First we had the silence tactic. That proved a flat failure so now it is on to stopping the clock:
Pope Francis will summon the presidents of every bishops conference to a meeting in February to discuss preventing clergy sex abuse and protecting children, his advisers revealed Wednesday.
Go here to read the rest. This is an obvious attempt to buy time. It does not take six months to round up the presidents of the bishops’ conferences and get them to Rome. Pope Francis is hoping that announcing yet another dog and pony show in which he and other bishops and cardinals can emote and proclaim about how they really, really want to protect kids now, will take the heat off him. Not this time Holiness. As far as you are concerned the question is really simple: did you know that Cardinal McCarrick was a homosexual predator when you made him a high profile member of your pontificate? As for the larger issue, the Church needs action and not more worthless talk, and you are part of the problem and no part of the solution. On a personal note, PopeWatch had to sign those worthless papers yet again yesterday, signifying that PopeWatch understands it is wrong to abuse kids, in order to teach, gratis, fifth and sixth graders catechism. PopeWatch thought it was a fitting symbol for this whole bad farce. Predator priests and the bishops who protected them created this horrifying mess, and it is left to the laity to pay the price. At bottom what this situation is truly all about is that far too many of the clergy simply do not believe in Catholicism and are evil men playacting a role, all the while secretly laughing at Catholics who do believe the Truth of Christ.
Sadly, this pope was elected, so a “next pope” elected by the same people ought not change anything much but the surface. Diabolical cancers like that infecting God’s Church require real deep surgery and once cured, keeping that lust-filled smoking from Hades habit completely out of the sanctuary.
“At bottom what this situation is truly all about is that far too many of the clergy simply do not believe in Catholicism and are evil men playacting a role and laughing at Catholics who do believe the Truth of Christ.”
I agree completely. The religion of these clerics is socialism and eco-modernism. They worship the twin “divinities” of the man-god Caesar and goddess Gaia. I wonder if in some sense these “divinities” are (or can be compared with) the twin beasts of Revelation chapter 13 – the beast from the sea and the beast from the land. That begs the question: are these the Last Days? Well, these have been the Last Days for 2000 years and I suspect the Lord’s patience with us is wearing thin. For Him to see that we today are repeating 1000 years later what St. Peter Damian wrote about in Liber Gomorrhianus must be frustrating, and the Lord’s sovereign will won’t be frustrated.
Well you can’t say we weren’t warned about all this. This has to be most thorough exchange of the mess we are in and it being foretold…multiple times:
I assume your complaint about having to sign “those worthless papers” was a reference to the VIRTUS program? I also just completed my indoctrination via 2 videos, and noted two things: 1. It was a very slick attempt to take the focus off the real problem, clerical homosexuality, by spreading the guilt around to different kinds of abuse and abusers; 2. There were 2 spots by Bishop Malone of Buffalo in one of the videos – looking quite distinguished, respectable and trustworthy. Having become quite cynical about the re-mushrooming scandals, I sat there and asked myself “Hah – I wonder what he’s hiding?” Sure enough, the very next morning (i.e. last week), the headlines hit the blogosphere: one of Bp. Malone’s own staff had leaked documents to the press showing that he covered up the activities of some of his perverted priests!
Plenty of nominal or notional Catholics, the so-called cultural Catholics in the pews* to keep them company.
*at Easter, Christmas, weddings, baptisms etc.
One of the manifestations of clericalism, which I believe is a real problem, albeit not in the way the Clerisy from Pope Francis on down are trying to tell us its a problem, is when we in the laity say “this is your problem, so clean it up.”
If I a Catholic layman get up in my Pastor’s grill so to speak about how terrible clergy sex abuse is (and all clergy sex is abuse in a sense -in the same sense that I would be abusing my wife if I was having an affair), and how outraged I am, and how I’m no longer contributing financially to the Church until he and the rest of the clergy get their how is order, and then go home and congratulate myself on speaking Truth to Power by drinking a six pack of beer and downing a whole bucket of chicken wings before I retire for the night for some celebratory contraceptive intercourse. . .
then I’m part of the problem too.
