is chosen by a politcal majority. As it concerns the president and his policies, each one has four years to promote it. They either fail or succeed. It is up to the democratic process to decide who the country wants regardless of what the clergy want or think they can manipulate into being. Our role is to teach, govern and sanctify. But we can’t impose it on anyone and we certainly shouldn’t be polarizing our congregations by our political ideologies.
Fr. ALLAN McDonald - Yes, Catholic clerics should teach Catholic moral principles. SUBSIDIARITY is one, as you may recall. It is a violation of subsidiarity for the USA and Russia to negotiate peace without Ukraine. CARE FOR THE SICK is another. It is a violation of that principle to present a budget that slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid, on which 80 million Americans rely for health care. The PROHIBITION AGAINST BEARING FALSE WITNESS is a principle to which we ascribe. When you have a president who, it seems, cannot stop lying, calling Zelenskyy a dictator (he's democratically elected with a 57% approval rate,) accusing Ukraine of starting the war with Russia, well, you get my drift.
These principles transcend partisan politics indeed. But they in no way transcend the actions of politicians in office.
You know, now that I think about it, TJM has never, not once, called out Trump for his adulterous "marriage" to Melania. I guess he must be a supporter of adultery and other violations of natural law...
Father McDonald, well said. However, if Pius IX were alive today, he would condemn the modern Democratic Party as he did the Nazis, Fascists, and Communists, because they are the modern-day version of those execrable political ideologies. If the USCCB had done its job and excommunicated Teddy Kennedy, the Dem Party may not have become the Party of Death as our great Cardinal Burke refers to it. There is no excuse for the USCCB. USCCB delenda est.
Hey, K. See, what goes around comes around!!!!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/acting-dc-us-attorney-ed-martin-launches-investigation/
TJM:
This appears to be the relevant legal provision governing disqualification of federal judges:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/455
I can see several potential concerns about a potential conflict of interest in the case of Judge McConnell, although some of the language seems ambiguous (for example, what is “an interest” in §455(b)(v)(iii)?). This said, I have to wonder how many judges would actually be completely free of such potential conflicts. Best, then, at least to disclose unless recusal is mandated. Moreover, it seems that conflict of interest among judges is a more extensive problem than one might think, affecting both federal and state judges, by whomever appointed, not excluding of course members of the Supreme Court:
https://www.propublica.org/article/judges-ethics-codes-recusal-conflict-of-interest-families#
As for the SSA issue, I hope you get the matter with your nephew resolved speedily. I can well imagine how unsettling and disturbing such occurrences are. On the general point, however, see also the following regarding today’s statement by the new acting head of the SSA:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-security-doge-100-150-year-olds-cobol-elon-musk/
Mark J.
Many priests in the 1930s in Germany did not become "political hacks." Maybe they would not be able, "...tend to their flocks with equality,..." if they denounced Nazism since many in the parishes were pro-Nazi.
Was Pius XI "wearing his politics on his sleeve" when he condemned Nazism in Mit Brennender Sorge, a letter smuggled into Germany and read in the churches on Palm Sunday 1937.
Were the priests who bravely marched with Dr. Martin Luther King "ruled by earthly cares" when they joined in singing "We Shall Overcome"?
LOL - the Dems are full of them, even fake Catholic ones like Biden. You are nothing but a shill, a very bad look for a priest.
Mark J,
Thanks for sharing the cite on conflicts. Clearly this judge did not disclose this relationship and is quite a material one. Just like that Judge Merchan in New York who presided over President Trump's show trial there. His daughter is a Democrat operative who raises millions for the Dem Party. Both of those judges should have been removed. The State of New York's judicial mess is causing more businesses to flee that State. I agree that to restore confidence in the judiciary both Dem and Republican judges should be held to the same standard, but we know Dem's never are, although there is a good chance with Trump in power, they will be.
K you ignore the intrinsic evils the Dem Party adores: abortion up to the time the baby comes down the birth canal, child mutilation under the guise of gender therapy, all very Nazi-like yet you support them. So your words, as usual, ring hollow. Why aren't you in jail with the Catholic grandmas whom Biden send to jail for peacefully protesting outside of the abortionatoriums?
