Left-wing rags are wailing and bemoaning Martin's well-deserved comeuppance. Take a look at this whiny pout from the Not-At-All-Catholic Reporter. They interviewed Martin, who puts the blame on "far-right church websites such as Church Militant, LifeSiteNews and the blog run by Father Zuhlsdorf". Of course those sites also include many other blogs run by faithful Catholics - such as this one. I'll have more to say on this point later in the post.
Church Militant has some more details. Not only was Martin dumped from the Theological College event, but he was also axed as a speaker for a gala to be held by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. In that situation, their leadership faced backlash from outraged knights. Martin himself snivels and pouts about the cancellations on his facebook and twitter pages.
Despite the "poor widdle me" tripe that Martin exudes on his pages, the record tells the story of his attempt to normalize the mortal sin of sodomy. In this clip he actually calls for "reverence" of sinful situations. Note that his gay friend, who thinks he's "married" to his accomplice in sin, is the chair of the theology department at Fordham University. Both he and Martin, unless they repent and confess their sins, will be accountable for leading many young souls down a path to perdition. For clarification on that point, I now link to a piece by Msgr Charles Pope that summarizes Christ's teachings on homosexual conduct.
When I wrote my piece two months ago, I too didn't think there was much chance that Martin would be disinvited from the symposium, seeing how he enjoys the favor of both Pope Francis and Cardinal Wuerl. In retrospect I believe there were several factors, and some lessons we can learn in combating similar threats to Church integrity that will present themselves in the future. I'll list them in "bullet" format.
- Prayer for God's protection Nothing of this sort can happen without God's grace. We must continue to pray. Frequent the sacraments and pray the Rosary daily. Mention these threats by name when you pray.
- Social media Martin himself alluded to that as he blamed "far right sites" for stopping his appearances. Please watch not only the sites he mentioned but smaller sites as well. Often it is the smaller sites that will carry news pertaining to their localities; these also deserve the attention of faithful Catholics local to those areas. The mainstream media (including diocesan publications and faux-katholic liberal rags) are not reliable sources of information. Of course when you see topics such as these, pass them along your own social sites and email lists.
- Action It is critical that when we are notified of these situations, that we not only pray but we must act as well. Such action will include:
- Phone calls Martin specifically blamed phone calls to Theological College as a primary cause for his ejection from the symposium. If you called to protest his planned appearance, you share the credit just as much as any one of us bloggers.
- Boycotts I'd suspect that many callers to CU made plain that if Martin did appear, that they'd never contribute anymore to them. Sometimes money talks louder than Catholic duty, so let's not be reticent about using that language.
- Protests/pickets One of my facebook friends, when she learned of the cancellation, remarked that she now "had the day off". She was planning to protest the appearance. Even the possibility of a protest is a strong deterrent to misbehavior.
Make no mistake about this. The Theological College did not cancel Martin because they suddenly remembered that they were Catholics. Far from it. Take a look at their announcement below; they make plain why they earned the nickname "theological closet". They cancelled because we behaved like the Church Militant (not the site) that we are. Let's take heart from this and remember, for these situations will crop up again - although they might crop up with less frequency now.
