Catholic Bishop Blames Church Crisis on Vatican II Virus

Pay attention: 92 year old Bishop Emeritus Rene Gracida continues his conversations with ChurchMilitant.com

GoToBishop Discusses State of the Church in America

Bishop Rene Gracida was recently interviewed by ChurchMilitant.com. Bishop Gracida is retired but is hardly out of the loop. He's what I call a #GoToBishop and he even publishes his own blog which is worth visiting regularly. I once highlighted Bishop Gracida's approach to Canon 915 and public sinners while he was active in his former Diocese of Corpus Christi.

Satan Wages War In Archdiocese Of San Francisco

Published today to SignOfContradiction.Blogspot.ca

"Mean old conservative priests hurt feelings of parishioners." So explains Michael Voris.

Archbishop Salvator Cordileone, a #GoToBishop who himself is facing a huge firestorm, must pass judgment on the priests accused by their parishioners.

Bishop James Conley Razes Sterile Sex

As I see it, the Bishop (and Prophet) of Lincoln, Nebraska, has raised (maybe re-surfaced!) the bar for the American Bishops on the subject of contraception. In his exceptional pastoral letter of March 25, 2014, he tackles the scandal of contracepting Catholics, calling them back to “The Language of Love.”  “Today,” he says, “our culture rejects love when it rejects the gift of new life, through the use of contraception"

Oh, for more faithful and courageous Bishops who would turn back the tide of evil in our land…

“Contraception robs the freedom…” to “…bring forth new human beings, children of God, created with immortal souls.”

One powerful paragraph proclaims: “The Church continues to call Catholic couples to unity and procreativity. Marriage is a call to greatness—to loving as God loves—freely, creatively, and generously. God himself is a community of love—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christian marriage is an invitation to imitate, and to know, and to share in the joyful freedom of God’s love, an echo of the Holy Trinity.”

Bishop Conley recalls the words of his predecessor, Bishop Flavin, whose strong stance against contraception led to a similar pastoral challenge to his diocese in 1991. “Dear married men and women: I exhort you to reject the use of contraception in your marriage. I challenge you to be open to God’s loving plan for your life.” He reveals to the faithful a glorious aspect to human sexuality which few Catholics today imagine, let alone believe: “I know that in this openness to life, you will find the rich adventure for which you were made.”

He soon broaches the subject of children, the fruit of sexual union, cautioning, “children should not be feared as a threat or a burden, but rather seen as a sign of hope for the future.” Echoing Pope John Paul II’s words on the hedonistic mentality of today, Bishop Conley emphasizes that “generous, life-giving spousal love is the antidote to hedonism and immaturity: parents gladly give up frivolous pursuits and selfishness for the intensely more meaningful work of loving and educating their children.”

Raising the eyes of his flock skyward he declares that “the sexual intimacy of marriage… is a pathway to sharing in God’s own life” and “Contraception impedes our share in God’s creative love. And thus it impedes our joy.” Here is a shepherd unafraid to put to chase the wolves and to unveil the secret of experiencing God’s joy, so rarely experienced—even less understood—today.

Bishop Conley then recommends to married couples Natural Family Planning (NFP) as “a reliable and trustworthy way to regulate fertility” but is not hesitant to note that in some few instances NFP “is used by couples with a contraceptive mentality.” He is quick to encourage husband and wife to be “very open with each other concerning the reasons they think it right to limit their family size, to take their thoughts to God, and to pray for his guidance. Do we let fear, anxiety, or worry determine the size of our families? Do we entrust ourselves to the Lord, whose generosity provides for all of our needs?”

What of Catholic physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals who participate in some way in promoting contraception? “No Catholic healthcare provider, in good conscience, should engage in the practice of medicine by undermining the gift of fertility. There is no legitimate medical reason to aid in the acts of contraception or sterilization. No Catholic physician can honestly argue otherwise.” Bishop Conley points also to the inevitable relationship between failed contraception and abortion, as well as to the fact that “some contraception destroys newly created life.”

He calls on physicians and pharmacists to refuse to cooperate in the contraceptive trappings of modern “medicine,” suggesting any resultant “antagonism, financial loss, or professional pressure” be embraced as “an opportunity to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ.” What grit! Imagine a Bishop who believes in the supernatural grace of God!

