The Timidity Of Clergy - A Thin Disguise For Progressive Leanings?

On Tuesday 5/12/15, Obama spoke at a "Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit On Overcoming Poverty".  This hot-air exchange occurred at Georgetown University.  I'd opine that Georgetown is once again frittering away its credibility as a Catholic institution, but after years of such nonsense, Georgetown has no Catholic credibility left to squander - but I digress!

The Messiah Most Miserable took the opportunity to take swipes at Christianity.  The main theme of his nonsense is that we Christians should care less about abortion and more about poverty.  Well, I have to hand it to him - he's fulfilling the role as Planned Parenthood lapdog perfectly.  He also took jibes at families who send their children to private schools (Note!  We wait with bated breath for the announcement that he'll soon withdraw his children from Sidwell!)  Why?  Well as you see in the link and its embedded video, these children start to develop (gasp!) an "anti-government ideology"!  The horror!  He continues, "and that, in part, contributes to the fact that there's less opportunity for our kids.."  Our poor Dear Leader!  He can't seem to make up his little mind!  In another excerpt from the same gathering, he blames Fox News for the failed "war on poverty".

Now listen closely to this clip.  Notice how he says that regarding poverty, "we'll have to change how the media reports on this issue.."  Beg pardon!  Leaving aside for the moment that most of the mainstream media is firmly ensconced in the progressive camp, just who is going to do this changing?  Since most of the mainstream crowd is the de facto press office for the Dems, who are the others who will be targeted for such "change"?  Would those targets include bloggers such as Yours Truly?  The First Amendment has become, in the eyes of the Messiah Most Miserable, an inconvenience to be trashed.  Political correctness stifles free speech everywhere, small Christian businesses are being ruined for not licking the boots of gay-rights tyrants, so why shouldn't "freedom of the press" be the next facet of the First Amendment to be jettisoned by these thugs?

Now onto another seemingly unrelated matter.  There's a reason I put "seemingly" in italics; we'll get to that later.  The Daily Caller reports that yesterday some bishops met behind closed doors with some US Senators to discuss the anticipated roll-out of the pope's environmental encyclical.  That's odd, don't you think?  Why, oh why, would Catholic bishops find it necessary to meet with elected officials to discuss the roll-out of any papal encyclical?  Will there be some attempt to utilize the encyclical for envirowhacko legislation?  My goodness!  The timing of this meeting and the Georgetown gab-fest is so coincidental, don't you think?  It's almost as if the bishops scurried to show the Messiah Most Miserable that they are willing to forget baby-murder for a while to and to embrace pet causes of the progressives.

I've noted that in other incidents, it appears that progressives within the Church seem emboldened in their efforts to turn the Church into a religous front for socialism.  As you read the report from the envirowhacko meeting two weeks ago, you cannot help but notice the open call for population control, i.e., abortion, contraception and sterilization.  I am one of a number of pro-life activists who have been fighting for an end to those aforementioned evils.  Many of us have been baffled by the weak and often non-existent support from our Catholic clergy.  To be fair, many good priests and bishops have stood with us and led the way; sadly they are the exception and not the rule.  Many of us thought these clergy were just timid; and yet we've seen these same clergy pounce on their traditional-minded comrades with all the viciousness and efficiency that would have been the envy of Hitler and Stalin.  Therefore I pose this question: Might the lack of clerical assistance and support with which we met over the years have been deliberate attempts to stymie our pro-life efforts?  That's a question deserving of an honest answer.

Pope Francis Needs To Fire His Current Ghostwriter

Apparently Pope Francis has been using the services of a ghostwriter.  From One Peter Five we read that Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, also from Buenos Aires, is the ghostwriter behind this much ballyhooed environmental encyclical that we all await with bated (?) breath.  He and the pope go back a good bit, as the Glora TV clip will illustrate.  Fernandez apparently had a hand in the writing of the Evangelii Gaudium encyclical.

Now it seems that this environmental encyclical will be delayed by Cardinal Gerhard Muller in his capacity as Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith owing to theological deficiencies.  As the Cardinal stated in an interview, the mission of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is "to provide the theological structure of a pontificate".   Moreover, the Apostolic Constitution states that the Congregation must "promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world".

Cardinal Muller is to be commended for putting the breaks on this encyclical.  Besides the many serious shortcomings of this new papal envirowhacko fad (and I'll elaborate in a few minutes), I wonder if Muller is concerned about some of Fernandez's other mindsets,such as the ones evinced in Fernandez's book entitled "Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art Of Kissing".  My!  He certainly is a man with, uh, many interests!  Or is he just getting the "smell of sheep" on himself?

