Anyone who reads my blog know that my stomach is sickened by the recovery of the 1970's Church in the 2010's actually beginning around 2013.
It is a Church that cares less about personal morality, like the below the belt type moral issues, but a Church more on fire (at least the elites who promote it) about social justice, the environment, the death penalty, war and peace, nuclear weapons, pollution and the like. I am not saying that Catholicism isn't about caring for the material and spiritual but that for most Catholics most of these things are beyond their control, unlike personal morality, such as the below the belt type things, and most of the social justice issues allow for a divergence of belief or embrace.
For example, I am personally opposed to the death penalty in most cases. I am not in agreement with Pope Francis that it must be opposed in every case because the Church has never opposed the death penalty in every case. To make this dogmatic will cause people to leave the Church.
Social justice people make poverty into an idol. Thus liturgically speaking we get the blah of Pope Francis in his disdain for the pageantry and beauty of the papacy, especially recovered by Pope Benedict.
When I went into the seminary in 1976, the very same type of vestments that Pope Francis prefers is what our seminary used. Accoutrements of the altar were very bland, ugly and certainly avoided gold and the like. Ceramic accoutrements was the liturgical jewel.
It is no secret that Pope Benedict's papacy engendered excitement at the rediscovery of Catholicism and its beauty (which is't to say that the poor are neglected). Converts were being made, young men were considering the seminary and traditional orders of religious were blossoming. The liturgy was improving.
Thus, the very progressive "Tablet" of the United Kingdom (their National Chismatic Reporter) has a stunning article coming from a source like this which prefers this kind of progressive Catholicism but now knows its deleterious effect on Catholics:
Why Social Justice Is Killing Synagogues and Churches
Data suggests that the more a religious movement
is concerned with progressive causes, the more likely it is to rapidly
lose members
excerpts:
However satisfying to its practitioners, the emphasis on social justice
is clearly not attracting more worshippers. Almost all the religious
institutions most committed to this course are also in the most serious decline, most notably mainstream Protestants but also, Catholics and Reform and Conservative Jews. The rapidly declining Church of England, which is down to 2 percent share among British youth, is burnishing its progressive image by adding the use of plastics to its list of Lenten sacrifices, but seems unable to serve the basic spiritual and family needs of their congregants.
45 comments:
Get woke, go broke. The Church has "learned" so much from the world!!!
That last sentence will throw MT for a loop!
Kotkin's piece is thought-provoking.
It's worth noting that he identifies several possible causes for the decline in church attendance, notably the rise of the "nones" which we have discussed here previously. Also, he cites the "political attacks" against religion in general, as well as many in the media who tend to "demonize" faith.
His claim that the Catholic Church under Pope Francis has sought to redefine itself as largely an instrument of social justice doesn't ring entirely true. Social justice has been an essential element of our faith since God called Abraham and entered into a covenant with Israel and commanded, "You shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt," and "If you lend money to my people, the poor among you, you must not be like a money lender; you must not demand interest from them," and, "If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this is his only covering; it is the cloak for his body."
The concept of social justice is ancient and an essential element of who we are and what we do as Christians. Working for justice is a powerful evangelization tool, one that we may too often overlook.
If, as Kotkin asserts, "the emphasis on social justice is clearly not attracting more worshippers," one is left to ask "Why not?" I'm not sure he attempts to answer that question.
Kavanaugh,
Because "social justice" has been perverted by left-wing clerics. They have hijacked religion to promote their sick, pet causes, such as: Transgender bathrooms, forcing taxpayers to underwrite the cost of illegal aliens while denying citizens the same things (California pays for the college tuition of law breakers aka illegal aliens but NOT their own citizens), global warming, etc. The worst SJW are found in the Episcopal and Methodist Churches, but the Catholic Church is catching up quickly under PF.
