Dissident Catholic women in some of the most powerful positions of government; what does that have to do with what otherwise would be a source of great Catholic pride, women in powerful positions within the government of the USA?
Dissident is the word. These dissident Catholic women who are feminists first and to the nth degree see the Catholic Church in the backwash of anachronistic institutional policies that keep women from experiencing complete equal rights. This means not only control over their bodies and the perception that artificial birth control, abortifacients and sterilization are "preventive health care" to keep them from being sickened or diseased by offspring and the enjoyment of impotent sex, but also control over their sex partners, and the man's potential offspring, it also means controlling through government intervention the Church which they perceive is controlled by men who have tried to control women for centuries. Who are these nasty men? The Catholic pope, bishops, priests and deacons and the influence these men have not only in the Church but in society and the public square.
This is 1968 dissent from Humanae Vitae on steroids. And isn't it odd that the two women who are perhaps the most virulent public Catholic dissidents in government, Katherine Sebelius and Nancy Pelosi were in their prime in the 1960's and are caricatures of everything that went wrong with progressive Catholicism by those in the 1968 period who embraced Catholic progressiveness and dissent. When we look to these two women we can see in them the dismal failure of the post-Vatican II experiment with liberal Catholicism and its politicization of Catholic moral teaching and desire to re-imagine the Church based upon the "will of the people" rather than the law of God which every human being can discover in natural law and which is not open to democratic manipulation or radical change.
But who are the men who made Catholic dissent possible? We have to look to the 1968 era for that too. We have to look to Hans Kung, Charles Curran, The Berrigan Brothers; we have to look to progressive liturgical theologians and secular leaders such as the Kennedy clan and other Catholic men in government like Joe Biden and the mayor of San Francisco.
The Catholic hierarchy, men who say they have absolutely no power and no authority to change the revealed law of God discovered in natural law, are the enemies of this clique of liberal Catholic laity and clergy who believe political empowerment in the Church is a good beyond any cost and at the expense of Catholic identity and moral teachings, at the expense of God Himself. The Catholic hierarchy powerless to change divine law and who acknowledge this powerlessness before God and the world are deemed the enemies of society and of the women's radical feminist movement who are the real power mongers and seek to turn up-side-down the law of God and the life of the Church. How interesting is that!
What is coming next if the HHS mandate stands and the Church caves in? It will mean government control fomented by women of who gets married in the Catholic Church and who gets ordained. And thus the radical feminists would have won the day by making the men of the Catholic Church, those nasty men in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church who stand powerless to change anything revealed by God, ordain women by government mandate and not the mandate of God. Fascism anyone?
And then, like the Church controlled in China by the Communist Chinese Government, the true Church will go "underground" to the catacombs where she will pray and witness and some of her members martyred and ever be that glorious faithful bride of her even more glorious and faithful Bridegroom.
LIBERAL CATHOLICISM SINCE 1968 HAS BEEN A COMPLETE, TOTAL FAILURE AND A CARICATURE OF WHAT INFIDELITY AND BETRAYAL LOOKS LIKE AND THE CORRUPTION THAT THE HUNGER FOR POWER EVEN OVER GOD BRINGS TO THE BELIEVER--FORBIDDEN FRUIT ANYONE?--SOUNDS LIKE ADAM AND EVE ALL OVER AGAIN.
21 comments:
Father, there is indeed nothing of histrionics in your expressions of concern. If the government once prevails against the Church, it will never stop making demands.
To rant a bit: My bishop’s statement was ordered read one Sunday, and has by now been forgotten by the Spirit of Vatican II folks, for whom it was simply an unwelcome intrusion. A one shot response will accomplish nothing. What is needed is for the bishops to require of all priests to remind us each week, and to comment in homilies, as well. Further, this is a perfect time for the bishops to point out the need for good catechism, true to Church teaching, and to press for change in the schools and CCD classes.
The damage to the Church has been done by decades of neglect, by liturgists determined to make the liturgy their own (not by belief, but by modification), and by DREs who believe they know more than the priests and bishops.
We have a huge task before us, and it begins by letting our priests know that we are not happy with the current situation, and are ready to dig in and provide help to implement the repairs.
