Judy Brown, president of American Life League, has some choice words to say about the mess that John Marrella et al have made of the credibility of the Knights of Columbus.
I echo Judy's suggestion that what is needed is a mass exodus in protest. Rip up your cards publicly. Barring that, you might try not paying your dues in protest. Then when the brass threatens you with expulsion, point out the irony of them allowing fomenters of baby-murder to prowl their halls while driving decent Catholic men away.
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Actually, what really is needed is for some folks to calm down, stop their internet muscle-flexing and apply some common sense to this issue.
ReplyDeleteIf you are concerned about the actions of Marella, then the decent, Christian thing to do is write/email him & the Supreme Knight. Until & unless you do this, you have no business calling for knights to quit the KofC.
"You have no business calling for knights to quit the KofC." Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but that's all it is - your opinion.
ReplyDeleteI assure you that I have contacted them. And yes, I have had the sorry experience of having to bring up a similar matter to them several years ago. Again, they played the wimps.
Cliff, what have YOU done about the matter, short of scolding good people for reacting to betrayal?
I think the problem here goes back to the subtitle of your blog. It's presumptuous to speak of "faithful Catholics" at all. No Catholic is a "faithful Catholic." There are just sinning Catholics who try to be faithful, and sinning Catholics who don't try to be faithful. And there's a spectrum in between, that is often mediated by ignorance.
ReplyDeleteI think the real problem is that you are the type that would have been embarrassed to see Jesus talk and eat with taxcollectors and sinners. Somewhere between public excommunication and silence is something called private communication, where the majority of conversions actually come from.
Anonymous is correct - the term "faithful Catholic" is a misnomer, as none of us live up to it.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there is a true, knowable Faith by which Catholics have the great honor and joy of trying to live and scripture demands that we hold each other accountable to its truth.
One of those truths is that at the moment of conception, there is a new, living human person, unique and God-given, in the world. If some KoC members believe our society can morally barter these small lives for some other good thing (health care, say), they have misunderstood their Faith - and a good deal more. That doesn't make such a KoC member a "bad" man ...but it does make him wrong.
Well, if you need to know, I have sent an email to KofC. Judy was kind enough to include their email in her post. She also asked people to contact Supreme before taking other action.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that "faithful Catholic" IF the words "faithful" and "perfect" were synonyms. They aren't. We do talk of "faithful spouses", do we not? No one would argue that there ever were perfect spouses (with the obvious exceptions of the Blessed Mother and St Joseph). I never dreamed that "Faithful Catholics of MD/DC, Inc" would imply perfection. Rather, "faithful Catholics" are those who strive to remain in the state of grace, and if they fail via mortal sin, they hasten to correct that with Confession. Beyond that, they strive for holiness and virtue - which does presuppose humility.
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, I would presume that there is provision for "due process" in KofC procedures, whereby an errant Knight would be counseled and advised to correct his error. However, what would be the next step if the Knight should remain obdurate? Regretably, Mr. Marrella et al have tied the hands of local council leaders in that regard.
To my anonymous friend - you also seem to confuse "excommunication" with discipline that any private organization can exercise. Both, by the way, are not meant to be vindictive acts, but acts with the end of helping the obdurate person to see the error of his way, and the gravity of the same, so that he can make amends and be restored to full fellowship.