I wrote a bit about that one-day envirowhacko meeting hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences last week.  Elaborating on that, I penned an article on this topic that will appear in a local pro-life publication.  When it comes out I'll link to it.  Meanwhile I'll post below an excerpt from that article that elaborates upon the anti-life screed (see here) that is the report from the meeting.

(begin excerpt)
A thorough read of the document makes plain that it is nothing more than an apologia for the United Nations Sustainable Goals initiatives.  The authors make no attempt to disguise it.  Another key attendee at this summit was none other than UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who also has been known to advocate for abortion.  I refer you to this UN link: http://www.unece.org/sustainable-development/sustainable-development/home.html.  Interestingly enough, scrubbed from this link is any mention of Agenda 21, an action plan that arose out of several meetings with regard to “sustainable development”.  Wikipedia gives some details of it, albeit rather sympathetic, owing to wikipedia’s own leftist bias: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21.   Many see Agenda 21 for the snake in the grass that it is and are sounding the alarm; see http://www.teaparty911.com/issues/what_is_agenda_21.htm  and http://www.freedomadvocates.org/.
The information available about “sustainable development” and Agenda 21 makes clear the betrayal of the Faith that the Vatican hierarchy is committing by lending its moral voice to “one-world-government” and even to “population control”.  It is particularly scandalous that these Vatican agencies signed onto a thinly-disguised apologetics effort for abortion – in the name of the “environment” – just a few weeks prior to the anticipated papal encyclical on the environment.  Catholics are reminded that while the Magisterium can pronounce infallibly only on matters pertaining to Faith and Morals, it does not have the same authority regarding matters scientific and/or economic.
(end excerpt)

Did Cardinal Muller see similar issues in the encyclical itself?  Now the link to the GloriaTV expose of Archbishop Fernandez..

Francis Effect: Dissidents Emboldened In Their Attacks On Christianity

LifeSiteNews and the Cardinal Newman Society both report that several left-wing outfits, most of them pretending to be Catholic, met in Chicago last month for the express purpose of stifling the teaching of Catholic faith and morality within Catholic institutions.  These outfits are:

• Dignity USA
• Catholics for Choice
• Call To Action
• Catholics In Alliance For The Common Good
• New Ways Ministry
• Human Rights Campaign (only one not pretending to be Catholic)

In their immediate cross-hairs is Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.  The archbishop is requiring teachers in his Catholic schools to conduct themselves in manners that are not in opposition to Catholic morality.  In a saner time, such a move would be seen as common sense.  But common sense isn't so common anymore, as much of the unthinking public accepts gross immorality and are perhaps wallowing in it themselves.  The fact that a bishop upholds the law of God is an inherent rebuke to their own guilty consciences.  They seek to silence Christian morality since the truth behind it is something they won't accept.  That's why they've gone to great lengths to hire a public relations firm and to enlist California lawmakers (so much for separation of church and state!) against His Excellency.  But perhaps smarting consciences is not all that impels the animus against Christians.

The Human Rights Campaign bankrolled much of that little gab-fest.  The HRC was founded by a sodomite named Terry Bean.  The Eye Witness relates that Bean and his ex-accomplice in sodomy were arrested a few months ago for allegedly raping a 15-year old boy.  Can it be that Bean has a, uh, "vested interest" in keeping youth away from Christian teaching on morality?

Has anyone else noticed that these dissident groups don't even bother to couch their anti-Catholic bigotry behind benign veneers?  As recently as five years ago, they would have at least exercised some discretion about their malevolent intents, but no more!  Why?  Can it be that they are receiving what they perceive to be favorable signals from the Vatican?  I think that to be a reasonable hypothesis.  Consider the now-notorious interim relatio released during last October's sin-nod: apparently with the pope's prior approval.  Yes, he approved it, including paragraphs 50-52.   According to that thing, we are supposed to value the gay sexual orientation: you know, the orientation that allegedly instigated Bean's rape of the adolescent boy.

Thanks to the so-called "Francis-effect" of obfuscating Church teachings, we can expect more of this undermining of Christianity from within the Church hierarchy.

From The Francis-Effect Department: John Gehring Carries On At NCR

"NCR" in my title stands for Not-At-All Catholic Reporter.  In his latest plop in the online edition of that rag, John Gehring had the hypocritical gall to call a pro-life governor a "cafeteria Catholic".  There are so many errors here one scarcely knows where to begin - but I'll give it my heroic effort.

