Gabriel Garnica
Tragically, told you so...
By Gabriel Garnica
I recently wrote an article detailing how the American Catholic Church is fighting its detractors with both hands tied behind its back since practically 2/3 of its ranks are either defiant of core Church teaching or so oblivious of that teaching as to be easy prey for radical, sinister, and heretical intentions. I also described how the Church Hierarchy is greatly complicit in this dire situation through its own rampant ambivalence or even defiance of core teachings. Lastly, I described how the American Catholic Church has been infiltrated by rebellious heretics seeking to mold Catholicism into their own twisted secular distortion of this Faith. These heretics have increasingly, arrogantly and insidiously hijacked the mantle of American Catholicism as their own, further diluting the Faith and confusing that element of the faithful too ignorant of core teaching to know that they have been played. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/garnica/120216 Almost on cue, two recent incidents have illustrated some sense of the above in very vivid, and distasteful, tones.
The Lesbian Communion Incident
The first incident in question involved the complaint of a Buddhist lesbian, Barbara Johnson, to the Archdiocese of Washington after a staunchly pro-life priest, Fr. Marcel Guarnizo, withheld Communion from her at her mother's funeral Mass. While there have been numerous outstanding examinations of this incident from a Canon Law and Eternal Moral Law perspective http://ronconte.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/the-lesbian-communion-incident-canon-law-versus-the-eternal-moral-law/ I wish to approach this incident from a different, more simplified, perspective.
We have a lesbian who publicly proclaims her homosexuality and the fact that she is a Buddhist, both known reasons why many Catholic priests would refuse to give her Communion in view of the Church's traditional view that declaring homosexuality acceptable to the Catholic Church is heresy and that leaving the Catholic Church for a non-Christian faith is apostasy. This woman is not a parishioner of the parish in question, and the priest has never met nor had any contact with either her or her family ever before.
The woman conveniently decides to rub the fact that she is a lesbian in the face of this priest moments before the priest is to officiate her mother's funeral Mass, and her lover physically impedes him from trying to discuss this matter with the woman in question, as "pastoral sensitivity" and "kindness" would dictate. Given a choice of at least one other Eucharistic Minister, the woman decides it is a good idea to seek Communion from the very priest she has just handed the reason to deny her Communion. Despite having at least one other option for Communion, this woman opts for the option most likely to result in controversy, a controversy she clearly seeks to exploit.
The woman complains to the Archdiocese of Washington which, rather than hold off any declarations or comments until all the facts are in, soon posts a public reprimand and removal of priestly faculties which has not, for example, been used against priests accused of molestation or heresy and is considered a very harsh treatment. The very public nature of this reprimand is, in and of itself, a scandal in that it indirectly implies that withholding Communion from a non-Christian heretic and apostate is worse than molesting a child or committing heresy against the Church! Not to mention the tremendous public confusion that such an action creates in the faithful.
Why would an Archdiocese throw a priest under the bus for defending the Eucharist and traditional Church teaching? Perhaps because, as my original article above posited, that leadership has already sold much of its theological and spiritual territory to heretics, apostates, and defiant opponents of traditional Catholic teaching and doctrine.
Look Who's Talking
In my recent article mentioned at the beginning of this one, I also discussed at length how so-called "Catholic" institutions such as Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College, and Fordham are now about as Catholic as Barack Obama is Pro-Life. For the most part, these schools have been overrun by modernist, feminist, heretic, and dissident scholars and educators whose knee jerk instinct is to bash core Catholic teaching and Doctrine and declare a new dawn of Catholic thinking, as if the Catholic Church's solid foundations and important history were nothing more than ignorant scrawls on a bathroom wall until these present-day wanna-be bright lights swung open the shutters of darkness.
Rather than serving as the vanguard feeding Catholic young with the richness, depth, and potential of our Catholic faith, these "bastions" of education took a sharp turn Left ever since rebel priests such as Msgr. Jack Egan and Fr. Theodore Hesburgh navigated Notre Dame and, thus, the others, to sell out their Catholic identity for earthly treasures and gain. It was Hesburgh who spearheaded the notorious Land O' Lakes Conference which divorced Catholic Higher Education from that Catholic identity. Today, most Catholic universities are more promoters and defenders of birth control, abortion, and non-traditional marriage and families than of traditional Catholic identity and dogmas. Egan, for example, was a disciple of Saul Alinksy, the radical, left wing activist and atheist who dedicated one of his books to Lucifer and infiltrated the Chicago Catholic Church in order to further his socialist agenda. History shows that Alinsky is the hero of anyone who calls him or herself a "community organizer."
Almost on cue, we now have Notre Dame Philosophy Professor Gary Gutting recently declaring that "The immorality of birth control is no longer a teaching of the Catholic Church" http://blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2012/03/12/notre-dame-prof-the-immorality-of-birth-control-is-no-longer-a-teaching-of-the-catholic-church/. This absurd claim is based on Gutting's defective argument that it is the will of the Catholic majority, and not that of the bishops or Pope, that dictates what is or is not current Church teaching. It is ironic that a heretic named Gutting would, in fact, be gutting the Catholic Church's core beliefs.
