Judie Brown
Catholic bishops and true charity
By Judie Brown
Saint Francis de Sales would have been concerned, if not horrified, at the situation in the Catholic Church today. I say that without reservation because he is the one who said, "It is true charity to point out the wolf wheresoever he creeps in among the flock." http://books.google.com/books?id=7BfaeNCWOO0C&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=wolf+%22Introduction+to+the+Devout+Life%22&source=bl&ots=GypEQBN9gY&sig=8ALuQCixuUwXavrB5dOYDaEdV1E&hl=en&ei=LIDYStj9MYWd8AahuO22BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=wolf&f=false
I have been pointing out the wolf for many years now, particularly as the scandals and problems affect the total protection of Christ in the Eucharist http://www.canon915.org/ and the actions of various members of the hierarchy are, at best, befuddling and, at worst, absolutely outrageous.
Among those things that have caught my attention recently is a spate of news reports that are baffling on many fronts. While I would give any prelate the benefit of the doubt, I am also painfully aware of how such events affect average faithful Catholics who simply cannot believe what they are reading.
Take, for example, the funeral Mass of the recently deceased bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, Michael Saltarelli, who died of bone cancer on October 8. http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/faith/bal-saltarelli-1008,0,314000.story Bishop W. Francis Malooly, who succeeded Bishop Saltarelli, praised him in glowing terms as a faithful servant of the Church. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/hundreds-gather-for-bishops-funeral-64360352.html
Bishop Malooly is the very same bishop who would not and will not deny Holy Communion to Vice President Joseph Biden, having claimed at one point that he would not "politicize" the Eucharist. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111211.html Bishop Saltarelli, on the other hand, was a defender of the faith. He made it perfectly clear that, regardless of whether or not Biden was elected vice president, he would not be permitted to speak at Catholic schools in the diocese because of his manifest support for the act of abortion.
While Bishop Saltarelli did not go so far as to publicly announce he would obey Canon Law 915 and deny Holy Communion to Biden, he did say, http://catholicsagainstjoebiden.blogspot.com/2008/08/msgr-joseph-rebman-and-bishop-michael.html
We pray for the soul of Bishop Saltarelli and pray that Bishop Malooly will see the importance of defending Christ from sacrilege.
On October 12, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Francis Cardinal George, issued a statement on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2009/09-203.shtml
The Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, printed a commentary on Obama's Nobel Prize that stated in part, "The American president's [war policy] is an oscillating policy, similar to his policy for the important bioethical issues and in the first place, abortion, which has sparked so many disputes among Catholics in the U.S." http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_eng/text.html#2
The entire problem of USCCB public comments brings me to yet another worrisome event involving the USCCB's president. Let me preface my comments on this subject by saying that I cannot imagine the weight of responsibility that sits on the shoulders of Cardinal George in his role as the USCCB's current president. And I have no way of understanding the political pressures that put him in the limelight when he would perhaps prefer to be simply leading his flock in the Chicago archdiocese, and remaining focused on souls instead of media quotes. But that is his cross and we pray for him daily.
However, when it comes to the question of abortion and the USCCB's notion that somehow health care reform is a must do, I am befuddled. Just a couple of days ago, His Eminence discussed this matter with members of the media, and he was quite honest in telling them that the ground is still shifting on health care reform legislation and that "the abortion issue will vitiate the whole project if it's not attended to."
http://www.newsmax.com/edward_pentin/healthcare_abortion/2009/10/14/272330.html But he then went on to say that the bishops have two goals: "Everybody should be taken care of, and nobody should be deliberately killed. It's up to the politicians, the lawyers, and legislators to see what the mechanism for doing that is."
Cardinal George knows as well as we do that, as long as there are politicians such as Vice President Biden and other pro-abortion Catholics getting off scot-free when it comes to receiving the body and blood of Christ while advocating the direct murder of the preborn, there will be deceit of the worst possible kind — especially on the subject of health care reform. Let us not forget that the architect of this concept of reform now being pushed in Congress was none other than the late pro-abortion Catholic senator Edward M. Kennedy. http://healthcarereform.nejm.org/?p=1966
Any politician who defies Christ on fundamental moral issues can never be trusted to be truthful about anything, even when dealing with the president of the USCCB.