Before I begin, have you ever noticed something odd about Gehring and other progressive "katholyc" authors?  They often chide Catholics who champion pro-life causes for not adhering to the (discredited) seamless-garment ideology.  Never have I ever read of them rebuking pro-abortion politicians for anything, let alone their shilling for baby-murder.  I find that to be rather telling regarding their own convictions about the lives of the unborn.  And get a load of Gehring's Twitter page!  But I digress!

The backdrop for Gehring's dribble is the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.  Right in the second paragraph is one whopper.  He claims that capital punishment, war and "other moral issues" clash with traditional Catholic teaching.  No, they don't.  There are conditions that must be met before capital punishment or war are engaged, but they are not the intrinsic evils that abortion and contraception are.  I'll link now to a very pertinent article written by Father C. John McCloskey, showing the place capital punishment has in the realm of Catholic moral theology.  And there is this, from the Catechism of Pope St Pius X: "It is lawful to kill when fighting in a just war; when carrying out by order of the Supreme Authority a sentence of death in punishment of a crime; and, finally, in cases of necessary and lawful defense of one’s own life against an unjust aggressor.”

Further down Gehring whines, "But when a national Catholic event that attracts leading Republican politicians and Catholic bishops consistently sends a message that being pro-life or pro-family can be reduced to a narrow agenda that aligns with one political party, that is a problem."  If he believes that is a "problem", did he bother to ask how that "problem" came into being?  Which of the two main political parties has abortion rights and "gay" rights ensconced within its official party platform?  It's simply fact that the pro-life position is more closely aligned with the GOP platform - but that's only because the Democrats formally reject all things having to do with protecting innocent babies in their wombs!  Why does Gehring ignore that?  I believe there is a deliberated reason for that!

At the bottom of the article we read that Gehring is Catholic Program Director at Faith in Public Life.  My Catholic Media Coalition colleage Stephanie Block did several exposes of FPL (see here and here) several years ago, exposing its rather squalid alliances with dissident organizations such as Dignity and Call to Action and their own nefarious activities.

Three years ago The Blaze ran an article that revealed the funding that FPL received from George Soros.  It also detailed a "behind the scenes" media campaign that Gehring undertook to undermine the bishops' efforts to combat the Obamacare contraception mandate.  A prior position Gehring held was Communications Director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.  I've written about them and their undermining of Catholic teaching and the funding they've received from (guess!) George Soros!  Are we sensing a pattern here?

At the Not-At-All Catholic Reporter, John Gehring is quite at home, for many (if not most) there, when it comes to matters Catholic, don't know apple butter from cow pie.

The Smoke Of Satan Within The Church

Pope Paul VI is said to have uttered the phrase "the smoke of Satan is within the Church".  I believe he said this in the wake of the Vatican II conference and the wholescale destruction of much of Church tradition done in the so-called "spirit of Vatican II".  These days I believe we are seeing such smoke coming through several key avenues:

• The Vatican embrace of climate-change envirowhackoism as evidenced by last week's conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences
• The willingness of prelates to kowtow to the gay-mafia agenda, as evidenced by last October's sin-nod
• Vatican acquiesence towards Islam, as displayed by the pope's allowance of muslim prayers on Vatican property and by other strange behaviors towards islam (as evidenced by Cardinal McCarrick).
• Malevolence towards those upholding authentic tradition, evidenced in the suppression of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and treatment meted out to faithful clergy such as Cardinal Burke and Father Guarnizo
• The involvement of the Vatican in partnerships with organizations that fund abortion, contraception, sterilization to the point of directing these organizations in their malevolent activities.
• The denial of the above-mentioned evils by obstinate pollyannas, who delight in denouncing the messenger rather than addressing the message

As an example of the last bullet-point, I present to you an article by George Weigel.  He seems to take great amusement, if not scorn, at the concerns raised by faithful Catholics regarding ominous signs that point towards Vatican embrace of UN climate-change and population control goals.  What he thought he was accomplishing with his mutation of the Gospel of Luke is beyond me.  He sneeringly points out that no one has read the soon-to-be-released article.  I must wonder if he bothered to read the report that was issued by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences (probably written by Jeffrey Sachs).  This report openly calls for embrace of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and population control.  I suppose the answer to my rhetorical question is "no", for that might force him to remove rose-colored glasses.

