Crud Interviews Cardinal Wuerl

Crux is an online "katholyc" propaganda site, controlled at least in part by the Bostom Globe.  I haven't had issue with it until now, but some blogging colleagues have.  Owing to its obvious progressive bias, "crux" on this blog will hereafter be called "crud".

Today they did a piece on Cardinal Wuerl.  Right off the bat they called him a "moderate" (hint: that's what progressives call each other!), signaling their own biases.  They opined that owing to his position on the Congregation for Bishops, he was influential in having Cupich (another "moderate" of course) appointed Archbishop of Chicago.  I suspect on this point they are correct.

The rest of the article appears to be a forum for Cardinal Wuerl to spew some nonsense.  He said of the proceedings thus far: "It's one thing to doctrinally state the obvious.  It's another thing to take that and get it to work in the concrete order where people live".  Two points immediately spring to mind.

First, in order for people to obey the Church's teachings, they have to be taught Christ's teachings.  By and large, that doesn't happen.  I cannot recall when I've heard unambiguous preaching about the horrors of contraception and abortion.  When have we heard homilies about the Last Four Things?  I could go on and on.  Many years ago, when these matters were proclaimed, "getting them to work in people's lives" was not nearly so arduous as it is today.  Our clergy must preach the truths of the faith.  In order for them to do that, they must believe and embrace these truths themselves, bringing me to my second point.

Over two years ago, St. John Neumann had a priest stationed therein named Father Marcel Guarnizo.  He clearly was a priest who knew and embraced the truths of the faith.  He also proclaimed them from the pulpit, raising some feathers from the progressives - uh, excuse me, I meant "moderates" - in our parish.  Right before Lent he denied Holy Communion to a flagrant lesbian.  For his obedience to Canon Law, he was tossed from the Archdiocese of Washington, with the knowledge if not instigation of Cardinal Wuerl.  So I ask Cardinal Wuerl, how does punishing a faithful priest "get doctrine to work in the concrete order where people live"?  I'd be most curious to hear a cogent answer to that, assuming such exists.

So far there's been such nonsense coming from this SinNod and it hasn't been a week yet.  Will there be some voice of sanity issuing forth from that gab-fest?

Martin O'Malley - Pioneer In Bogus Human Rights

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who has made no secret of his White House ambitions, has just enlightened us ignorant slobs about the existence of a basic human right earlier this week.  And just what is this "basic human right"?  Trumpets and drum roll, please!

WiFi is a human right!

Yep!  He said that!  And aren't we glad that after languishing over 200 years with a deficient Bill of Rights, we can finally correct the gross oversight of James Madison, George Mason and other Founding Fathers!  Heavens!  What were George Washington, Edmund Randolph and the others thinking when they overlooked the right to WiFi as the Bill of Rights was crafted?

We know, of course, that O'Malley is contemptuous of other real rights, such as the unborn child's right to life.  Progressives like him dream up other bogus "rights" (such as the right to denigrate true marriage) so they can appear to be champions of the people while trying to arrogate to themselves tyrannical power over us all.  Will we let them?

Cardinal Burke Rebuts The Pirola's Diabolical SinNod Screed

Courtesy of LifeSiteNews.  Moreover, here is commentary from Voice of the Family.

Progressive Nuns In Maryland And Their Fake Election Guide

From Breitbart News we read of the so-called "2014 Midterm Election Guide" put out by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, headquartered in Silver Spring, MD.  The second hyperlink is to a pdf of the thing.  First, let me give a little background on the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.

They are headquartered in an office building on Colesville Road.  Right there that should tell you something.  They are in a secular building and not on any kind of Church property of any sort.  I've no doubt they've been refused permission by the Archdiocese of Washington to use Church property.

About seven or eight years ago, some of us had occasion to picket their location.  They were hosting a Call to Action event to discuss how to promote some sort of dissidence in the Church.  Owing to the passage of time, I do not recall what the specific topic was.  Five of us stood alongside of Colesville Road.  I thought our numbers were rather paltry.  However, I looked in that parking lot - and only saw three cars there.  The five of us outnumbered them!

Peruse through their "election misguide".  They yammer on and on about amnesty for illegals, climate change, minimum wage, gun control, etc, devoting whole sections to each topic.  Now how much of this mis-guide touches on abortion?  Towards the bottom, readers are encouraged to ask candidates about "abortion alternatives".  That's it!  The word "abortion" is mentioned once!  Even at that, there is no mention that abortion is an intrinsic evil that must be eradicated.  If they can pontificate about eliminating "risks to the environment", why not commensurate attention to the risks to the unborn child?  The answer is obvious.  Either they pander to their pro-abortion donors and/or they themselves are pro-abortion.

Vatican Social Justice Apparatus Controlled By Progressives

Michael Hichborn of the American Life League reports that Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican's top social justice agency, is providing leadership to the World Social Foundation.  The latter in turn is unabashedly promoting communism, homosexuality, contraception and even abortion.  Please watch the video below and download ALL's full report on this latest scandal.  It would appear that not only have progressives infiltrated the Vatican's social justice apparatus; they control it lock, stock and barrel.

