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Saturday, May 24, 2014

FIRESTORM IN MACON: IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ARCHAIC? IF FIDELITY TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH MAKES US ARCHAIC, THEN YES!

Emotions are running high in Macon. A non-Catholic teacher at Mt. de Sales Academy (grades 6-12) was dismissed because he is planning a same sex "marriage" in Minnesota this summer. The media has covered this in both positive and negative ways and sometimes biased against the Church and her teachings.

 The night before last I gave a ten minute interview to the Macon Telegraph's reporter, Phillip Ramanti who then failed to include anything I said in the front page news story in the Telegraph's Friday morning edition or its on-line edition. On top of that he has the audacity to write that no one from the Diocese of Savannah returned his calls. As vicar forane (dean) of the Macon Deanery, and thus a representative of the diocese, I did in fact return his call and he failed to acknowledge it and remove from his report that no calls were returned. Tisk! tisk!

 This particular news clip from last night's local news on WMAZ-TV is good, fair and balanced. However, I gave a 30 minute interview to the station of which 10 seconds or so was actually shown. Flint Dollar's 30 minute interview was posted in-full on their website. Fair and balanced? I report, you decide:



The Diocese of Savannah released the following statement in support of Mr. David Held's decision to dismiss Flint Dollar:

“The Diocese of Savannah supports the decision of the Board of Trustees at Mount de Sales Academy in Macon not to employ Mr. Flint Dollar for the 2014-2015 school term. Mount de Sales is an independent Catholic school sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, under the direction of the Diocese of Savannah concerning its Catholic identity.”

My comment: This entire event is a sad event for all involved. I pray for everyone involved and for healing and new starts. This is a major turning point for the Catholic community here in Macon. Will our Catholic institutions remain Catholic or become non-sectarian and follow the "magisterium" of new dictatorship of America's government religion, "Godless Secularism?" The answer is a resounding NO to the Magisterium of Secularism and YES to remaining Catholic!

As Robert P. George recently said at a prayer breakfast:



The question each of us today must face is this: Am I ashamed of the Gospel? And that question opens others: Am I prepared to pay the price that will be demanded if I refuse to be ashamed, if, in other words, I am prepared to give public witness to the massively politically incorrect truths of the Gospel, truths that the mandarins of an elite culture shaped by the dogmas of expressive individualism and me-generation liberalism do not wish to hear spoken? Or, put more simply, am I willing, or am I, in the end, unwilling, to take up my cross and follow Christ?”


My final comments: In the real world of Catholicism, life is messy and we sin. We sin sometimes through a corrupt compassion that enables those who work for the Church to think that our moral teachings don’t really count and are easily dismissed if we are good at what we do in our areas of competence.  We can “wink and nod” at the moral inconsistencies of people’s life and pat ourselves on the back for being so open, inclusive and loving. Yet the enabling of sin and the injustice to that person’s salvation is like a shot to the head when we do not admonish the sinner and call that person to repentance and fail to say that there are severe consequences for one’s unrepentant sin in this life and the next. 
 
These are difficult times for the Church and the difficulties stem not only from outside influences placed upon us but from within from well-meaning Catholics who don’t like what the Catholic Church teaches and think we should change our “archaic” teachings and become like liberal Protestant denominations who have thrown in the towel. But that won’t happen. 

Pope Francis is very concerned about the influence of Satan in the Church and upon our Catholics, be they bishops, priests, deacons, religious or laity. The influence of Satan is real and the only way to battle the devil is by getting behind Jesus Christ and supporting His Church! 

You cannot be a faithful Catholic without the Church! –Pope Francis.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

A few things:

1. Why was this the 'top story'? Surely the story following it (regarding the murder of the elderly couple) should be of far greater concern to the public.

2. After your homily yesterday (Friday) morning, my initial thought was 'Well... that was cheerful.' I had no idea what you were referring to, until I went home and saw the news.

3. If these really were students/alumni, I really have to question the education MDS is giving. Apparently the (sixty—a small number, really) protesters paraded His Holiness's quote to no end, which would indicate a severe lack of reading comprehension skills.

4. The school's non-discrimination policy is going to be used against them due to being written in a way able to be abused by those ignorant (willfully or not) of the Catholic understanding of 'sexual orientation', which does not necessarily include sexual acts under its definition.

5. I thought one person interviewed was really funny, speaking of (I believe) 'archaic' practices. And then, of course, the lawyer afterwards said 'the Church might not care'... and then quickly seemed to realise he had said the wrong thing.

Anonymous said...