By the way, President Trump's tax reforms delivered an element of social justice: cab drivers and waitresses no longer are subsidizing the real estate taxes of the rich via the tax cap!!!!
as usual Kavanaugh, you are either clueless or intentionally part of the problem, trying to turn the article upside down, inside out to claim the opposite of what it said,
When will we learn, the 70's were a failure so lets do it again and this time it will work because this time we have fluffy Francis
but this time more cowbell
just ask the Anglicans how that works
Pope Benedict did try to make people see the beauty of the Church both through the way he approached his office and through his writing. Interesting how you mention social justice on this day, this is the season that most groups interested in social issues try to dominate. If Christmas has become the shopping season, this is the season of poverty-porn.
TJM’s fake news claim:
“[F]orcing taxpayers to underwrite the cost of illegal aliens while denying citizens the same things (California pays for the college tuition of law breakers aka illegal aliens but NOT their own citizens).”
The Facts (for those who actually care about truth; I assume there are still some out there who do):
About California college tuition:
https://edsource.org/2018/getting-free-college-tuition-in-california-a-quick-guide/599039
About the situation of undocumented college students more generally:
https://thebestschools.org/magazine/undocumented-student-attending-college/
By the way, I wonder how many of those “illegal aliens” who were brought here as children (or indeed, “illegal aliens” more generally) are Catholics (again, for those who actually care about such things; and again, I assume there are at least some out there who do).
As for global warming, we need to follow the best science and not the ideologues. And if the Climate Change Deniers have their way and turn out to be wrong, well, in the closing words of Monty Python’s “Galaxy Song”
“So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cause there's b****r-all down here on Earth”
“How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?”
A2, yay for your quick and fabulous correction of TJM's "fake news."
Would you however deny that undocumented illegal aliens ARE costing the taxpayer enormous amount, and that they are using enormous amounts of health care resources and are a large portion of inmates in the correction system.
As an "insider" in the healthcare industry, I can tell you I often get emails from CDC, etc. warning of infectious diseases being seen in increasing number BECAUSE of illegal crossings into the country. Legal immigrants are supposed to be screened for diseases and treatment for diseases.
Anyway, keep your mind closed and brainwashef.
Egyptian - I cited, in my first paragraph, what the article said. I did not try to "turn it upside down."
Social justice IS an essential part of the Church's teaching. This is not some "failure" of the 70's, nor is it new to Pope Francis.
If the author answers my question regarding why social teaching is not attracting new worshippers, please point that out. I did not see it in the article.
Do people really think that so-called "social justice" is the same justice that Amos and Hosea were talking about. Boy, are they in for a big surprise.
A2 I cant tell you how many times in my career the following has happened
Keep in mind that LEGAL immigrants are MUCH easier to track BECAUSE of their willingness to enter legally.
Person presents to ER with a history of coughing. Doctor orders cultures for TB. Patient leaves. Sadly, TB cultures takes WEEKS to grow and be identified. After WEEKS, TB is confirmed and doctor and state health departments are notified.
Patient unable to be found! This happens not only with TB, but with other infectious diseases - CONSTANTLY.
And, do you think it's easy or even possible to BILL for the work done? The deliveries, the x-rays, the blood work?
Is supporting the world REALLY what God expects?
Oh,A2, I forgot to mention how many times I have identified parasites such as Ascaris, Giardia, etc from the undocumented illegal aliens working at the local Mexican restaurants.
"Is supporting the world REALLY what God expects?"
"For this reason we have ordained for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a person, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it as though he had killed all men. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the lives of all men." Sura 5:32
"FOR THIS REASON WAS MAN CREATED ALONE, TO TEACH THEE THAT WHOSOEVER DESTROYS A SINGLE SOUL... SCRIPTURE IMPUTES [GUILT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD DESTROYED A COMPLETE WORLD; AND WHOSOEVER PRESERVES A SINGLE SOUL..., SCRIPTURE ASCRIBES [MERIT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD PRESERVED A COMPLETE WORLD." Talmud, Sanhedrin 37
So, what does God expect?
