Cardinal Burke And Bishop Schneider On Resisting The Rot Within The Church

Courtesy of LifeSiteNews, we have videos of both prelates offering their wisdom on the need to resist errors from Church hierarchy.  A few weeks ago, Cardinal Burke gave a presentation at the Rome Life Forum in Rome, speaking on the need to resist those in the Church who expound false teaching on marriage, family and sacraments.  In the video we hear him declare "for example, today in the Church, there are those who refer to the objective reality of the grace of marriage as merely an ideal to which we more or less seek to conform ourselves."  Without specifically mentioning "amoralis lamentia", he was clearly contradicting the falsehoods stated throughout that thing that clearly utilized the language of marriage being merely an "ideal".  Here is a link to the full talk, with video, on the Voice of the Family site.  I urge all to read it.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider was also at the Rome Life Forum and was interviewed by LifeSiteNews.  One question that LSN asked him is whether or not faithful Catholics should remain silent in the face of the pope's controversial - and yes, erroneous - statements to prevent possible harm to the papacy.  Bishop Schneider replied in the negative, stating that the Church is not a dictatorship, where the subjects are afraid to contradict the dictator.  He also spoke at the conference, stating that "there can be no joy of love without first the joy of truth".  He used his play on the English translation of the flawed encyclical to point out its many flaws.

John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, also addressed the forum.  He enunciated the need for a Catholic resistance movement.  In his talk, he read aloud his letter to Pope Francis that asked the pope to immediately withdraw "amoralis lamentia" for the harm contained therein.

An another interview that he gave, Cardinal Burke spoke of the pressures that many priests will now face in the light of "amoris lamentia", to give Holy Communion to known adulterers.  He stated that these clergy will have the duty to "refuse and pay the consquences".  He went on to say that for them, "being unjustly punished by a superior is part of confessing the faith".  Those of the Archdiocese of Washington, particularly of St John Neumann Church in Gaithersburg MD will recall what happened over four years ago, when Father Marcel Guarnizo refused Holy Communion to a flagrant lesbian and was maltreated by the DC chancery.  Other priests have likewise been persecuted; their number is sure to mount.

In addition to prayer and maintaining our own fidelity to Our Lord, we must speak out when we see error, as Bishop Schneider reminded us.  Yesterday the pope gave us yet another occasion to do so, during his interview with La Croix.  In it, he equates the muslim doctrine of jihad with the Great Commission given by Our Lord to the Twelve to "make disciples of all nations".  To equate the murderous impulses of a barbarian cult to the command of Our Lord Himself is nothing short of blasphemy.  Let's call it what it is.  I now link to an extensive article found in the Remnant, discussing when and how a heretical pontiff could be deposed.  I pray to God it never comes to this.

Today Church Militant gave a great example of Catholic laity engaging in proper Catholic resistance.  Bishop Hanchon, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, presided at a confirmation at Assumption Grotto.  For reasons incomprehensible to decent, sane Catholics, the bishop decided to give a ukulele performance from the pulpit.  The resistance came from the organist, who played so as to drown him out.  Church Militant has video of the episode.  While it's sickening to see a bishop carry on like an adolescent, it was quite delightful to see that he didn't get away with it.

So how will we resist in our own locales?  Notice the question is "how", not "if".  If we haven't yet, let's start pondering these matters seriously.