If Sandro Magister is reflective of thought in the Vatican, then American Catholics opposed to the Puppetmasters’ Administration can expect the Pope to be fully on the other side:
Biden is undoubtedly a sincere Catholic. Believing and practicing, at Mass every Sunday. In the painful moments of his life as husband and father the faith has had a strong and visible bearing on him. And also in political competition he has never made a secret of drawing inspiration from it. Those who criticize him can only blame him, if anything, for not being consistent with his faith in everything, especially in supporting abortion as a constitutional right.
In the United States, much more than in Europe, Italy, and Rome, this is a “vexata quaestio.” Which never came up with Kennedy, but after the 1973 ruling of the American supreme court that legalized abortion has loomed ever larger.
The biggest collision came in 2004, when the Democratic candidate in the presidential election, ultimately defeated by George W. Bush, was John Kerry, also Catholic and “pro-choice.” Some bishops took this as grounds for denying him communion. But the contrary view was held by the president of the United States episcopal conference at the time, Wilton Gregory, and then-archbishop of Washington and cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was also president of the episcopal commission for “domestic policy.”
From Rome then-cardinal prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith Joseph Ratzinger sent these two a memo on the “general principles” that would lead to the denial of communion for Catholic politicians who systematically campaign for abortion.
Gregory and McCarrick kept a lid on the memo from Ratzinger. Who however in a subsequent letter acknowledged that the principles he had recalled still left room for “prudential judgment” on whether or not to give communion, as also admitted by authoritative “neoconservative” cardinals such as Avery Dulles and Francis George.
And today? With Biden the question is coming right back up, one and selfsame. He has already been refused communion and this time too the American bishops appear divided.
McCarrick, as is known, has left the stage and even been reduced to the lay state. But Gregory himself has became archbishop of Washington and cardinal, and has sided in favor of communion for Biden. While Philadelphia archbishop emeritus Charles Chaput has spoken out for the other side, in a December 4 commentary on “First Things.”
But it is likely that room will again be made for “prudential judgments.” The episcopal conference of the United States, currently headed by Los Angeles archbishop José Horacio Gómez, has created a special “working group” on the policies of the new president “that would be in conflict with Catholic teaching and the bishops’ priorities,” in particular concerning abortion, sexual identity, health care, education.
Presiding over this “working group” is Detroit archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who is also vice-president of the episcopal conference and candidate to become its future head, a moderate representative of that “neoconservative” wing which is still prevalent in the American episcopate, on several occasions clearly leaning toward Trump during the four years of his presidency.
On the opposite side of this wing and with the evident support of Pope Francis, however, headway is also being made by those cardinals and bishops, including Gregory, who steer by Biden’s light. With them there seems to be a return to the stage – in dealing with the question of abortion as part of an inseparable “organic” defense of life and therefore at the same time of the poor, the elderly, migrants, homosexuals, nature – of that “seamless garment,” like the tunic Jesus wore, which was the symbolic formula of the progressive American Church of the 1980s, headed by Chicago cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin (1928-1996).
One should not however underestimate the fact that not only among citizens but also among American Catholics the contrast between the two camps, Trump’s and Biden’s, is of unprecedented radicality, of which the barbaric invasion of Capitol Hill on January 6 was the epiphany pushed to the extreme. Some observers hark back to 1861, with Abraham Lincoln’s rise to the presidency and the outbreak of the Civil War, to find a nation so divided.
The Pew Research Center found, in the run-up to this presidential election, that as many as nine out of ten voters, both Republicans and Democrats, saw the abhorred victory of the adversary as bringing “lasting harm” to the nation. And Catholics, as has been seen, are the only large religious group in America in which both sides of the political contrast are represented, in anything but mutual peace.
John L. Allen Jr,, prince of the American vaticanistas, has however pointed out that Catholics are a fifth of the population of the United States, and therefore action on their part on behalf of unity in diversity could change the entire cultural landscape, if only it moved in the direction of making this indeed more “catholic,” more inclusive and open.
A first signal in this direction could be seen in the way “pro-life” representatives have distanced themselves from Trump while still supporting his anti-abortion policies, just as they continue to fight against the opposing stance personified by Biden.
With a Catholic president, perhaps the time has come for a “Catholic moment” for America. The moment of truth for the Catholic Church in the United States.
Go here to read the rest. American Catholics, who care about the Faith and the traditional liberties of Americans, should assume that for the next four years Church and State will be arrayed against them.
Agree that for the 10-20% of “American Catholics, who care about the Faith and the traditional liberties of Americans, should assume that for the next four years Church and State will be arrayed against them.”
On this note our Novus Ordo “Catholic” Church may well require a proof of vaccination to attend Mass.
Devout [crook, grifter, liar] Fraudulent [Crime Pays] Xi Jin Joe will force The Little Sisters of Charity to pay for abortion services and the few, rump taxpayers remnant to fund so-called gender reassignment surgery.
Chinese Joe Didn’t Win. We Were Robbed. We Know What They Did Last November.