You need your meds for Democracy Derangement Syndrome. In November the American voters spoke. They will speak again in four more years as it concerns the presidency. My party, the independents, won’t ever get a president into office, but yours, the one you shill for, will have a chance, but not with the cabal of your type who equate Trump and his voters with the Nazi era or even the 1960’s era, you know the one where your family had a maid, a system directly evolved from slavery in the south.
Your political hackery is showing. Zelensky acts like a dictator, declaring martial law and postponing elections. During the American Civil War elections took place in the US. We are going to discover when the dust settles that the Ukraine war was a massive money laundering operation with elites at the trough. President Trump is trying to stop a war and the killing (you would think a priest would be in favor of that), but Zelensky wants to keep the grift going. Medicaid is rampant with abuse and thank God, President Trump just banned illegal aliens from being allowed to slurp at that trough. If you priests want to pay for them out of your pocket, please do so, but I am not going to do YOUR charity work for you. Subsidiarity? Give me a break. The Dem Party is a top-down model and wants to crush State and local power to pursue its evil agenda: abortion, child mutilation, men in women's sports and locker rooms. And subsidiarity in the Church? LOL. The Pope wants to control what you post in the parish bulletin concerning the Latin Mass. By the way, President Trump has high approval ratings. I imagine you are seething that the American people don't see the world through the sick, twisted, leftist prism that you do.
Fr. I'm just a simple layperson. To my mind, the callous way you refer to the cherubic hymn is proof positive that some in the RC cannot set aside earthly cares. You simply don't hear what stands out to us of other Churches. It's particularly grating on the rare occasion we are together either liturgically or for a talk. Some RC's cannot shut off the politics and social justice warrioring. Oftentimes, I find the incessant virtue signaling to be an endless statement of the obvious as taught by Christ himself. And, it's just words, a battle for righteousness in the speakers mind.
Not condoning, but how possibly does this matter relative to Catholic non-negotiables?
What good or purpose would be served by TJM calling out? What would that do for anyone? We all know the man isn't a saint and we weren't electing one.
At least those who voted their faith potentially saved lives. Post-abortion images of "bucket of baby" turn my stomach.
TJM, call him out. Let's check that ineffective box and move on.
ByzRus,
Nicely stated. I will move on. We know what he is.
I sent this letter to my bishop about the USCCB suing taxpayers to revive their grift:
Your Excellency,
When you believe our bishops cannot be any more tone deaf, they always deliver. What I am referring to is the litigation the USCCB filed against American taxpayers and me as a Catholic:
Catholic Bishops Sue Trump Demanding Guaranteed Income – RedState
We voted for President Trump to end the benefits that are going to illegal aliens to the detriment of American taxpayers. Period. Elections have consequences and the bishops better wake up and smell the coffee. The bishops have no way of knowing if the immigrants they minister to are legal or not. I suspect much of the staff does not care, because the more migrants, legal or illegal, it means jobs for them. The bishops have to be willfully blind not to have taken notice of the rising crime and the financial burden these illegal invaders have on local communities. That is why in November of 2024, communities in Texas who have not voted for a Republican for president in over a hundred years voted for President Trump. The bishops seem to be very callous to the plight of those folks.
The bishops hold a very weak hand. They have squandered their credibility in the US over the past 60 years in many ways, starting with the disastrous liturgical reforms that were not asked for by the vast majority of the Faithful. Far from resulting in a new "Springtime," churches are fairly empty at most places on Sunday and parishes are being consolidated on a large scale. I guess the "new and improved" Mass is not packing them in. I will give you a simple example. St. Adalbert's in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago closed their magnificent Church designed by Henry Schlack due to lack of funds. It was not due to a lack of Catholics. That parish is in the heart of a neighborhood which is almost 100% Hispanic and Catholic. They simply are not going to Mass in sufficient numbers to keep that parish going.