Both this video and the report conclude by asking that all petition the Caritas director, Cardinal Maradiaga, to end all contact with the World Social Forum.  I believe this suggested action would be akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house.  I have written before about Cardinal Maradiaga, and his recent actions that suggest his embrace of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.  Most notably I pointed out the key role he played in precipitating our recent crisis with thousands of Central Americans pouring across our borders.  I think that along with prayer, the best we can do is to keep shining the light on these outfits and watch for any actions they may undertake in your locality so that you can best determine how to combat these.

Cardinal Dolan Applies The Law Of Graduality - Courtesy Of The SinNod

In today's Vortex, Michael Voris reported on this year's Al Smith Dinner in New York City.  He had some stern rebukes for Dolan for yokking it up with various pro-abort muckety-mucks in attendance who undoubtedly shelled out some big bucks to renovate St. Patrick's Cathedral.

But hey!  I think Voris might have been a tad rough on the poor Cardinal.  After all,  Dolan was only implementing the law of graduality!  See my post below for more explanation of this "katholic' progressive double-talk emanating from the ongoing sin-nod!

Slop From The Synod - The Cutting-Edge Concept Of Graduality!

Before we start, I think I will replace the word "synod" with a more accurate term - "SinNod".  That's precisely what the Pirolas are advocating: giving the nod to mortal sin.  The same can be said of those who want to "soften" language used to accurately describe sin's utter horror.  I cannot take credit for coining this term; I saw this in the comments on one of my colleagues' blog post and I don't remember which.  Anyway, let's proceed with some lunacy disclosed today.

On Monday, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary opined that it's "unrealistic" to expect immediate acceptance of the Church's teaching on birth control.  Furthermore, he stated that Humanae Vitae "must be considered in light of the law of graduality."   Hmmm!  The "law of graduality"!  My goodness!  I never knew there was such a law!  Apparently neither does the spell-checker in my blogging software, for it keeps putting those red squiggly lines under the word "graduality".

But I suppose the good cardinal does have a point!  After all, Humanae Vitae was just promulgated a mere 46 years ago!  My goodness!  We can't rush things, now, can we?  Why, no wonder our bishops and priests have been mum about Humanae Vitae in the pulpits these past few decades!  The "law of graduality" demanded that they suck their thumbs instead of trying to prevent so many of their congregations from committing mortal sin and placing their souls in grave jeopardy.

Moving further down the article, we see that this double-talk is really a (not so) clever maneuver to introduce the pernicious idea of allowing Catholics in adulterous situations to receive Holy Communion.  Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich admitted so much when he spoke of "divorced and civilly remarried Catholics..who have not obtained annulments from their first sacramental marriages".  That phrase in quotes is a tad incorrect.   An annulment doesn't dissolve a valid Catholic marriage.  It is a declaration that the marriage never was valid; that's why the process is rather rigorous.  The truth must be obtained and acknowledged.  If a Catholic is "civilly married" to another and is still in a valid Catholic marriage, he/she is committing adultery and cannot receive Holy Communion in that state of mortal sin.  That has been the teaching of Christ for the past 2000 years.  This "law of graduality", as coined by these bishops, is nothing but denial of Jesus' clear teaching regarding marriage to please certain elements of their congregations.  They are not acting as bishops but panderers and enablers of mortal sin.

Yes, this is a SinNod.

Synod Mess Piles On And On

Yesterday I posted about a couple who praised some friends for affirming their son as he engages in a gay relationship and careens toward damnation.  LifeSiteNews has some rather disturbing information about the couple, Ron and Mavis Pirola of Austrilia.  It turns out that they are co-directors of the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council.  YIKES!  Under their dubious leadership, one can only shudder at the thought of the "council" given to Australian Catholics dealing with homosexual sin in their families or even in their own lives.  How much heresy has been fed to these unfortunates, to the peril of their immortal souls?  Again, I'm at a loss to understand why the bishops in that audience, when they heard the heresies, didn't immediately arise en masse and preach repentance to them.  Don't at least some of them recall that they are the shepherds and not the sheep?

The equivocation continued this afternoon.  Again, thanks to LifeSiteNews, we heard that one presenter lamented language used to describe sin.  According to this anonymous person, "language such as living in sin, intrinsically disordered, contraceptive mentality are not necessarily words that invite people to draw closer to Christ and His Church".  We have no idea who this individual is, as their name is not being released.  Is that person afraid to have his/her name associated with his/her crackpot theories?  To that deluded individual and other similarly befuddled folks, I have a few words.  The language that you lament happens to be the truth.  One does not sugar-coat the truth.  If you try to do that, what you "invite people to draw closer to" is NOT Christ and His Church but insidious caricatures of the same.  It is the Truth that sets us free.  I would invite you to a close reading of the Gospels.  Jesus Christ won no popularity contest; else He would not have been crucified.  Do you really want to build up some "church of nice" slop or do you seek after the salvation of souls (that being the Church's primary mission)?