Closing out his letter, the Bishop scores a direct hit on the damage done to society due to neglect and denial of Humanae Vitae: “Cultural attitudes that reject the gift of life lead very easily to social acceptance for abortion, for no-fault divorce, and for fatherless families. For fifty years, America has accepted the use of contraception, and the consequences have been dire.”

Finally, he urges the faithful to read that papal encyclical, admonishes his priests to “preach about the dangers of contraception, and to visit with families in your parish about this issue,” and advises all those who have used, prescribed or supported contraception to avail of the healing that is available in the sacrament of penance.

Brushing aside the faithlessness of modern society in welcoming and celebrating children into the world, this GoTo Bishop is unequivocal in saying, “No, the Church does not ask too great a sacrifice,” since sacrifice is the language of love. “And in sacrifice, we speak the language of God himself… I am calling your family to share in the creative, active love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…I pray that in true sacrifice, each of you will know perfect joy.”

Clearly Bishop Conley is a Bishop who takes his office quite seriously and is willing to address the hard issues of the day in order to save the souls of his flock. He seeks to set his people free from the sinful oppression of contraception into the joyful liberty of Christ. Given the twisted thinking and devilish outbursts of the day, the Bishop has taken a very gentle approach in presenting the truth of Humanae Vitae—which may be the wise route. But broach the subject he has and his fellow Bishops now have one further challenging example of what it means to be a true Apostle of Jesus Christ in the 21^st Century.

There hasn’t been the kind of coverage and conversation from this pastoral letter that I had expected but, rest assured, this letter will be leaven in the loaf and will, in time, yield its holy fruit.

Here are some related news items worth reading:

Don't Misread Bishop Conley's Letter On Contraception

Bishop Conley Tells Why He's Written Pastoral Letter on Contraception

Bishops Conley and Loverde issue letters on contraception and pornography

Bishop James Conley Issues Beautiful Letter on Marital Love and Fidelity

Bishop issues new letter to Catholics concerning contraception

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Imagine (and I do mean I-M-A-G-I-N-E!) if this letter had been issued by our own Archbishop Martin Currie who, like Cardinal Dolan, is totally gun-shy on anything to do with the Moral Law. Rather than the headline in Bishop Conley's hometown paper, The Journal Star, the headline in The Telegram might have looked something like this:

As I said, I-M-A-G-I-N-E!
Lord help our Archdiocese!

Blockbuster Homily By Archbishop Alexander Sample On The Mass Of The Ages

On March 1, 2014 Archbishop Alexander Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon celebrated a Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Brigittine Monastery "Our Lady of Consolation" in Amity, Oregon. The Mass was the crowning celebration of a 3-day conference on Gregorian Chant and the role of sacred music in the liturgy.

Here is video of his blockbuster homily on the Mass of the Ages:



h/t EM

Key To New Evangelization Is To Trust The ‘Tough Truths’ On Sexuality

Bishop Thomas Olmsted

To trust the truth is to trust Christ and to trust that His Gospel of Life is truly Good News for the world. … Truth and faith are bound together. Faith opens the door to truths that reason alone could never come to know. …

Because vociferous sectors of our skeptical culture harshly criticize truths of faith—especially those about marriage, human life and religious liberty—a number of Catholics, even some of our clergy, have lost confidence in some of the tough truths that come to us from Christ through the Church.

Such loss of confidence impedes our ability to stand up for the rights of the most vulnerable in society and to bear convincing witness to the Gospel. In a skeptical age, our American continent needs from us a humble yet confident witness to the truth that finds it fullness in our Savior.

So says Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix.

There can be little doubt that our own Catholic clergy here in the Archdiocese of St. John’s are among those who have lost confidence in (or is it obstinately rejects?) Church teaching. I have often thought that a reluctance—worse still a skepticism—by Catholics to declare the fullness of the Catholic faith is fatal to evangelism, and therefore, to the New Evangelization. Why, and how, could a Christian share his faith if he thought some part of it was flawed, outdated, or plain wrong? And who would be attracted to such a religion? This seems, to me, to explain why Catholics have had such little interest or success (in my lifetime) in sharing their faith with non-Catholics, and also why a great many appear to be running on empty, spiritually speaking. Unbelief, in any shape or degree, is fatal to the faith, is it not?