Looking at the second point, we are dismayed to learn that in London next Sunday, Cardinal Vincent Nichols will celebrate Mass especially for gays.  Nowhere in this article do we read that these homosexuals are living chastely and not engaging in perversion.  Nowhere do we read that they are receiving real pastoral help to live according to God's laws.  This is kowtowing to political correctness - at the expense of the souls of those gays who need the truth for their salvation.

In yesterday's Vortex, Michael Voris dwells on the loss of England to protestantism.  At 1:25 he asks how England could have fallen so quickly, then answers:  "Cowardice and political machinations of the bishops at the time."  The church was corroded from within by the smoke prevalent at that age.  We must pray that the smoke be removed and shine the light through it.

Year Of Mercy Logo: Throw-Back To The 1970s

As you gaze upon the felt-banner leftover from that decade, you might opine that the this post's title be changed from "throw-back to the 1970s" to "throw-up of the 1970s".  It is an eye-sore.  Speaking of eyes, do you notice anything?  Yes!  Jesus and the badly-contorted guy seem to share an eye-ball.  So are they supposed to be Siamese twins, cojoined at the eye-ball?    It's not only grotesque but also quite new-age, hearkening to Hinduism, Taoism and theosophy; read this write-up.

Heretic Father Richard Rohr also seems to be interested in "third eye" gobblygoop.  I've written a bit about him previously.

Didn't the Vatican learn anything from the artistic disaster point forth from the Pontifical Council for Culture three months ago?  To refresh memories, I refer you to a prior post.  I suppose we can be grateful that this "year of mercy" logo doesn't hearken to BDSM activites as the below logo does.  But really!  Why won't they use real art treasures from centuries back - ones that inspire true piety and love of Our Lord, His Church and our fellow man?

For an example of real art, I refer you to the Divine Mercy image incorporated into this blog's logo.  While it dates back only to the 1930s (coming to us via Saint Faustina), it depicts the true nature, source and communication of mercy.  It comes to us via Our Lord Jesus Christ and is communicated to us through the Sacraments and ministry of the Church.  May all come to know authentic mercy through Christ's Church and sacraments.

Dubious Rewards Of Striking Hands With Progressives

These past few days I've been writing about the meeting last week spearheaded by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences; read here and here.  In a nutshell, the Vatican is openly embracing the UN's "Sustainable Development Goals", with all that entails: abortion and contraception.  There are some voices of sanity being raised, namely through internet initiatives by Catholic laypeople to sound the alarm.  The Vatican is embracing progressive, anti-God positions, for which the Holy Father must take ownership and responsiblity.  Indeed, I cannot see how he isn't approving of it, if not outright orchestrating the debacle.

All sorts of leftwing personalities are fawning all over the pope regarding his de facto elevation of climate-change junk science to a level of importance that trumps all recognized dogmas pertaining to faith and morals.  Yesterday he hosted a meeting with the so-called "primate of the church of Sweden", Antje Jackelen - a woman who calls herself "archbishop".  Yes, she's a woman claiming to be clergy, but on the other hand she's with a protestant sect anyway; none of their clergy are ordained.  The Holy Father called her "my sister".  One can only wonder on what basis he calls her that.  To his credit, the Holy Father said, "The issue of the dignity of human life which must be respected always, urgently needs to be addressed, as do issues relating to the family, marriage and sexuality, which cannot be played down or ignored for fear of jeopardising the ecumenical consensus already obtained. It would be a shame for new denominational differences to form around such important questions."  If there are differences, they will only arise if these "denominations" dissent from the Traditions of the Church that are in turn given by Christ Himself; the responsibility for "differences" lies with dissenters and the differences can only be cured by their repentance.  Jackelen, for her part, pointed to two areas of "common concern": 1) refuge problem and 2) (wait for it!  Bet you can't guess!) climate change!  Not the whole-scale slaughter of babies, but climate change!  Why am I not surprised?  But wait!  There's more!

Guess who's thnking of converting to Catholicism based on the pope's swallowing the climate-change Kool-Aid?  Better sit down!  AL GORE!!!  He said so much during remarks made at University of California Berkely last week.  There was probably a good amount of hyperbole in his remarks, but it exemplifies what happens when progressives sense (and with good cause) that Catholics are being swayed by their jargon.  Happily Cardinal Muller reminded one and all that Catholic doctrine will NOT change to suit the preferences of given individuals; indeed it can't for the Teachings of God is immutable as is God Himself.

I post now a video from Michael Matt of the Remnant with their take on the disaster that occurred at that PAS meeting last week.