Kavanaugh Ocasio-Cortez
i like fr Zs take. The church is NOT a NGO
The fundamental reason why God gave us a Church which we could recognize by its marks is that we are sinners who are going to die. Through His Church, Christ provides the ordinary means of our salvation. We have the sacraments and we have authoritative teaching about the content of the Faith and morals.
By the virtue of religion we must give God what is His due. Hence, we must conform ourselves to the teaching and participate in the sacraments and offer God pleasing worship. Pleasing worship is the primary way by which we fulfill the virtue of religion. God has told us all through salvation history how to worship Him, from His mandates in the Old Covenant through the rubrics that His Church lays down now.
All our activities as Catholic Christians must flow from and return to proper liturgical worship of God, in His Church and as His Church provides by God’s own authority. Otherwise, we drift from being a people with a mind and heart for the transcendent, a transforming encounter with God in Mystery, and we wind up mired in immanentism, without a sense of something beyond, that which is unsettling and yet alluring.
Christian life moves in a dynamic cycle of worship, loving God with “all our strength”, as well as fulfilling specific commands from God such as “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Hence, without displacing sacred worship of God as our primary means of fulfilling the virtue of religion, we also rightly pursue corporal and spiritual works of mercy for our neighbor.
Keeping always in mind our priorities, it is the spiritual well being of our neighbor that is most important, and our help given to them on the temporal level aims finally at their spiritual good. The spiritual always has logical priority over the temporal, even it chronologically our efforts for the temporal and spiritual are simultaneous. If we reverse that logical priority and make our efforts mostly or completely focused on the temporal, our works are no longer performed mainly in charity. They are still humane and good, but they are not as “Christian” as they might be.
There are those who see the Church’s role, or want the Church’s role to be that of an NGO. St. Paul warns that we must not conform ourselves to the wisdom of this world. And yet so much of what we have done in the Church in the last 50+ years has been to turn its members into immanentists without a sense of the transcendent
Justice then is the same as justice now.
Justice, "is a moral quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them."
Or, "Giving each his or her due."
For Amos, justice meant, in part, not oppressing the poor. For him, justice meant uncovering the ways in which grow wealthy by impoverishing others.
Today there are many more ways in which the poor can be oppressed than there were in the days of Amos. Regardless, they are to be condemned as contrary to God's own justice.
Amos expects all nations to behave in a just manner. Victorious nations cannot act with cruelty to the defeated. Demanding Unconditional Surrender is a violation of justice. Pillaging the natural resources of a colonized nation or people is a violation of justice. Business practices that do not recognize the worker as the most important element in the chain but make quarterly profits for shareholders are not just.
Justice is not "What does someone owe me," but "What do I owe to others."
Bee here:
The difference between the doctrine of justice toward your neighbor ("love your neighbor as yourself") prior to the 1960's and now, my dear Father Kavanaugh, is that the Church's teaching on justice prior to the 1960's spoke to the individual, and demonstrated to the the individual that God expects His people to act justly toward their neighbor in the immediacy of their lives. Corporate action was expressed by way of charity toward Catholic institutions like missions, schools, orphanages, hospitals and so on. But since the 1960's, some elements of the Church have used this doctrine to agitate for changes to society that correspond to socialist and communist ideals, and corporate action for the same, including shaming if one does not want to participate in the corporate action. So saying the Church "always" demanded "social" justice is not quite true, in that how some elements of the Church say we should effect that justice now has indeed changed.
God bless.
Bee
Bee here:
Anonymous at March 7, 2019 at 8:36 AM:
You forgot to add at the end of your post, "And all break into singing the "Internationale" with gusto!! Or else."
God bless.