While it is true that Obama is not a Catholic, it is a documented fact that his community organizing days in Chicago began in an organization funded by the Catholic Church! http://paxchristima.org/newsletters/Pax%20Christi%20MA%20Newsletter%2C%20Summer-Fall%202009.pdf
Today, many of those doing his dirty work for him, such as House Speaker Pelosi http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=4 and Senate Finance Committee members John Kerry http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=34 , Maria Cantwell http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=73 , and Robert Menendez http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=62 are allegedly Catholics, but each is also totally dedicated to abortion on demand. These men and women present a clear and present danger to the Church, to the babies and to any credibility that any promise emanating from the White House might hold. Surely Cardinal George is aware of this.
It makes perfect sense to me that those who hold the positions of greatest influence within the Catholic Church — the bishops, archbishops and cardinals — need to unify. The USCCB should unanimously take a firm position and make it clear that the body and blood of Christ will not be defiled any longer by those in elected office who violate Catholic teaching while maintaining a spurious Catholic identity.
The damage these disobedient Catholic men and women are doing to the credibility of the Church, to consciences of the faithful who are misguided by what they witness, and to the preborn children themselves cannot be quantified.
Christ must be perpetually in agony over such scandalous behavior and lack of faith. If the USCCB were to defend Christ in the Holy Eucharist from sacrilege and make it their top priority, my sense is that miracles would begin to happen and even White House operatives who are quasi-Catholic might take notice.
Then a genuine discussion of principled, ethical health care reform might be considered. But until then, forget about it.
Health care reform and life-and-death control over the weak and vulnerable in our midst does not belong in the hands of an administration dedicated to advancing the culture of death. The bishops know this, and it is my hope they also know that they have the power — the power of the Holy Spirit — to stop the madness by simply defending Christ and letting the chips fall where they may.
"It is true charity to point out the wolf wheresoever he creeps in among the flock."
© Judie Brown
October 20, 2009
Saint Francis de Sales would have been concerned, if not horrified, at the situation in the Catholic Church today. I say that without reservation because he is the one who said, "It is true charity to point out the wolf wheresoever he creeps in among the flock." http://books.google.com/books?id=7BfaeNCWOO0C&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=wolf+%22Introduction+to+the+Devout+Life%22&
I have been pointing out the wolf for many years now, particularly as the scandals and problems affect the total protection of Christ in the Eucharist http://www.canon915.org/ and the actions of various members of the hierarchy are, at best, befuddling and, at worst, absolutely outrageous.
Among those things that have caught my attention recently is a spate of news reports that are baffling on many fronts. While I would give any prelate the benefit of the doubt, I am also painfully aware of how such events affect average faithful Catholics who simply cannot believe what they are reading.
Take, for example, the funeral Mass of the recently deceased bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, Michael Saltarelli, who died of bone cancer on October 8. http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/faith/bal-saltarelli-1008,0,314000.story Bishop W. Francis Malooly, who succeeded Bishop Saltarelli, praised him in glowing terms as a faithful servant of the Church. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/hundreds-gather-for-bishops-funeral-64360352.html
Bishop Malooly is the very same bishop who would not and will not deny Holy Communion to Vice President Joseph Biden, having claimed at one point that he would not "politicize" the Eucharist. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111211.html Bishop Saltarelli, on the other hand, was a defender of the faith. He made it perfectly clear that, regardless of whether or not Biden was elected vice president, he would not be permitted to speak at Catholic schools in the diocese because of his manifest support for the act of abortion.
While Bishop Saltarelli did not go so far as to publicly announce he would obey Canon Law 915 and deny Holy Communion to Biden, he did say, http://catholicsagainstjoebiden.blogspot.com/2008/08/msgr-joseph-rebman-and-bishop-michael.html
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The promotion of abortion by any Catholic is a grave and serious matter. Objectively, according to the constant teaching of the Scriptures and the Church, it would be more spiritually beneficial for such a person to refrain from receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. I ask Catholics in this position to have the integrity to respect the Eucharist, Catholic teaching and the Catholic faithful.