Our culture may have reached the point of no return from secular/egalitarian decline. My concern is that the Church, and any moral voice based upon Judaeo-Christian values, has been marginalized to the point of irrelevance. It seems to me that the correctives needed would be considered "too severe" for anyone to have the moral/political courage to implement them. We will soon be past the point of negotiation and civil activism because the media and the press form a huge monolith with the Leftist administration and are able to demonize or rationalize conservative and religious activism to the point of meaninglessness.
Unfortunately, it is going to take an authoritarian, aggressive, politically ruthless conservative administration to fix this mess. That means that we are going to have to make the unpleasant choice of supporting some things we dislike in order to defeat the Leftist juggernaut. I am not sure that the majority of us have the guts to do that. I would now be willing to opportunistically support a Francisco-like regime in order to reverse the path we are on. In fact, I would probably be out helping drag the Leftist minions into the streets and sleeping like a baby at night. I know...don't tell me about "losing the values we seek to preserve." Those are risks we have to take or have no values at all (see Churchill). Of course, this may never happen, though history tells us that, the longer a tyranny is allowed to survive, the harsher the corrective (see WWII). And, then, T.S. Eliot may be correct..."not with a bang, but a whimper." In any case, Christ have Mercy.
Yes, indeed,
1. the apathy and consequent failure of good Catholics to BE GOOD CATHOLICS, to witness to the Truth;
And, of course,
2. the radical secularism that now permeates and presides over our culture guaranteeing moral collapse & decay instead of "...one nation under God...", and leading us to the inevitable socialist mentality that government is mandated to take care of us (just examine the precursors of the rise of socialism in other countries--he who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.)
It gets worse: This has been the goal of various groups for a long, long time. So no news there. What is news is that the US Government is supporting these groups in return for votes. It is not a coincidence that the most visible supporters of this are high profile Catholics in the administration or the same party as the administration. The people promoted from the crowd were hand picked based on their willingness and desire to challenge the power of the Church hierarchy. There are legions of supporters of this initiative in the pews every Holy Day. All they have to do is wait it out. Their spectrum runs from the full tilt over throw of the Bishops and Pope to the lukewarm who think the bill is OK because it only OFFERS abortion but you don't have to choose it. I have noticed several commentators say that eventually the Church will change because the congregation does not support it. They don't make those sorts of comments without reason. Somewhere there is a fifth column.
rcg
Once again, it is going to take drastic measures. Anyone doubt that? Seriously.
rcg, I agree. Further, contrary to a comment on another blog to the effect that if the laity do not act, the bishops are not to blame, I say that if the bishops, as shepherds, fail to lead, the laity (after decades of deficient catechism) are not to blame.
A letter, read to the laity on one weekend, does not a revolution make. Some will listen, many will not hear, and soon, all will return to their slumber.
Each of our Sunday TLM sermons since this began has mentioned this issue (as has each of our recent Latin Mass community newsletters). In last Sunday's sermon, Father quoted some relevant passages from "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church".
Actually, we have not infrequently heard in TLM sermons from this Compendium. Whereas traditional Catholics are sometimes accused of being less concerned than spirit-of-Vatican-II Catholics with the true social teachings of the Church, I wonder whether it's not the other way around.
William, Our Church is so steeped in symbols and meaning of the smallest gesture, this seems like simple another reason for ad Orientem.
rcg
rcg: Yes, it needs to feel much less like a community gathering, and much more like a deliberate and formalized act of worship. Reverence is not automatic, although I find that at the EF, it is widespread, and at the NO, barely observable in my own parish. The nave seems more like the parish hall, before the Mass begins.
Would that all the clergy would learn from Pope Benedicts The Spirit of the Liturgy, as well.
Oh! And that we might banish applause.
Really nothing for me to add here. William's first comment reflects how deep the rot is.
I further agree with Pin that we probably can't reverse the trends in society as a whole. A Francisco-like regime wouldn't work; it would inspire another 1968 and, if conservatives didn't fold, a full-on civil war in this country. That won't happen.
It is not too late for the Church in America, but it's rapidly becoming so. If the bishops cave on this--and as William notes, by failing to talk it up in every Mass, week after week, they are beginning the process of caving--it is the end, except for a faithful remnant that will be further marginalized, ridiculed, and, eventually, persecuted.