Bee
Anonymous 2 and other assorted lefties:
Here is the straight story on Global Warming. You guys remind me of the American Indians doing their rain dances. Wishing will not make it so:
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/global-warming-computer-model-nitrogen-rocks/
Here is an extensive analysis of the financial burden that illegal aliens place on the taxpaying citizens of California. Now I did misspeak on the tuition issue. But this report makes clear that the taxpayers are subsidizing illegal aliens by giving them instate tuition rates which they do not provide to American citizens of other states. Sounds like a denial of equal protection of the laws to me and manifestly unfair to the taxpaying citizens of California. Since the Democratic Party aka the Abortion Party receive the benefit of illegal alien votes, the DNC should pick up the tab. And you are free to support them yourselves through private charity.
https://www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-09/California-Cost-of-Illegal-Immigration.pdf
Have a good day in Fantasyland.
Oh thank you A, now I know what is expected. My only problem is that the reality is that undocumented individuals are more easily exploited than others. So I'm guessing you would agree that legal immigration should be considered.
And A, I would like to know how many homeless you are allowing to sleep in your garage? Or perhaps they are camping in your yard?
Thanks, Father. I don't think that's the UK Catholic Tablet, but a US Jewish periodical. Cheers.
Anonymous 2,
This comes from members of YOUR party (Social Justice Warriers) who are in Academia (new Fascists):
After passing through South Dakota’s House, a bill to ensure that freedom of expression and intellectual diversity be protected at all of South Dakota’s campuses died in the Senate State Affairs Committee on February 27 by a vote of 6-3.
On the same day that the decision was passed, there was a free speech controversy at the University of South Dakota (USD). The Student Bar Association had planned a “Hawaiian Day” event for which students would wear floral shirts and be given leis. The organizers of the event were informed by university administrators that the “Hawaiian Day” was offensive, and in turn changed the name to “Beach Day” and retracted the use of leis.
The incident has drawn criticism and commentary throughout the South Dakota press. Hawaii State Rep. Bob McDermott chimed in, rejecting the idea that wearing leis is offensive: “The lei is a symbol of our Aloha spirit in Hawaii, inclusive and welcoming . . . It is part of who we are in Hawaii and we are happy to share it.”
USD president Sheila Gestring has called for an investigation into whether the administration’s actions violated the policies of the Board of Regents regarding freedom of expression. Board President Kevin V. Schieffer has stated that he supports the investigation.
Following the “Hawaiian Day” debacle, the Senate State Affairs Committee voted 7-2 to reconsider the bill on Wednesday, March 6.
and to add the cherry on top, this article talks about the faux intellectuals found in the big cities:
https://reason.com/blog/2019/03/06/the-most-politically-intolerant-american
Egyptian, Some may see the Church as an NGO - I do not. The Church is given to us so that we might know the Truth. That Truth includes the responsibilities of individuals and groups to act with justice.
Bee - The command to do justice was never simply a matter for individuals. It wasn't so in the Biblical texts. Nations, corporations, associations of people, military units - any group is bound by the commands of Justice. This is true from the beginning of the Church, not just since the 1960's.
Pope Leo addressed the obligations incumbent on States (governments) in promoting and maintaining justice. This in no way obscures the responsibility of individuals, and Leo forcefully warned against the possibility (and the reality) that in some cases Governments intended to and had absorbed the responsibilities of individuals. Rather it recognizes that individuals form States and that, as associations of people, States have both an obligation to promote justice and the capacity to do so in ways that individuals do not.
Kavanaugh,
I think you would have been very happy in the Germany of the 1930s. Scratch a liberal, find a fascist
I find it strange that Anonymous 2 and Kavanaugh didn't comment on this point:
By the way, President Trump's tax reforms delivered an element of social justice: cab drivers and waitresses no longer are subsidizing the real estate taxes of the rich via the tax cap!!!!
As readers will see, I believe in facts (including, I should add, regarding the health matters mentioned by Dan, especially if verified otherwise than simply through anecdote).
People like TJM (and his hero President Trump) who misstate facts (thank you at least for your concession regarding the misstatement on tuition, TJM) believe in making wild, shotgun assertions (it is really difficult to keep up) and pinning (inaccurate) labels that shut down conversation.
‘Nuff said.
P.S. Except for this – I also believe in reasonable and “faithful” arguments based on those facts.
