Conduct Of Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins Not "Worthy Of A Christian"

Published today to SignOfContradiction.Blogspot.ca

Within the body of the Church Herself is a “perverse lust for self-destruction” according to retired Vatican Cardinal Walter Brandmueller. The Cardinal recently gave an interview in Germany and spoke candidly about the widespread dissent of Germany's Catholic Bishops. Perhaps one of our intrepid Canadian Catholic media could engage our own Cardinal Collins in a similar conversation about Canada's schismatic Bishops.

The Vatican Cardinal’s remarks zeroed in on the agenda of too many Bishops of "undermining the procreation of life in different ways and in putting into question the natural sexual identity of man and woman." Clearly this is a direct reference to decades old opposition to the Church's teaching on contraception vis a vis Humanae Vitae with its consequent epidemic of abortion, divorce, homosexuality and gender ideology. 

It is well known that the Catholic Bishops of Germany have from the very beginning laid siege to that watershed 1968 papal encyclical. But unfortunately an unofficial schism took place not only in Germany as a result of such rebellion. In Canada it played out likewise in mirror fashion—and in time. The same playbook was used, that of the autonomy of conscience.  

A policy of adherence to "political correctness"—rather than doctrine—by the Catholic Bishops has become predominant in Canada, just exactly as Cardinal Brandmueller describes, because of the risk of "execution by the Media." [Or was it perhaps also due to cowardice in facing the huge numbers of rank and file Catholics practicing the intrinsic evil of contraception?] Our own Cardinal Collins fits well into this PC scheme, although he does fancy—and often likes to portray—himself as an orthodox prelate.

But in fact Cardinal Collins has slipped into that same “dynamic of silence" which characterizes the majority of Bishops referenced by Cardinal Brandmueller, as they "silently watch the execution" taking place. Apparently the Vatican Cardinal holds to the same opinion as do I, that no one can claim “such conduct is worthy of a Christian...especially when dealing with fundamental questions concerning the teaching of Faith and Morals of the Gospel of Christ.”

He explains further by way of questioning: “For what purpose did we [Bishops] receive the Sacrament of Confirmation?” and again, “...did not the Bishops at their consecration promise that they would proclaim faithfully the Gospel of Christ and would preserve, pure and entire, the Deposit of the Faith according to the Tradition as held by the Church, always and everywhere?”

Why then does Cardinal Collins—as well as possibly every other Bishop in Canada—maintain such a silence about Humanae Vitae in his current Toronto Diocese and in his former Diocese of Edmonton? Why, in the midst of such a "self-destructive crisis" as Cardinal Brandmueller describes, would Cardinal Collins hold his peace, never issuing even so much as a pastoral letter to his sheep on this linchpin issue of chastity in similar fashion to other conscientious and truly orthodox Western Bishops who have made efforts to curb the crisis and protect the souls of those under their care? 

If the Cardinal’s courage be lacking, then why would he not simply and very briefly include the clear truth of Catholic teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of this practice on an Examination of Conscience brochure which the Diocese already publishes for his flagship Day of Confessions? Or why, during a recent exercise of lectio divina, on the subject of marriage and children, would he not expound on the Church's position, failing to make even one direct reference to Humanae Vitae and warn of the evils of contraception? Or why would he be seen to be a slacker on protecting Catholic children from "sex-ed," one of the evil fruits of the sexual revolution, even to the extent of stonewalling parents and cooperating with governing sexual perverts in the dissemination of ever-more evil programs to destroy chastity? It appears that Protestants must lead the charge to expose this evil.

It strains the imagination to come to any explanation other than the one proposed by Cardinal Brandmueller who went yet further and called for a “de-secularization” of the Church, demanding a flight from worldly thinking and contrivances to instead “follow the Truth of the Faith.”  Insisting that Bishops be a sign of contradiction to the culture at large rather than “preaching ‘Christianity light’...we should have the courage to demand a program which is in firm contrast to the societal mainstream of today and lives out fully” the commandments.

In a final exhortation, ready-made for Toronto's failing prelate, Cardinal Brandmueller exclaimed, “The Church can and must proclaim the Natural Moral Law which has been perfected by the Gospels and which is understandable for the man of good will...Thereby, the Church should not allow herself to be deflected by the [growing] resistance against her message.”

Cardinal Collins must repent of his failures publicly, make amends and immediately undertake a reformation of his Diocese in order to turn back the effects of this "self-destructive" rebellion of which he continues to be a part. Either that or RESIGN and make way for a worthy prelate who will undertake a reconstruction of an authentic Catholicism in Toronto diocese.