This argument is self-contradictory in that it first states that religious authority cannot come from any secular power then cites "our democratic society" as that source, eventually turning the whole claim into a "majority rules" argument. Gutting and others then base their "majority" drivel on the claims, often cited, that "98% of U.S. Catholic woman use contraception" and that "78% of Catholics believe that a "good Catholic can reject the bishops' teaching on birth control." These statistics are flawed because they include anyone who calls him or herself a Catholic, http://ronconte.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/birth-control-and-church-authority/
which would include such giants of American Catholicism and theology as Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius, and John Kerry.
We have a public declaration made by a heretical scholar from a heretical University which has continued to sell out its once true Catholic identity in order to spew more heresy and spread more confusion among the faithful which, by the way, is precisely the very aim of those who have hijacked the Catholic faith. Need we say more?
Conclusion
If New York City has been and continues to be the primary U.S. target of terrorists, then the American Catholic Church has been and continues to be the primary religious target of heretics seeking to spread and hoist their twisted brand of Catholicism on the faithful. If this Church is that target, then the Eucharist, the priesthood, marriage, the family, and the unborn are the bulls eyes. As we have seen, such heretics will use whatever means necessary to achieve their goals. The utter absurdity and hypocrisy of their claims, so patently obvious to any sane individual, is ignored by a secular liberal media eager to bash traditional and core Catholicism at every turn.
Ultimately, proving and confirming the claims made in my earlier article and many other articles like it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Left-wing radicals have a very predictable and, by now, boring blueprint to spew their distortions and lies. Between Sandra Fluke and now, Barbara Johnson, this "damsel in distress" act is getting old. The biased dissident scholar bearing fictional statistics which happen to support his or her fables bit is not much better. The old adage that there are liars, damn liars, and statisticians seems to have taken a decidedly Catholic tone.
Perhaps the Oscars should now include a category for "Best Performance by a Radical Left Wing Female in a Victim Role Attacking the Evil Religious Right." Perhaps we will soon have a minority, feminist, homosexual nun in a wheelchair throwing herself in front of a priest driving to a Pro-Life rally declare that the Catholic Church is gorged with fanatical, violent, heartless anti-Choice monsters who hate minorities, women, homosexuals, and female religious. At least we know a famous community organizer who will call said nun in support and solidarity....while holding a Bible, of course.
© Gabriel Garnica
March 21, 2012
I recently wrote an article detailing how the American Catholic Church is fighting its detractors with both hands tied behind its back since practically 2/3 of its ranks are either defiant of core Church teaching or so oblivious of that teaching as to be easy prey for radical, sinister, and heretical intentions. I also described how the Church Hierarchy is greatly complicit in this dire situation through its own rampant ambivalence or even defiance of core teachings. Lastly, I described how the American Catholic Church has been infiltrated by rebellious heretics seeking to mold Catholicism into their own twisted secular distortion of this Faith. These heretics have increasingly, arrogantly and insidiously hijacked the mantle of American Catholicism as their own, further diluting the Faith and confusing that element of the faithful too ignorant of core teaching to know that they have been played. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/garnica/120216 Almost on cue, two recent incidents have illustrated some sense of the above in very vivid, and distasteful, tones.
The Lesbian Communion Incident
The first incident in question involved the complaint of a Buddhist lesbian, Barbara Johnson, to the Archdiocese of Washington after a staunchly pro-life priest, Fr. Marcel Guarnizo, withheld Communion from her at her mother's funeral Mass. While there have been numerous outstanding examinations of this incident from a Canon Law and Eternal Moral Law perspective http://ronconte.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/the-lesbian-communion-incident-canon-law-versus-the-eternal-moral-law/ I wish to approach this incident from a different, more simplified, perspective.
We have a lesbian who publicly proclaims her homosexuality and the fact that she is a Buddhist, both known reasons why many Catholic priests would refuse to give her Communion in view of the Church's traditional view that declaring homosexuality acceptable to the Catholic Church is heresy and that leaving the Catholic Church for a non-Christian faith is apostasy. This woman is not a parishioner of the parish in question, and the priest has never met nor had any contact with either her or her family ever before.
The woman conveniently decides to rub the fact that she is a lesbian in the face of this priest moments before the priest is to officiate her mother's funeral Mass, and her lover physically impedes him from trying to discuss this matter with the woman in question, as "pastoral sensitivity" and "kindness" would dictate. Given a choice of at least one other Eucharistic Minister, the woman decides it is a good idea to seek Communion from the very priest she has just handed the reason to deny her Communion. Despite having at least one other option for Communion, this woman opts for the option most likely to result in controversy, a controversy she clearly seeks to exploit.