We pray for the soul of Bishop Saltarelli and pray that Bishop Malooly will see the importance of defending Christ from sacrilege.
On October 12, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Francis Cardinal George, issued a statement on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2009/09-203.shtml
-
In the name of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, I would like to offer congratulations to President Barack Obama on his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. As he has graciously said, much of the work of realizing a more peaceful and just world for all persons and nations remains to be done; but the prize was given because as President of the United States he has already changed the international conversation...
The Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, printed a commentary on Obama's Nobel Prize that stated in part, "The American president's [war policy] is an oscillating policy, similar to his policy for the important bioethical issues and in the first place, abortion, which has sparked so many disputes among Catholics in the U.S." http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_eng/text.html#2
The entire problem of USCCB public comments brings me to yet another worrisome event involving the USCCB's president. Let me preface my comments on this subject by saying that I cannot imagine the weight of responsibility that sits on the shoulders of Cardinal George in his role as the USCCB's current president. And I have no way of understanding the political pressures that put him in the limelight when he would perhaps prefer to be simply leading his flock in the Chicago archdiocese, and remaining focused on souls instead of media quotes. But that is his cross and we pray for him daily.
However, when it comes to the question of abortion and the USCCB's notion that somehow health care reform is a must do, I am befuddled. Just a couple of days ago, His Eminence discussed this matter with members of the media, and he was quite honest in telling them that the ground is still shifting on health care reform legislation and that "the abortion issue will vitiate the whole project if it's not attended to."
http://www.newsmax.com/edward_pentin/healthcare_abortion/
Cardinal George knows as well as we do that, as long as there are politicians such as Vice President Biden and other pro-abortion Catholics getting off scot-free when it comes to receiving the body and blood of Christ while advocating the direct murder of the preborn, there will be deceit of the worst possible kind — especially on the subject of health care reform. Let us not forget that the architect of this concept of reform now being pushed in Congress was none other than the late pro-abortion Catholic senator Edward M. Kennedy. http://healthcarereform.nejm.org/?p=1966
Any politician who defies Christ on fundamental moral issues can never be trusted to be truthful about anything, even when dealing with the president of the USCCB.
While it is true that Obama is not a Catholic, it is a documented fact that his community organizing days in Chicago began in an organization funded by the Catholic Church! http://paxchristima.org/newsletters/Pax%20Christi%20MA%20Newsletter%2C%20Summer-Fall%202009.pdf
Today, many of those doing his dirty work for him, such as House Speaker Pelosi http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=4 and Senate Finance Committee members John Kerry http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=34 , Maria Cantwell http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=73 , and Robert Menendez http://www.canon915.com/view_person.php?id=62 are allegedly Catholics, but each is also totally dedicated to abortion on demand. These men and women present a clear and present danger to the Church, to the babies and to any credibility that any promise emanating from the White House might hold. Surely Cardinal George is aware of this.
It makes perfect sense to me that those who hold the positions of greatest influence within the Catholic Church — the bishops, archbishops and cardinals — need to unify. The USCCB should unanimously take a firm position and make it clear that the body and blood of Christ will not be defiled any longer by those in elected office who violate Catholic teaching while maintaining a spurious Catholic identity.
The damage these disobedient Catholic men and women are doing to the credibility of the Church, to consciences of the faithful who are misguided by what they witness, and to the preborn children themselves cannot be quantified.
Christ must be perpetually in agony over such scandalous behavior and lack of faith. If the USCCB were to defend Christ in the Holy Eucharist from sacrilege and make it their top priority, my sense is that miracles would begin to happen and even White House operatives who are quasi-Catholic might take notice.
Then a genuine discussion of principled, ethical health care reform might be considered. But until then, forget about it.
Health care reform and life-and-death control over the weak and vulnerable in our midst does not belong in the hands of an administration dedicated to advancing the culture of death. The bishops know this, and it is my hope they also know that they have the power — the power of the Holy Spirit — to stop the madness by simply defending Christ and letting the chips fall where they may.
"It is true charity to point out the wolf wheresoever he creeps in among the flock."
© Judie Brown
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