Archdiocese of Baltimore Social Ministry - Brainwashing For Progressivism - Part 1

On Saturday, April 13, 2024, the Archdiocese of Baltimore hosted its 45th Annual Social Ministry Convocation.  Instead of Mercy High School, the location changed to Calvert Hall College Hight School.  It's not far from Mercy, where it had happened for quite a few years now, just a few miles north off Loch Raven Boulevard.  One wonders why they felt it necessary to make the switch.  In reality, Calvert also seems to be inclined to coddle various perversions among its students.   Under the "about us" section of the page, we see a sub-header for "diversity, equity and inclusion".  We know what these buzz words signify.  From that page we read (copy and pasted here) "We endeavor to instill in our students respect, understanding, and appreciation for all individuals, regardless of race, sex, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, socioeconomic status, age, or religion. "  So in practical terms, what does that mean?   Does that mean if some young gal thinks she's a guy and changes her name from Ellen to Allan, can be admitted to the school under those pretenses and share a gym locker room with 15-year-old biologically-born males?  Inquiring minds (like donors and parents) would like to know.  But I digress.

When we discovered what was about to happen last year, one of our friends attended that thing to see how bad it was going to be.  The Archdiocese of Baltimore, regrettably, lived down to the expectations.  This blog covered that quite a bit, and the mess was written up in the March-April 2023 issue of the Defend Life newsletter, starting on page 4.

I attended the mess myself, and another faithful Catholic did the same.  When I registered, I had to write a $25.00 check to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  I was quite revolted at the idea, but did so to gain admittance.  The beginning prayer service was in full swing by the time I got to the auditorium.

Shortly thereafter, the beginning panel discussion took place.  The panelists are pictured to the right.  I will name them, left to right.  The first lady is Giuliana Valencia-Banks, Chief of Immigrant Affairs for Baltimore County.  She was not a member of the panel but was simply the discussion moderator.  The panelists are, moving to the right:

• Father Matthew Buening, pastor of St Matthew's on Loch Raven Boulevard and Archdiocesan Coordinator of LGBT Mininstries
• M. Gayle Briscoe, Baltimore City Organizer for Bridge Maryland Inc
• Erin Younkins, Director of Office of Life, Justice and Peace for the Archdiocese of Baltimore
• Jose Aguto, Executive Director of Catholic Climate Covenant

I will give some background on some of these people and/or their organizations, not in order of their appearance in the line-up.

We'll start with Ms. Briscoe's organization.  Bridge Inc, as evidenced from their website, is a community-organizing bunch affiliated with Gamaliel Inc.  I've written a bit about Gamaliel before; among other things, it is with them that a young Barack Obama got started in "community organizing".  As you read that anthology of posts, you'll notice Gamaliel's ties to CCHD.  To whom did all us convocation attendees have to fork over $25 to attend the little gab-fest?

Let's look at Catholic Climate Covenant, shall we?  Readers of this blog will recall that I've written a bit about them in the past. Exposes on them and other such organizations have shown them to be into the promotion of population control, one-world government, and earth-worship.  One can often get a decent sense of the organization by looking at its board of directors.  Notice that Stephen Schneck sits on that board.  At one time, Schneck was co-chair of "Catholics for Obama".

Then we have Sister Patricia Talone, of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.  They are headquartered in an office suite in Silver Spring, MD.  I remember several years ago that some of us picketed them when they hosted New Ways Ministries for one of their meetings.  A gander at this site makes plain their own disobedience to Church teaching on sexuality.

Moving onto Father Buening, some background is in order.  He succeeded Father Joseph Muth as Pastor of St Matthew's church when the latter was forced to retire by Archbishop Lori.  Muth had been their approximately 20 years.  During that time, he led St Matthew's down the primrose path of all manners of gay-coddling.  He even led a contingent from St Matthew's in several of Baltimore's gay pride parades.

After Muth left and Buening took over, many of us had hopes that he would restore some semblance of the Catholic faith to St Matthew's.  I am not so sure of that now.  During the panel discussion, Buening remarked how he met "holy gay and trans people".  FULL STOP!  One cannot be "holy" while continuing to reject the very nature of how God created them, and that is precisely what those engaged in sexual perversions are doing.  Moving on, he said his ministry was about "listening, hearing stories, accompanying people on a long and winding road..."  Then he lamented how the Church has been "condemning and judgmental...I started to feel very strongly that we as a Church need to change this, not just with dry catechesis, but love and relationships."  

Fr. Muth

Let me pause for a little unpacking. First, don't we all hear echoes of Francis in this speech, what with all the talk about "accompanying" and "dry catechesis versus love"?  Accompany?  To where, precisely?  Moreover, this "dry catechesis" is God's word and commands.  Without these being promulgated clearly and often, the sexually deviant person will be "accompanied" straight to hell.  All are welcomed into the Church, but all must come in via way of repentance, and that means repentance from sexual perversions of all sorts, including the LGBTQ categories.

The last question for the panel members was who inspired them the most.  Father Bruening stated that his inspiration was Father Muth, his disaster-laden predecessor at St Matthew's.  He also gave a shout-out to Muth for he was in attendance.  In fact, Muth was seated just a few rows in front of me.  Truth be told, when I first noted him as I sat down, I thought he looked somewhat familiar.  As Bruening spoke, the bulk of the attendees broke out into a rather loud yet dismaying applause.  Such adulation revealed the regrettable mindsets of too many Catholics. 

Thus the panel discussion ended and we all headed to various workshops.  They will be the topic of subsequent posts.