It boggles my mind that these men cannot get through their heads the depth of the crisis and the only effective response when the crisis is so blazingly obvious to any casual student of recent history. I am outraged. Not concerned, not disappointed--outraged. Why aren't the bishops?
The trends in society have been fostered by the progressives, and they have used every tool at their disposal. John Dewey laid out the plan for converting public schools to institutions of indoctrination (and the Church's own schools succumbed to Dewey's influence, as well, albeit not until decades later.) Progressives have voted in Congress as a bloc, while conservatives have voted their conscience. Progressives have taken incremental victories on all manner of small changes until, having achieved critical mass, they presented us with Obama.
It may not be too late for the Church in America, if the bishops will uniformly turn away from the rationales derived from social justice and reapply Church Doctrine. This means, among other things, that all bishops must refrain from casting votes for Obama, Pelosi, Biden, et al. If they cannot take that small step, what chance is there they can leads us to a genuine renewal of the faith in this country?
Failure looms large; the crisis has nearly passed. If we lose, we lose big-time. Recovery will take decades, if it is even possible, in a totalitarian state. Shall we become the Western China? This is quite literally the question before us all.
The laity must be taught and led. This is the job for bishops and priests to fulfill. Some percentage of the laity can assist, even in the teaching, but the dissidents must be purged from positions of influence, at every level. RCIA and CCD must present only true teaching, and must no more misguide the faithful.
We hold our breath as some Judases leave the table and collect their thirty pieces of silver. We have been warned to "be wise as serpents and as simple as doves" in dealing with the other Judases who share our pews and await their moment.
God will, in His time, say to the dissident Catholics, "I never knew you." We pray that some of his highly visible representatives on earth do the same. Meanwhile, while our fellow frogs find their consciences boiled to death by secularism, we must jump clear of the pot and onto our knees.
Good news from the battlefront arrives in courageous women leaders of a different ilk, such as Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, who is eclipsed by the usual liberal media darlings. Whatever God calls us to do, if it is take up the sword, suffer loss or respect, or even present our lives as sacrifices, we must rest in the knowledge that kingdoms will rise and fall, but "thou, O Lord, endurest forever."
If He can find one righteous man (or woman), maybe, just maybe, God will bless America again.
Lay people must take religion into their own hearts and hands as the English did during the horrors of the Henrecian Revolt. Private chapels, hidden priests, catechesis in the homes. If we are not mentally ready for this and cannot get locally organized, the Church will fail in many areas. I have been ready for this since the early 70s. It is only God's Mercy that He does not want the eternal death of so many that holds back His Hand-57 million dead babies and the abomination of civil unions, all sins which cry out to God for vengeance in the CCC, and in the Scriptures, will have consequences.And, not for the faint of heart are these times.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah
give us pause in this situation, if there is only one good man or woman, God would save them, unfortunately for them, there wasn't and they were destroyed (progressives hate a God of justice not realizing that He is not just a God of mercy). I suspect in the USA and amongst Catholic we have many who will reverse the fate that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced.
Thomas Jefferson (Nov 1787): ".. what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Shakespeare (1601): "Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial."
Fr., funny you mention Sodom and Gomorrah. My wife and I were discussing that last night in this same context and I wondered if God ever pulled Abraham aside and ask him, "if they are good people, why are they staying here?".
Of course that is not the point of that lesson, but we are holding on to sentiment about so many things that will simply fall away and missing the obvious that many of these people have, incredibly, consciously chosen this position contrary to Christ's Church. We can't bring ourselves to admit this, how can a person rationally do this? Yet, here we are.
rcg
rcg: I remain in my parish, uber-lib though it is, in the hope of giving useful support to the pastor, who has made some advances. The degree to which he has made change, though still small from my perspective, may be seen in the PUBLIC contempt shown him by the entire Religious Ed department.
Anon 5: Re "a Francisco-like regime would not work..." Well, it depens upon just how Francisco-like the regime was and how far it was willing to go. Don't they sell brown shirts at Steinmart?
ahemmm..
missing from the post is an image of polygamy...
~SL
Don't forget bestiality.
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