Shouldn't we all?
A2 seeing as how I have a job which involves reporting disease to the State Health dept. and keeping statistics, I know what I'm talking about. The media and politicians and USCCB may want everyone to remain in the dark, but I assume there is a financial payoff in their "politics."
I could not care less if you believe me because I am already certain you never would.
Nuff said.
A2 - believes in facts unless they contradict his preconceived notions.
This from JAMA from 1990 before any surge...
"Among the 125 immigrants from Central America, intestinal parasitic prevalence was 53%. Pathogens were found in 45% and multiple pathogens in 21%."
And before SJW media decided to tweak the truth.
Bee here:
Fr. Kavanaugh said: "The command to do justice was never simply a matter for individuals. It wasn't so in the Biblical texts. Nations, corporations, associations of people, military units - any group is bound by the commands of Justice. This is true from the beginning of the Church, not just since the 1960's."
I didn't say it was "simply" a matter for individuals, but even your first examples speak to individual action: "You shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt," and "If you lend money to my people, the poor among you, you must not be like a money lender; you must not demand interest from them," and, "If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this is his only covering; it is the cloak for his body."
It is clear the expectation is not for the state (Israel) to institutionalize these decrees, but is how each individual should act toward other individuals, monitored or not. They are not laws like: All aliens have the right to fair and non-oppresive treatment and shall not be afflicted. The lender shall not collect interest on loans. Cloaks taken as a pledge shall be returned to the owner before sunset.
Never is it anywhere in Church teaching before the '60's that we must take political action to make changes in our society. In fact, St. Paul and others teach the opposite: to obey civil authorities and laws, to pray, to work toward the good with peace, not with self-righteousness, or with a sense of condemning others, like many SJW's do, even those within the Church. I never read or heard or heard anywhere we were to be activists in the political sense, agitating for change.
There is such a tone of self-righteousness in all you post. That in itself indicates to me your point of view is more self-will than inspired by wanting to do the will of God.
God bless.
Bee
From AMA Journal....
"There were approximately 7 million new immigrants in the US in 2010, including approximately 2.7 million from three high-prevalence countries: Mexico, China, and India [8]. This population also includes 1.8-2.3 million undocumented immigrants [9, 10]; these are immigrants who either entered the US without legal documentation or who entered legally but have since violated the terms of those documents. Over half of this cohort originated in countries with a high prevalence of TB [9, 10]."
Nuff said yet A2?
More:
"..study of988 immigrants, of
whom 79.9% were sub-Saharan Africans and 72% were of undocumented origin. Fever, pruritus, eosinophilia, viscero-
megaly, and anemia were more frequent in Africans, while a cough was more common Latin Americans (P < 0.005). The
most frequent diagnoses were previous hepatitis B (46.5%), latent tuberculosis (44.2%), filariasis (24.8%), infection with
intestinal helminths (15.4%), malaria (15.1%), infection with intestinal protozoa (10%), hepatitis C (8.8%), other
non-parasitic infections (7.8%), active hepatitis B (7.6%), sexually transmitted diseases (7.5%), active tuberculosis
(5.8%), and infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (5.2%). Past and active hepatitis B and C, active
tuberculosis, infection with HIV, malaria, and filariasis were more frequent in Africans (P < 0.005). Thirty-two other tropical diseases were also identified."
From the CDC:
In 2015, TB disease was reported in 2,694 Hispanics/Latinos in the United States, accounting for 28% of all people reported with TB nationally.
"Among foreign-born people with TB, 32% were Hispanics/Latinos
The rate of TB disease was 4.8 cases per 100,000 population, which is eight times higher than the rate of TB in white, non-Hispanic people (0.6 cases per 100,000 population)."
NOTE A2: really difficult to know percentages among those who are here illegally.. but probably close don't you think?
Dan,
I did not say I didn’t believe you. That was_your_preconceived notion. Please share the statistics and their analysis.
A2, may I finally point out that LEGAL immigrants are screened and treated... doesn't that sound humane?