The woman complains to the Archdiocese of Washington which, rather than hold off any declarations or comments until all the facts are in, soon posts a public reprimand and removal of priestly faculties which has not, for example, been used against priests accused of molestation or heresy and is considered a very harsh treatment. The very public nature of this reprimand is, in and of itself, a scandal in that it indirectly implies that withholding Communion from a non-Christian heretic and apostate is worse than molesting a child or committing heresy against the Church! Not to mention the tremendous public confusion that such an action creates in the faithful.
Why would an Archdiocese throw a priest under the bus for defending the Eucharist and traditional Church teaching? Perhaps because, as my original article above posited, that leadership has already sold much of its theological and spiritual territory to heretics, apostates, and defiant opponents of traditional Catholic teaching and doctrine.
Look Who's Talking
In my recent article mentioned at the beginning of this one, I also discussed at length how so-called "Catholic" institutions such as Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College, and Fordham are now about as Catholic as Barack Obama is Pro-Life. For the most part, these schools have been overrun by modernist, feminist, heretic, and dissident scholars and educators whose knee jerk instinct is to bash core Catholic teaching and Doctrine and declare a new dawn of Catholic thinking, as if the Catholic Church's solid foundations and important history were nothing more than ignorant scrawls on a bathroom wall until these present-day wanna-be bright lights swung open the shutters of darkness.
Rather than serving as the vanguard feeding Catholic young with the richness, depth, and potential of our Catholic faith, these "bastions" of education took a sharp turn Left ever since rebel priests such as Msgr. Jack Egan and Fr. Theodore Hesburgh navigated Notre Dame and, thus, the others, to sell out their Catholic identity for earthly treasures and gain. It was Hesburgh who spearheaded the notorious Land O' Lakes Conference which divorced Catholic Higher Education from that Catholic identity. Today, most Catholic universities are more promoters and defenders of birth control, abortion, and non-traditional marriage and families than of traditional Catholic identity and dogmas. Egan, for example, was a disciple of Saul Alinksy, the radical, left wing activist and atheist who dedicated one of his books to Lucifer and infiltrated the Chicago Catholic Church in order to further his socialist agenda. History shows that Alinsky is the hero of anyone who calls him or herself a "community organizer."
Almost on cue, we now have Notre Dame Philosophy Professor Gary Gutting recently declaring that "The immorality of birth control is no longer a teaching of the Catholic Church" http://blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2012/03/12/notre-dame-prof-the-immorality-of-birth-control-is-no-longer-a-teaching-of-the-catholic-church/. This absurd claim is based on Gutting's defective argument that it is the will of the Catholic majority, and not that of the bishops or Pope, that dictates what is or is not current Church teaching. It is ironic that a heretic named Gutting would, in fact, be gutting the Catholic Church's core beliefs.
This argument is self-contradictory in that it first states that religious authority cannot come from any secular power then cites "our democratic society" as that source, eventually turning the whole claim into a "majority rules" argument. Gutting and others then base their "majority" drivel on the claims, often cited, that "98% of U.S. Catholic woman use contraception" and that "78% of Catholics believe that a "good Catholic can reject the bishops' teaching on birth control." These statistics are flawed because they include anyone who calls him or herself a Catholic, http://ronconte.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/birth-control-and-church-authority/
which would include such giants of American Catholicism and theology as Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius, and John Kerry.
We have a public declaration made by a heretical scholar from a heretical University which has continued to sell out its once true Catholic identity in order to spew more heresy and spread more confusion among the faithful which, by the way, is precisely the very aim of those who have hijacked the Catholic faith. Need we say more?
Conclusion
If New York City has been and continues to be the primary U.S. target of terrorists, then the American Catholic Church has been and continues to be the primary religious target of heretics seeking to spread and hoist their twisted brand of Catholicism on the faithful. If this Church is that target, then the Eucharist, the priesthood, marriage, the family, and the unborn are the bulls eyes. As we have seen, such heretics will use whatever means necessary to achieve their goals. The utter absurdity and hypocrisy of their claims, so patently obvious to any sane individual, is ignored by a secular liberal media eager to bash traditional and core Catholicism at every turn.
Ultimately, proving and confirming the claims made in my earlier article and many other articles like it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Left-wing radicals have a very predictable and, by now, boring blueprint to spew their distortions and lies. Between Sandra Fluke and now, Barbara Johnson, this "damsel in distress" act is getting old. The biased dissident scholar bearing fictional statistics which happen to support his or her fables bit is not much better. The old adage that there are liars, damn liars, and statisticians seems to have taken a decidedly Catholic tone.
Perhaps the Oscars should now include a category for "Best Performance by a Radical Left Wing Female in a Victim Role Attacking the Evil Religious Right." Perhaps we will soon have a minority, feminist, homosexual nun in a wheelchair throwing herself in front of a priest driving to a Pro-Life rally declare that the Catholic Church is gorged with fanatical, violent, heartless anti-Choice monsters who hate minorities, women, homosexuals, and female religious. At least we know a famous community organizer who will call said nun in support and solidarity....while holding a Bible, of course.
© Gabriel Garnica
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