Well....for the last 50 years the Church has been ashamed of her own teachings and allowed priests, bishops and nuns to spread error. By undermining the moral teachings of the Church they knew that the faithful would then have no faith in the dogmatic teachings of the Church.

Things are so bad that now we have a pope who makes daily imprudent statements like "who am I to judge" and cardinals making unbelievable statements like "bravo" about someone choosing to live an immoral life. The list of scandalous behavior/statements from clergy is too numerous to list.

Does any reasonable person believe that this can continue. It is going to take an act of Divine intervention to save us. And until the hierarchy stops the nonsense the destruction will continue.

Decision time is coming really really fast. How many priests will suffer for defending the teachings of the Church or will they betray Christ and go the way of the world. And the situation is that dire. Anyone who refuses to see that is in denial. I fully expect the diocese to apologize bow to pressure, they always do. This a time unlike any other, the Church is being attacked from both within and without at the same time. How shameful it is that we can't count on our shepherds to feed and protect us.

rcg said...

Anon, it is tiresome that you constantly bring that statement up out of context. Even at the time it was said it was apparent what Pope Francis meant. The Diocese did not complain to the local public school to dismiss any of their homosexual teachers although there are almost certainly more Catholic children in their care. The teacher was fired for violating the principles of the institution that employed him. You do have it right that this is a nest we made ourselves by past attempts to be accepted by the society at large.

One concern will be amount of public monies the school gets, directly or indirectly. You can expect that to end, FrAJM.

Anonymous said...

Father,
This must be a difficult time for you. You have my prayers. Be strong.

Everyone, stop what you're doing this instant and pray for Father.

Rob

Anon friend said...

Hang onto your hat, Father. No one is exempt from the suffering created by original sin. Just remember that we in this life are the Church Militant. Martyrs to Her cause will become the Church Triumphant. Speak the truth in love, and pray the prayer that never fails: "Your will be done, Lord."

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Yes, Pope Francis just on Thursday said we should go to our martyrdom as to a wedding banquet! I'm dressed for it!

Anonymous said...

"Tsk" not "tisk." Get your onomatopoeic spellings down, or WHAM!, you'll get smacked again.

Did Mr. Ramanti know that you, as vicar forane, are a "representative of the diocese?" Has he ever heard the term "vicar forane?"

If he has heard the term, did he bring his umbrella to the interview?



William Burroughs said...

You can criticize anonymous for using Pope Francis' quote "out of context", but the fact remains he said it and in this age of sound-bite media, the pope left himself wide open for the entire world to take that quote out of context.

All of this context stuff is meaningless because only the pope knows what he meant when he said that and the best we can all do is speculate. However, that does not change the fact that the pope, God bless him, has said a lot of things that can be taken many ways, most of them the WRONG way. When we have this lack of precision coming from the top, the 2-second attention span masses are going to interpret what he says as what they want to hear. Now we get to live with the results.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Tsk, on me, I stand corrected, but the reporter in question, should do his homework on the Catholic Church and her hierarchy before doing interviews--reporters are good a digging us such stuff and the interview was over the phone and unless his phone allowed by saliva from speaking to him, he did not need an umbrella!

rcg said...

WB, yes we do know what he meant because he has followed up with related statements consistent with Church teachings. I tend to agree that he is a little naive concerning the press, but think he makes outrageous statements on purpose to get people to deeply consider certain points. I think we are now far better equipped as Catholics to discuss and defend teaching on homosexuality, e.g., by this exercise than if he simply published a position on the subject.

John Nolan said...

It's 'tut,tut' this side of the pond.

Anonymous said...

I trust that we know that "tsk" is NOT pronounced "tisk" but is pronounced as a "click," as the linguistics people say, sort of like "tick" or "tuck" without a vowel (or "chuck" without a vowel but without the sibilant part of "ch" - which leaves "t"). Or am I wrong?

- Ancil Payne

Desiree said...

The guy with the long brown hair and dark sunglasses sounded like he was the boss, and possibly even God Himself...the true ruler of the Catholic Church.

He also sounded a bit biased...

Anonymous said...

I disagree, however you have the right to your opinion. I will not be sending my child to MDS more will it be receiving my donations. Jesus taught love.

An ashamed MDS alum.

Gene said...

Well, Anonymous, why don't you be a true lib and send your kids to one of Macon's wonderful public schools. That way, you could assuage your liberal guilt and feel really good about yourself. LOL!

WSquared said...

"Ashamed MDS alum," while Jesus taught love, I ask you what you mean by "Jesus," and also what you mean by "love."