I can't that is "owned" by my employer.
Nice try though A2, I'm sure you know I cant give that out... look up scientific journals and infectious disease info. yourself. Avoid CNN and Huffpost and even the CDC is getting biased.
Let me put it in a way you will understand A2. Me sharing specific work data is like you breaking the seal of the confessional. Sure, maybe among friends, but not on a blog. Right A2?
Anonymous 2,
But you have to admit, the cap on real estate taxes was long over-due "social justice," right?Why should the poor and middle class subsidize the McMansions of the rich. I noticed that the so-called champion of the poor, Governor Cuomo of New York, was outraged over this attempt at fairness in the tax code.
Dan,
If the Dems would quit aborting their unborn, they wouldn't need the illegal alien voters to take up the slack. That is the ugly, unvarnished truth about their evil machinations. God help us if these fascists regain all levers of government again. People who want power this badly, should never hold it. Even Nasty Pelosi is getting a taste of what comes from Dem identify politics, i.e. the 2 muslim congresscritters who are virulent anti-semites. Even Rahm Emmanuel of Chicago is calling them that. I wonder when the New York Slimes and the Washington ComPost will be writing about the civil war within the Dem Party?
Bee - First, I think you propose an unreal separation between individuals and groups, including States. The command to act with justice falls on both, and any group in between.
Second, the societal structures of first century Palestine are not those of the twenty-first century world. What may have applied to individuals only then has direct implications on larger groups now.
Third, you say, "Never is it anywhere in Church teaching before the '60's that we must take political action to make changes in our society. In fact, St. Paul and others teach the opposite: to obey civil authorities and laws,..." A) St. Paul never teaches that we must "obey civil authorities and laws" is those authorities and laws are un just. B) Faith and Politics have been intertwined since Faith and Politics came into existence. In Moses day the politics was patriarchy. Saul, David, and Solomon held political office by divine right. The Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne were the ecclesiastical electors of the Holy Roman Emperor from at least 1257. C) Until relatively recent times there was no "political action." Monarchs held power which. for the most part, the people didn't share.
The notion that social justice should not be discussed beyond the level of the individual is not what the Church clearly teaches. It seems to me that it flows from an ill-formed "Libertarianism" that is little more than Pelagianism masquerading as a political stance.
Well thanks to Roe v Wade our government is a living of symbol of NO JUSTICE. President Trump keeps pushing back on this evil but we have the Abortion Party and their fake catholics, including priests and bishops, resisting.
Please do not take my silence during the past few days as acquiescence or lack of interest. I have been on vacation—also from the Blog, to the benefit of my psychological and spiritual health I might add!
I corrected one false claim about tuition and seem to have unleashed a torrent of additional assertions, including about immigrant health, property taxes, etc. I am not necessarily denying the validity of these claims. However, the simple truth of the matter is that I do not presently have the time or the energy to address each assertion (for one reason, I am not retired and have other professional and domestic obligations). I am pretty sure, however, that each one of these assertions warrants thorough, objective, and impartial investigation and contextualization.
I hope that we will all realize this fact and not simply accept assertions uncritically at face value, even when they support our favored narrative, but will engage in critical thinking and undertake whatever research is necessary to evaluate all such claims properly—especially those that one suspects are most likely re-transmissions from other misleading blogs and websites.
Surely we understand how dreadfully debased our social discourse has become and how internet factories and trolls (Russian or otherwise) are assaulting our polity and trying to use a variety of tactics (lies, half-truths, manipulation, cajoling, browbeating, sheer overwhelming through a blizzard of assertions) to divide and conquer?
It is our duty as citizens and as Catholics to do whatever we can to retain our independence of thought and to resist fake news and other falsehoods, including by verifying whether an assertion is in fact a falsehood or half-truth or not. Pope Francis has made our responsibility as Catholics clear in the following:
https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/papa-francesco_20180124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html
I have done my part on this thread already. Hopefully others will do their part too.
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