Many readers will remember the famous quotation from an animal
character named Pogo by cartoonist Walt Kelly back in the 1950s, “We have met
the enemy and they are us.” Set in the
Okefenokee Swamp of the southeastern United States, the strip often engaged in
social and political satire through the adventures of its anthropomorphic funny
animal characters. As stated by one biographer of Kelly, “It perfectly sums up
his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human
condition.” There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those
things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve
then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny
trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, but he may be
us.
Perhaps the U,S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has
finally realized that the enemy is the bishops themselves. After decades of the bishops supporting
liberal social policies, they must now realize who the real enemy is. During
the last election, Catholics voted for Obama by 54 percent. The bishops
promoted this by (1) their support of the health care law which is now
resulting in mandates requiring religious employers to pay insurance coverage
of birth control and abortifacients; (2) ignoring canon 915; and, (3) issuing a
ridiculous, incorrect, and totally useless document titled, Forming Consciences for Faithful
Citizenship.
When did this all begin?
The Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II) addressed
relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It opened
under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. No one can
really state that Vatican ll caused the decline of the Catholic Church;
however, the fifty years since the end of Vatican ll have been a disaster for
the Church. The number of priests has greatly declined even as the population
has increased. The religious women have had an even greater decrease in numbers
and those who are left have drifted so far from Church teaching they are now
not even recognizable as nuns - especially those who sport business suits and
mannish haircuts. Catholic schools have closed by the hundreds, and many
parents refuse to send their children to those that remain open. Only a handful
of Catholic colleges can really be classified as Catholic. After Notre Dame
awarded an honorary law degree to Barack Obama it was renamed “Notre Shame” by
true Catholics and even some Protestants. There are currently Pro-Homosexual
(Pride) Clubs at 107 Catholic Colleges. Bankruptcies have occurred in eight
dioceses due to the sexual abuse scandal. And the list goes on and on and on.