Hail To The Thief.
My Faith is barely surviving This PopeTM. I doubt it will ultimately survive This PopeTM and This PopeTM’s stacked American episcopacy kowtowing to This “Catholic” President.
Sorry, that should be a small “f” in “faith”. THE Faith will survive. MY faith is quite another matter altogether…
Where’s John Cornwell when you need him?
The pontiff has crafted a Patriotic Association of appointees who will be happy to slap their greasy nihil obstat on everything Biden and his administration does.
Their well-shod and princely soft feet must be held to the fire every time they remain silent at the torrent of outrages to the Faith.
It won’t change much of their behavior, but it will make them uncomfortable. And since their faith is very much oriented towards the City of Man and the things of this world, we know they hate temporal discomfort.
But make no mistake–Bergoglio’s caesaropapist deference to neoliberalism is going to make things toxic for full-spectrum believing Catholics.
But look at the bright side, brothers and sisters: we’re a bond rate shock from an economic crisis that will make that of the 30s look like a mild recession.
But look at the bright side, brothers and sisters: we’re a bond rate shock from an economic crisis that will make that of the 30s look like a mild recession.
I don’t think a 30% decline in domestic product per annum (spread out over 3 years and change) is in the offing, much less something that will make that look like ‘a mild recesssion’.
Jay, when I start feeling really lost because of the current state of the Church hierarchy, and of the secular government here at home, it helps me to reflect on the stories in the Old Testament about how long the Chosen People were left to suffer for their abandonment of God, time and again, until He gave them another chance. We can count on Christ in the long run, but in the meantime we have to trust, beg His indulgence for ourselves (of course) and for our nation, despite its overall drift away from Him, and realize that the victory may not come in our earthly lifetime. That is the hardest thing for me to accept, out of all the hard lessons of the Faith. That doesn’t mean we roll over for the tyrants who want us imprisoned or dead, but we must also try to think in “God’s time.” I’m not very good at that, but I hope to improve.
Art, I know I exaggerated as I often do.
But Biden’s energy-hostile policies and tax hike will suck a lot of money out of the economy and pocketbooks of a lot of consumers.
Add in a new welter of environmental and workplace regulations which small businesses will have to try to adapt to.
Throw in the next wave of hundreds of thousands of low-skill, low-wage immigrants driving down wages for those already here who are barely–or not–making ends meet.
And then toss all that on economy which is already in deceleration thanks to coronavirus, which may be getting more virulent.
It will be ugly for everyone not in the shareholder and bureaucratic classes.
Jay:
Hear you, loud and clear. It’s hard to stay on the path when so many of those in charge clearly don’t believe “that s–t” and have obvious contempt for those who do.
I think that these years are necessary to separate the wheat from the tares. Just like the reaction to the pandemic has started.
One priest reacted to the pandemic by keeping his church open, immediately organizing outside car masses, and maintaining confession and adoration schedules. Before the diocese forbid the public to come in for mass entirely (at first they just restricted the number of people able to come in at one time) he planned to do five masses every Sunday in addition to Saturday masses so that everyone could come.
Another a different parish made no alternative mass plans and didn’t even post videos of the masses he had for a couple of weeks (instead linking to an existing mass site). He didn’t explicitly stop confessions, but the regular schedule was suspended and confession had to be specially scheduled through the main office, which was closed around the clock. Adoration was canceled specifically because of the worry that “in this time of crisis more people might come to adoration which could be a health risk.” Similarly, while the Church was open for a short time during the week it was closed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday because of the fear that more people would be praying on those days.
Before all of this happened I had no reason to think that one of these priests was more faithful and reliable than the other. Now it’s pretty obvious what the score is.
Welcome to Benghazi. Or, perhaps, to be more optimistic, Helm’s Deep.
What the Biden/Bergoglio Axis will do to America is that which has already been done to China.
It appears the Catholic faith will be obfuscated or subsumed under a State Church apparatus reflective of the “Living Church” of the Soviet Union.
Truly, the Catholic faith will “subsistit in” the New american Catholic Church.
I do however, have some hope that at least some of the members of the USCCB will recognize the new “denomination” that organization represents, and, since it is not a doctrinally required organization, will simply cease interacting with it and thereby stand for the actual Catholic faith, not the neo-denominational sect that has founded its religion on “eloquent ambiguity”. {CCC 1697}
“It will be ugly for everyone not in the shareholder and bureaucratic classes.” I take exception to that line. Many seniors’ retirement plans depend partially or wholly on investment income. As do those of some unions and government agencies. When the economy gets bad we will see RIFs and downsizing in bureaucracies and military. We need smaller government but it’s less painful for families when it’s natural attrition.
Normal actuarial factors will address the matter of PF views and comments on this and other subjects. It is the institutional damage that has been caused by divergent viewpoints that will be more difficult to deal with as division in the Church becomes more pronounced. I fear we are well on the way to another split in the Church, not unlike the Protestant revolt and with largely the same consequences.