Speaking of language, the Pope decided that Latin will not be the official language of the synod.  This is an obvious - and gratuitous - break with tradition.  What was a supposed motive?  To streamline the process.  Ok!  So what language(s) was used?  Bunches of them?  How does that streamline anything, as opposed to using the Church's official language?

Now read some troubling snippets from the Pope's homily yesterday.  I'll put them in "bullet form".

• He said that the "Church must not withdraw into dogma" but "recognize that the world has changed."  The world changes all the time - so what?  Christ's teaching is immutable - and that means dogma!  We resort to dogma so as not to be caught up in the ever-shifting sands of worldly fads and frivolities.
• He said "we have to approach social difficulties by extending a hand to give comfort, not by stigmatizing and criticizing people".  Here we go again with him setting up false dichotomies.  Sometimes "extending the hand" involves criticism of their sins.  This statement can lend to confusion between real kindness and false "niceness".
• He said, "Young people are not getting married.  It is the culture of the time.  What should the church do?  Expel them from her breast?  Or approach them and try to bring them close and teach them the word of God"?  By their sin, their fornication and cohabitation, these young people (and old) expel themselves.  That defines mortal sin, does it not?  It's not the Church that does any expelling.  They can only come close if they repent and come back to the Church under the terms set forth by Jesus Christ Himself.

There is much more I can write, but you get the flavor of what this synod is becoming.  I'm sure more will be forthcoming tomorrow or the next day.

Synod Off To A Hell Of A Start

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do mean usage of the word "hell", for that will be the fruit of the proceedings of this synod for some.  Just think!  We're only in the first day!  My friend Carol at "What Did the Pope Really Say?" has an analysis of Pope Francis' homily at the opening Mass.  Read it and pray.

Then we had some of the invited speakers stand before the assembled bishops and celebrate the mortal sin of sodomy being committed by the son of friends.  The Catholic News Service, arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, gave an account of the blasphemous talk.  Read it and be appalled: appalled that a gathering of bishops would actually sit through a lecture on the "virtue" of affirming a young man in a mortally sinful lifestyle.  Be appalled that (apparently) not one bishop, that is, a successor to the Apostles, would think to rebuke the speakers for celebrating heinous mortal sin.  Every bishop should have stood in outrage and driven that couple from the stage and into a confessional for daring to preach mortal sin to them.

As I was reading this, I thought this might be slop that one might expect to see in the Not-At-All Catholic Reporter or maybe America.  Why?  It portrayed the sin of sodomy and the dereliction of the man's parents in a sympathetic light.  However, this "ode to sodomy" comes to us courtesy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  We all know this synod is all about changing "pastoral practices".  We are getting an unabashed forecast of how the USCCB plans to change "pastoral practices" in the US.  Two lents ago, we at St. John Neumann in Gaithersburg MD  received an even earlier premonition of the same, when Father Guarnizo was punished for rightfully withholding Holy Communion from a flagrantly practicing lesbian.

Speaking of same-sex perversions, guess what else happened today?  The Supreme Court decided not to hear complaints of several states whose same-sex marriage bans were overturned.  That clears the way for same-sex marriage on the civil fronts - just what the Pirolas were trying to do at the Vatican today.  But of course that's just a coincidence!  Right??

First Reading For Today's Mass - A Warning For Synod Participants And The Bishops

It's Isaiah 5:1-7.  I'll copy the Douay-Rheims version below, and then my thoughts.

[1] I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. [2] And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. [3] And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard. [4] What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? [5] And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. [6] And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. [7] For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.

I think the parallel between the state of that vineyard and the current state of the Church is all too obvious.  We have many "wild grapes" within the midst of the clergy, spewing forth "foul wine" that is, heresy.  Yesterday I posted a video of Cardinal Walter Kasper doing precisely that.  Almost every sentence he uttered was heresy capable of damning an ignorant soul to hell.

Read a post from Fr Z's blog about Kasper's opinion of the Church's teachings on adultery, teachings that are derived from Jesus Christ Himself.  Kasper went so far as to opine that the language the Church uses about adultery, drawn from the words of Jesus, would cause these culprits to feel offended.  I will make a point that I didn't see in Fr. Z's blog.  In making that horrific statement, Cardinal Kasper has set himself up as a judge: not of the Pope, not of fellow bishops, but as a judge of Jesus Christ Himself.  And this is a man that Pope Francis called "a clever theologian".  Well, we know "clever" can have several meanings, don't we?

Looking at Kasper in light of today's first reading, I can only imagine Kasper as the quintessential "wild grape".  He's probably not the only one there.  These "wild grapes" are tearing down the protective hedges and walls around Holy Mother Church.

The question of why these "wild grapes" are allowed to occupy places of influence in the Church will have to be faced one day.  For now, we must pray that at this synod, the damage that these "wild grapes" would inflict will be curtailed.