(To say nothing about supporting gay marriage or abortion on demand too!)
I used to stick up more for the bishops, since so many who attack them outright are whack jobs.
NO MORE. They are on their own as far as I care.
If the Bishops are on their own, where does that leave us?
Where we have always been, in the hands of God.
“At bottom what this situation is truly all about is that far too many of the clergy simply do not believe in Catholicism and are evil men playacting a role, while all the while secretly laughing at Catholics who do believe..”
…
Best short explanation yet.
—
I had occasion to visit the Rancho San Pedro, aka the Dominguez Adobe, a California Historical Landmark (N. 152), in Los Angeles, the first Spanish land grant in California to Juan Jose Dominguez in 1784. The Juan Jose Dominguez family and his progeny were deeply devoted Catholics and had a chapel on the premises. The family was so impressed with the order founded by St Anthony Mary Claret, d. 1870 (“the Claretians”) that in 1924 they donated a large amount of land and had a theology school built on the premises, in fact just facing opposite their historic rancho main house:
http://dominguezrancho.org/wp-content/history/dominguez-homestead-and-claretian-seminary.jpg
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In that fateful year of 1965, the seminary closed for several reasons, funding being a significant one: but I was impressed by the ascetic, disciplined, evidently dedicated life the men lived during their training years , as captured in old black-and-white photos from the 1920’s-1950’s:
The school facade:
https://calisphere.org/item/5442db7400601b8cc5e9114c1845d8bd/
The austere chapel:
https://calisphere.org/item/fc886888eb2cf3f86df8354c204631b3/
https://calisphere.org/item/acf0194e2a2d768818efda0352487e3b/
Even the spare, bare dining room was evident of a total ordering to an apostolic spiritual discipline and a vision of absolute service to Christ:
https://calisphere.org/item/5442db7400601b8cc5e9114c1845d8bd/
[These photos and history have been preserved by the University of California, of all places @ calisphere.org]
One of the most famous teachers at the seminary was the renowned priest, Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF, whose cause for sainthood has been begun under Archbishop Gomez. The Dominguez Seminary during these years (1924-1965) was known as “A School of the Spirit”, forming young men into a dedicated life of devotion to Catholic spirituality and the sacraments and especially devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, a particular patron of Fr. Ellacuria. In addition, Fr. Ellacuria was known for a knowledge of consciences and a prophetic gift for those who sought his advice. He had many documented gifts of inexplicable miraculous healing from terminal diseases and crippled limbs. He was known for spending long hours visiting the sick at their home and at hospitals; many witnesses said that he had a profound sense of peace that affacted everyone, even unbelievers, when they encountered him.
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My point here is the contrast between this type of spiritual formation in the Catholic Church, seen at Rancho Dominguez and the old Claretian seminary, all of which came to a precipitate end in 1965 in this case, and the “spiritual discipline” or apparent lack thereof, even a worldly disdain for it, of the present-day set of many of the bishops and cardinals.
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You cant fake a dedication to the Following of Christ if it just aint there. You can only “playact” .
Actually, this is the impressive school facade of the old Claretian seminary, from the 1930’s approximately (in my notes above, the dining room appears twice).
https://calisphere.org/item/f8c1589e52af83dbf1f3b9c5fcd9d64f/
Ernst Schreiber wrote, “Plenty of nominal or notional Catholics, the so-called cultural Catholics in the pews* to keep them company.”
In the years following Humanæ Vitæ, to many Catholics, both lay and clerical came to adopt the opinion of Lord Melbourne, “Things have come to a pretty pass, when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of private life.”
Francis has his agenda. I read this morning that he has signed a concordat with the Chinese government to accept six government bishops. What will this do to the underground church? Francis needs to step down as soon as possible.
God gave us bishops.
“God gave us bishops.”
And the brains to know when they are behaving like evil idiots.
S. Phoenix, enjoyed the pictures of the Claretian cemetery. Thank you.
Seminary no Cemetery. Auto correct is sometimes a pain..
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