Anyone hoping that the Pope and the Vatican will learn anything from the virus debacle is probably sadly mistaken. Case in point:
The emergency caused by coronavirus has made the situation of many vulnerable people even more precarious; it has also highlighted that immigrants are essential to the fabric of our society, Cardinal Michael Czerny says.
The cardinal also urged local solutions to address the needs of immigrant and refugee families around the world.
Speaking to CNA over Skype in Rome, Czerny highlighted that immigrants often fill jobs of an essential nature in their adoptive countries.
“Who are the orderlies and the cleaning people and who are the support staff in the hospitals? Who are the people who are picking the fruit and vegetables that we really do need to receive?” he asked.
“Who are the people who are taking care of our elderly or challenged people or other people who need support and care?” he asked. “Many, many, many of them are people in these categories [of migrant or refugee], who are here doing the work because it’s the work we need.”
Go here to read the rest. Let’s see, the liberty of the Church was put on deep freeze for months, the Faithful deprived of the sacraments, almost all clergy seeming to have taken a vow of silence on this whole issue, and all this Jesuit apparatchik can think of is how much we rely on immigrants. Invincible ignorance on display. The crew at the Vatican has learned nothing from the shameful farce, and apparently the beatings of the Faithful will continue until morale improves.
The U.S. bishops are following the Pope’s example Roma the.
Damned autocorrect!
What I meant to say was, the U.S. Bishops are following the Pope’s example to a tee.
“Who are the orderlies and the cleaning people and who are the support staff in the hospitals? Who are the people who are picking the fruit and vegetables that we really do need to receive?” [emph. add.] he asked.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I think that’s what the cardsharps call a tell.
Will there ever come another revolt (they called it the Reformation) against Rome? Might it take the route of financial starvation? The chess pieces seem to be heading for a checkmate soon. And yes, every day things on that game board are clearly more black and white.
Faithful Catholics are hoping and praying that we will not see another revolt. Reform yes indeed, revolt no. Our Church has had bold and saintly reformers many times in the past. St. Francis of Assisi for one. Others have suffered martyrdom rather than rebel, such as Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More. Plenty of examples for to be followed. We can hope and pray that these examples will suffice for all who are discouraged at our current state of affairs.
The USCCB has not made any statements about when masses should resume. I am having difficulty even finding a statement where they express regret that masses have been cancelled. The closest I can find is the following statement in the Good Friday message:
Praying the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus together offered a special moment of unity for the faithful during a time when communities throughout the U.S. and worldwide are physically unable to congregate for Holy Week and Easter because of COVID-19.
But the message itself doesn’t express regret at having masses cancelled, and that statement makes it sound like churches were destroyed by some freak accident or something, not that the bishops forbid people from coming.
On the other hand, they have issued statements expressing regret at how the virus is causing African Americans, Native Americans, Asians and migrant farm workers to suffer. They have also condemned closing the borders in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease (in that statement they wrung their hands about how it would prevent “religious workers” from entering the country; not that there would be anything for them to do when they get here.)
In the eyes of the bishops it is a sin to close borders for health reasons but closing church doors is no problem.
The problem with the USCCB is that it’s a bureaucracy staffed by people who believe the Catholic church should be the Democratic party at prayer* and whose mantra is “the
worldDNC sets the agenda for the Church.”We’d probably be better off with a genuine metropolitan model.
(if, you know, prayer’s your thing, or whatever –no judgement).
The USCCB has no say as to when public masses resume. That decision is left to the bishop of each diocese.
They also have no say over immigration policy but that doesn’t cause them to shut up about that.