Accountability Software For The Church

That's what Michael Voris dubbed the social media ventures of faithful Catholics who've taken it upon themselves - or ourselves I should say - to shine much-needed light on misdeeds within the Church and committed by those on high.

Important note: as one of his examples of misdeeds of Catholic institutioins, he pointed out the on-going stonewalling, uh, I mean, "deliberations" regarding the sodomite Catholic Relief Services official who still retains his position.  Since then, we've had the earthquake in Nepal, and many people have contributed to CRS, wanting to assist the victims but not considering that they are also lining the pockets of the corrupt upper eschelon of the CRS structure.  ChurchMilitant.TV alerted us to an alternative that does place proper emphasis in fidelity to the truth, as well as funnel much-needed resources to the striken areas.  It is called Caritas In Veritate.  It does seem to be an outfit that will not forget its Catholic mission any too soon.

Here's today's Vortex.

Pope Francis, We May NOT Kneel Before Any Person

Note: To the title statement above, there are obvious exceptions when the person receiving homage is acting in the place of Christ and the Church as defined by sacramental rite or canon law:

• Kneeling to receive Holy Communion
• Kneeling in the confessional as the priest acts in personae Christae
• A religious kneeling before a superior as he/she is professing vows
• A man kneeling before a bishop as he is being ordained

There may be others of which I'm unaware.  Otherwise, to kneel before another, particularly in church, would seem to be tantamount to idolatry.  

Over these past two years, much mention has been made of the lack of kneeling and/or genuflection displayed by Pope Francis after he pronounces the words of Consecration at Mass or engages in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.  The writer to whom I just linked speculated that there might be some physical problem that precludes kneeling.  However, as Epnomous Flower points out, he knelt as he allowed himself to be "prayed over" by charismatics.

On Tuesday April 28, speaking on the topic of poverty, the Pope said "that Christians could kneel in veneration when a poor person enters the church".  NO!  That's tantamount to idolatry.  Why on earth he uttered that b.s. is beyond me.  Did he give a nod to "liberation theology"?  Who knows?  Does it matter?  It's still wrong and I will call out the error.

Voices Of Reason Contradict Pontifical Acadmeny Of Sciences Regarding Climate Change Junk Science

Thanks to the blogosphere (of which this blog is a small part), the world has been alerted to the joke of a conference that occurred last week regarding "climate change".  As revealed, anti-life population-control advocate Jeffrey Sachs had a disproportionately large amount of influence over the proceedings of that meeting - and the report that was obviously written before the meeting happened.

I posted on it last week; in my reply to one of the comments I mused aloud my suspicions that the "climate change" hoax might play a role in the maturation that the pope wants to inflict upon Catholics as they prepare for the brain-rot that will spew forth from next October's sin-nod.  The PAS report included the Vatican's endorsement of "population control", i.e., contraception, abortion and possibly euthanasia.  This anti-life poison may well be woven into the October meeting.

Again, thanks to the blogosphere, true scientists are making their voices and concerns heard.  On April 27, the Cornwall Alliance released "An Open Letter To Pope Francis On Climate Change".  It is signed by reputable individuals such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Father Paul Acton, Gary Bauer, Donna Bethel, retired MD State Senator Nancy Jacobs, Lord Christopher Monckton, Steven Mosher, Austin Ruse, Thomas Sheahen, John Zmirak.  The gist of this letter points to the reasons why popular models have failed, based on empirical data.  It also points to Biblical reference regarding the relationship between man and the created universe - and points out why any attempt to restrict fossil fuel consumption would be harmful to poor people.  If the pope insists on dabbling into scientific matters (over which he has no special authority), he needs to weigh real data, not just emotional rhetoric.

However, with some prelates, facts don't sit very well.  Cardinal Maradiaga, a chief advisor to the pope (and I've written plenty about him, too), had this to say while visiting Washington DC last week in response to a question regarding the expected encyclical about the environment: "Do not expect statistics, numbers and theories.  He will go directly to the baptized."  Pardon my french, but what the hell does that mean????  Disregard of real scientific data seems to be habitual among progressives, and Maradiaga isn't even trying to conceal it.  He's opining that the pope will rely on emotional "mob-appeal" to push through the population control heresy.  Remember - he's a key advisor, de-facto leader of this "gang of nine", for the pope.  He may be a nut, but one to be taken seriously.

Again, we all must watch what proceeds from the Vatican and measure it agains the timeless traditions of Holy Mother Church.