And so,

the Church is dying, and rather than allow the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit to speak new life by means of the Truth given to the Church, we prefer to discuss how we should dress the dead body and make final preparations for the funeral. [From commentary on the Archdiocesan document entitled A Challenge To Change]

Only the Bishops can save the day, to be sure. But are they willing to own up to their failures and embrace the fullness of the Catholic faith and foster its reception by the sheep under their charge?

Bishop Olmsted concluded his remarks:

While much work remains to be done, we should also be encouraged by the efforts of so many individuals and organizations to protect innocent human life. In particular, we are blessed to have an increasing number of initiatives that promote closer collaboration between Pro Life and Pro Family leaders and organizations in various countries of the American continent.

Should we not count it a privilege and blessed opportunity from God to bear witness to the Gospel of Life today, to stand up for the life and dignity of the most vulnerable among us, and to work with others of good will to secure the right to life of all?

Apparently the Bishop considers it an honour to work with all pro-life individuals of good will who are working to secure the right to life of all. Unfortunately some Bishops are all too selective in what prolife groups they work with.

The Gosnell Story And Its Lessons

Posted in Weekly column from Archbishop Chaput, on April 26th, 2013 at http://catholicphilly.com/

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The Gosnell Story And Its Lessons

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.Cap.

Archbishop of Philadelphia

Some stories, no matter how unsettling, just can’t be ignored — even when some people are determined to look away.

The murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell will soon go to jury. And like every other criminally accused person under the law, Gosnell is innocent until proven guilty. Whatever the verdict though, there’s no ambiguity about the kind of business he ran at his West Philadelphia “Women’s Medical Center” ­— an abortion clinic that critics have likened to a meatpacking plant or a butcher shop, with unborn children delivered into a toilet, and jars of fetal body parts stored around the facility.

Dr. Gosnell was originally charged with one count of infanticide and five counts of “abuse of corpse” for killing fetuses born alive by plunging scissors into their necks. Without explanation, the judge in the case accepted a motion to acquit Gosnell of these charges earlier this week. Gosnell still faces four counts of first-degree and one count of third-degree murder. Eight of his coworkers have already pleaded guilty in the case, including three to third-degree murder.

Or so said The New York Times in a report dated April 23.  The date is important.  Gosnell’s trial began March 18, more than a month ago.  The Times coverage, while modest, is significant.  Why?  The answer is simple.  The Inquirer – Philadelphia’s hometown paper – has done a good job following the trial.  But most prestige national media have seemed remarkably eager to ignore the story until shamed into covering it.

Gosnell is much more than a “local” story. The continuing debate over legalized abortion is a hot-button national issue that drew half a million pro-life demonstrators to Washington in January. The battle over abortion restrictions continues in every state. Forty years after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, resistance to permissive abortion remains high. And the vivid details of the Gosnell clinic tragedy have the kind of salacious appeal that few national media would normally avoid — if the issue were anything else. But abortion is too often, and in too many news rooms, exactly the kind of topic that brings on a sudden case of snow blindness.

The real story in the Gosnell trial is bigger than the ugly allegations against Gosnell himself; it includes the failure — the allergic disinterest — of some of our most important national media. A headline in The Atlantic magazine, April 12, states the obvious: “Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story: The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy.”

The Atlantic story by Conor Friedersdorf is worth reading. But don’t stop there.  Read this by Kirsten Powers, columnist for The Daily Beast, in USA Today. And these excellent analyses by journalists Terry Mattingly, Mollie Hemingway and George Conger.

The irony is that much of the media’s lethargy in covering the Gosnell case really doesn’t surprise. It’s part of the fabric of a culture that simply will not see what it doesn’t want to see about the realities of abortion. And it leads to the kind of implausible claim made recently by one local commentator that “no sense of guilt is warranted” by the media because “there is no causal connection between coverage of [the Gosnell] case and bias.” It’s hard to imagine a more untenable alibi.

The brutality in abortion is intimate, personal and permanent. It violates women, and it kills a developing human life every time — whether the venue is a “Women’s Medical Center”-style meat factory or a soothing suburban clinic. What makes the Gosnell story unique is that it should distress anyone with its details, pro-choice or pro-life, regardless of religion or politics.

But of course, people need to know about an evil before they can do anything about it.