Then we have the namby-pamby approach the bishops take with regard to "Catholic" politicians like Pelosi and Biden. Why would a confused girl of 15 who is pregnant not avail herself of an abortion since "Catholic" politicians like Pelosi and Biden make it very easy and cost-free financially. Furthermore, the girl can rationalize that the Church really does not take abortion seriously, because if She did, Pelosi and Biden would be publicly excommunicated.
Then we have the clergy sex scandals which cost the Church in the US billions. A scandal that was totally avoidable if the bishops had followed Church teachings and canon law. As a parent I can tell you if my pastor had given a pervert priest the boot and called the police, I would have cheered him and likely thrown more money into the collection plate. But the bishops did not encourage that type of behavior. They lied. If the big-hearted bishops had not had to pay all those billions out to their victims, they could have underwritten the cost of supporting all of these migrants, rather than become dependent on the American taxpayer.
So go ahead, sue us, sue me. It will not end well for the Church. This is a PR nightmare. Just go over to The National Catholic Register and read the comments there posted by Faithful Catholics under this article:
US Bishops Sue Trump Administration Over Refugee Funding Freeze| National Catholic Register
If President Trump is successful in shutting down the border, the business the USCCB is suing over a business that will disappear anyway.
Very truly yours,
Nicely written though your potentially sensitive audience probably got the vapors from reading.
A few facts:
Christ never was a refugee as he never actually left the Roman Empire when he was taken to Egypt.
There is no historical occurrence of open borders. Although, I understand train travel in Europe most closely approximates this.
Countries have a right to defend themselves, including the Vatican.
The Catholic Church is for countries regulating their borders, considering the common good while welcoming immigrants WHERE POSSIBLE.
ByzRus,
Thank you! I suspect most bishops, just like elected officials, are surrounded by sycophants and camp followers and seldom hear an opposing point of view. Given what has happened in the US Church over the last 60 years, for me at least, the bishop is no longer the "big man on campus" and will receive deference only in direct proportion to their honesty and fidelity to the Church. I have confronted bishops to their very faces, sometimes they are not very happy, but I no longer care. I do no curse or swear at them, but I use very direct language.
What is interesting to me is that I find younger priests much more open to criticism and questioning. Maybe the Holy Spirit is working through them. I am exceedingly happy with my two younger pastors (I belong to parishes in two separate states) and both of them are able to celebrate the TLM. One of them went to West Point and served in Afghanistan, so he is not the little "feather duster" type some parishioners are used to. The other had been a semi-professional baseball player and was raised on a farm. Both men exude masculinity and are very down to earth. Both have a marvelous ars celebrandi and are excellent homilists.
Your understanding of history is correct. Europe is interesting. Back when I first traveled there in the early 1970s, even on the train, passports were checked as we passed from one country into the next. Today, given the EU, that no longer happens. I am traveling to Paris in April to see the restored Notre Dame which I first saw in 1974. I am very excited about that!
Jesus never said, "feed the hungry and house the homeless, but make sure they are legal immigrants first."
No kidding.
Jesus said "Render unto Caesar's the things that are Caesar's but to God, the things that are God's. Jesus was not a law breaker. But more importantly, Jesus did not say "abortion is healthcare," and He certainly would not vote the way you do!
This will give K the sadzs, Apple striking a deal with President Trump that will invest 500 billion in the US and create 20,000 new jobs.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/huge-apple-invest-500-billion-u-s-after/
This will ruin K’s evening, Macron of France praising President Trump!
https://www.foxnews.com/media/french-president-macron-tells-trump-be-careful-negotiation-process-end-russias-war-ukraine
Mark J,
Another leftwing activist judge, who should be disciplined:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/obama-judge-who-blocked-trumps-ice-raids-is/
I am of the opinion that it is an unconstitutional act by these judges to attempt to enjoin the President because it is an unlawful interference with the president's authority under Article II just as it would be if these judges attempted to enjoy Congress. These actions are ultra vires. The only remedy provided for in the US Constitution with regard to the President is impeachment.
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