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| St. Basil's Parish, Ottawa, ON |
I read a recent posting at SoCon or Bust with a good degree of dismay. Apparently a number of folks representing the heart and soul of St. Basil’s Parish in Ottawa have made available their thoughts and beliefs on the subject of the Catholic family.
Accordingly, this report presents findings from RESPONSES BY MORE THAN
60 PARISHIONERS of St. Basil’s Parish, Ottawa, gathered in three discussions
after Masses on December 14-15, 2013, to SELECTED QUESTIONS in the Vatican’s
Preparatory Document for the Family Synod. It was sent to the Archdiocese on
December 18.
Their report is actually a bold and scathing denunciation of
Catholic teaching on the family and other weighty matters of faith. The Church
is portrayed as unloving, judgmental, outdated, unscientific, and
unapproachable in her ways and teachings and the authors freely admit that
large numbers of the baptized walk away, being clear in their own
conscience that they are justified.
The report condemns the Church’s teaching on homosexual
disorders and unions claiming that
these matters are up to the individual’s conscience.
It is said
Homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon, not a choice.
Apparently, as concerns this parish,
cohabitation before marriage is almost universal now.
And, according to the
authors, in all matters of “irregular” lifestyles, including “divorced” and
“annulled”
the Church must practice acceptance (not just tolerance) and respect.
Furthermore,
Catholic couples should be able to divorce and remain active members of
the Church, including remarriage.
Regarding openness to life,
The magisterium is simply wrong about birth control.
And
The Church’s leaders cannot admit that they are wrong (e.g., their
continued affirmation of Humanae Vitae). The consequent damage to the
credibility of the magisterium is profound.
The Church is accused of having it backwards:
An” increase in births” is to be discouraged, not promoted.
Although the report does not indicate majority agreement, it
nevertheless feels it important to record dissident views on women’s involvement
in ministry:
As long as the ordained members of the Church and the magisterium
persist in denying women equal status, the teaching on women within the family
will be regarded with suspicion.
Other vague, incredible opinions are shared, including
Most of the Church’s problems are the result of man-made rules, coupled
with rigidity.
It is difficult for me to imagine that these individuals can
be considered in any way genuine Catholics. They have denied the faith in
blatant fashion. No doubt they are among those pseudo-catholics
who base their Catholic membership
not upon the mystery of the Eucharist but upon the "magic" of
the Eucharist. Thanks to the negligence, or perhaps simply the spiritual
darkness, of too many Canadian Bishops, regardless of the moral conduct or
spiritual disposition of vast numbers of renegade "Catholics",
attendance at Mass and mere reception of Holy Communion is assumed to magically
confer absolution for even the gravest sins and satisfy all of God's
significant imperatives for the Catholic. This grave misrepresentation of the
Catholic faith not only dishonors faithful Catholics but scandalizes the entire
Christian community in Canada, many of whom are forced to conclude that
Catholicism is but another cultish enemy of the true Christian faith.
Blame the Bishop? I say, “But of course!” Who else has the responsibility
for the Archdiocese? Who is the Shepherd and Teacher? Is it possible that
Archbishop Prendergast doesn’t know about the heresies of this parish and other
parishes in his Archdiocese? If he doesn’t then he is shockingly naïve and
negligent. If he knows then he has allowed a series of dangerous evils to
overtake this parish and his Archdiocese and the result is that many many souls
are being lost to Satan. This condition did not happen overnight. It took many
years to reach such a ripened, evil, state. Where has the Archbishop been since
he took over the job from Archbishop Gervais?
Speaking of Archbishop Gervais, wasn’t he the Archbishop referred to in this letter?
Canada's Bishops failed to deal with the grave scandal caused by Paul
Martin, Canada's most recent pro-abortion, pro-sodomy "Catholic"
Prime Minister, defeated in the 2006 election, who spearheaded same sex
"marriage" in Canada and vehemently proclaimed his government's
commitment to "a woman's right to choose" without restrictions. His
Bishop, the Bishop of Canada's capital city, Ottawa, dismissed any possibility
of discipline for Martin, claiming that the Prime Minister was a "faithful
member of my cathedral parish." (This same Bishop attends the Ottawa March
for Life and at the 2004 March delivered a homily condemning the killing of
human embryos for their stem cells.)
But wasn’t Archbishop Prendergast the subject of widespread
controversy in 2008 when he indicated that Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Should not “Publicly” Receive Holy Communion? I
commented on this big story in my blog entry of March 9, 2008 entitled Archbishop
Prendergast Must Go the Whole Nine Yards as well as in a short follow up post.
I give the Archbishop credit for even bringing up the subject, but
unfortunately he has only muddied the waters with his confused equivocation.
…
So to summarize, Archbishop Prendergast must take this matter to the
next level, i.e. the level of complete adherence to Catholic teaching, in order
to win any respect for his recent statements or to accomplish any desperately
needed change regarding the scandal of pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians in
Canada.
Several days later, the Archbishop sounded off on “scandal,”
a term rarely passing the lips of Catholic Bishops in Canada. As I wondered in another
blog posting, was Archbishop Prendergast following in the footsteps of then
Archbishop Raymond Burke [now Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke of the Apostolic
Signatura in Rome]?
The Archbishop was sounding like the Archbishop of St. Louis, the Rgt.
Rev. Raymond Burke, whose record I briefly reviewed in this posting.
He even emphasized the crucial role that denial of Holy Communion played in the
reformation of the sinner’s ways, a key component of A/B Burke’s education
strategy in this controversial matter. Archbishop Prendergast described this as
the “medicinal measure,” which indeed it is.
He also emphasized the importance of the Church’s role in this matter
in coming “to the assistance of those who serve the public good.” And then
finally, a truly unusual and distinguished conclusion to the interview: an
Archbishop in Canada discussing the concept of scandal:
“ If one were to allow Catholic political (or other public) figures to
freely espouse abortion without drawing to their attention that this is a grave
evil," explained Archbishop Prendergast, "other believers might be
tended to accept this, not knowing any better and be led on the wrong path:
that is what 'scandal' is. One must do everything possible to prevent others
from falling away from the path of Christ - i.e. from being scandalized.”
Before I closed that posting I made this prediction:
It will soon be time for the Archbishop of Canada’s capital city “to do
or to die.” A showdown of sorts is coming. Will the Archbishop act, or will his
words soon vanish into fresh Canadian air as he settles into the politically
correct chair of his predecessor?
The fallout from the Archbishop’s comments provoked
commentary from some of Canada’s Protestant Evangelical circles and was
detailed in this
posting, where I explained what I thought the Archbishop was up against:
I do think that Archbishop Prendergast has planted some
rare and hopeful signs of change in his recent outline of Catholic teaching
concerning pro-abortion politicians who call themselves “Catholic” but he will
have to quite literally move some of the gates of hell which have been
positioned in Canadian society over the last forty or fifty years.
Is he up to it? I really don’t know but I have complete confidence that
if he moves forward step by step, does not waver in his responsibilities as Bishop,
and if he holds complete fidelity to the Magisterium
of the Church, God Himself will move those gates.
Is this the same Archbishop who gave a speech in 2008 in
Barrys Bay, ON that was heard round the world and led some to say No More Marshmellow Teaching. It’s Hard Candy Now ? Truly, some good people’s
hopes zoomed skyward. [By the way, did the Archbishop ever release his pastoral
document on Humanae Vitae? I can’t say I remember reading it and I don’t see it
anywhere on his blog entries.]
It’s very sad indeed that after all the early huff and puff
of this episcopate our hearts are now down in our boots. What appeared to be a zealous
and courageous Bishop-teacher, even a fearless enforcer of Catholic orthodoxy (God
knows how badly we need one), turns out to be powerless to stop the most basic
kind of dissent and heresy in his own parishes. Is he so out of contact with
his priests and his people? Not only that but clearly the pseudo-catholics in
his Archdiocese have little or no fear of their Bishop; witness their boldness
to broadcast their outrageous positions via the Internet for the whole world to
see.
Is it possible that the Archbishop knows all about the corruption
in the hearts of many of the “faithful” in his Archdiocese but that he lacks
the courage and faith in God in order to see “the gates of Hell” moved?
Perhaps this also explains why we’ve never heard anything
since about politicians being reprimanded or hopefully saved from their sinful
ways via Canon 915. Perhaps
that’s also why we’ve never heard more about Archbishop Prendergast leading the
charge for the Catholic Bishops of Canada to relent on their Winnipeg
Statement, which was their disastrous response to the papal encyclical Humanae
Vitae. No doubt John Pacheco has seriously revised his expectations of
the Archbishop since 2008.
The Archbishop actually mentions the word “contraception”
and the term “Humanae Vitae” several
times in his blog which
comprises about 1500 postings. He always gives the distinct impression that it
is incumbent upon all faithful Catholics to adhere to Humanae Vitae and that this is a key to effective
marriages and witness for Christ in the culture. How shocking and humiliating then that an
official document from one of his parishes states:
The Church’s leaders cannot admit that they are wrong (e.g., their
continued affirmation of Humanae Vitae)
Perhaps then this also explains why there continues to be an
insurmountable
crisis in the Ottawa District School Board. Apparently last October he lectured
the schools in the Archdiocese “to choose teachers, guest speakers, and
partners who are models of holiness and who fully embrace the culture of life”
and “warning that if the schools are not ‘fully Catholic’ they risk descending
into ‘demonic worldliness.’” I’m sure that scared all the bad people away.
Clearly, this Archbishop is all talk and no action, to the
detriment of the souls under his charge. When will he rise up with God given
courage and set his own house in order? Honestly, I’m heartsick over cowardly (or
incompetent) Bishops who, when push comes to shove, fail to exercise their full
God-given authority in defense of the Catholic faith. By their actions they
show themselves ashamed of the Holy Faith and not worthy of their posts and
will face the wrath of God for the loss of souls to Hell under their watch. I hope
Archbishop Prendergast does not prove himself to be one of these. Let us pray
that he picks up the pieces and recovers his Archdiocese from the clutches of
the Devil while he still can.
God help and save him and his flock in Ottawa!
I fear that in our own Archdiocese
of St. John’s, NL many of the same kinds of responses as those of St.
Basil’s will be crafted and sent off to
Rome for the Extraordinary Synod in October 2014. We’ve already had some very
blatant evidence
of similar levels of contempt for Church teaching…and that originating from
those closest to our Archbishop! Imagine what some of those in the pews must think!
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