Below is the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the release of the 23 pro-life activists who were unjustly imprisoned by the Biden administration.
CRICKETS
DEAD SILENCE
Please don't tell me that they simply had not the time to prepare a statement. The release happened Thursday, and prior to that, rumors had been widely circulating that the release was imminent. They had plenty of time to prepare a statement. Moreover, had the released people been climate activists or shills for unbridled illegal alien invasion, the bishops would have been falling all over themselves to wax lyrical about both the release and the bravery of the activists with great alacrity. They might, in light of this posting, attempt to mumble something in the most perfunctory manner, but it will ring hollow and superficial.
Their silence can mean only two things:
Absolute indifference to their plight, and the plight of the millions of children murdered by abortion.
Alignment with the mindset of those who commit these acts of murder.
Once I held the opinion that the bishops were simply too cowardly, too afraid of losing governmental funding for their pet projects, to take an actual Catholic stance towards abortion. When I saw how ruthlessly they punished priests who upheld Church teaching regarding sexually-perverted lifestyles, I realized that they could indeed move decisively, albeit in the wrong direction. That leaves me with the two choices noted above. While I hope the first one is the case, I am seeing how very likely the second one is more the case. The majority of the bishops have made clear their alignment with the gay agenda. Why would they not be just as pro-abortion as their pals such as Biden and Pelosi?
In this Vortex, Michael Voris misspeaks when he describes "dreamers" as "children born in America to illegal aliens". In fact, the "dreamers" themselves were born in their native countries and brought here by their parents as they crossed our borders illegally. They are not "anchor babies". Also, Bishop Paprocki didn't so much urge Dick Durbin not to present himself for Holy Communion. While the bishop did that in the past, he recently instructed his priests that they are not to administer Holy Communion to him. Durbin refused to obey Canon 916, so now Bishop Paprocki is implementing Canon 915.
All in all though, Voris did an excellent job in summarizing how the USCCB is on the Democrats' financial leash. Consider the disgusting attack staged by the Texas Catholic Conference against Texas Right to Life. I believe the Texas bishops were simply pandering to their progressive sugar daddies when they hurled their long knives at Texas Right to Life; see here and here. Recall themillions that some of the Texas Catholic Charities offices received to "settle immigrants". Consider that as Voris comments about all this "concern" that the USCCB has for illegals.
By the way - Voris made mention of the Catholic Relief Services. The CRS is conducting its "rice bowl" campaign during Lent. Here is a way that you can "do operation rice bowl" in a most productive and educational manner.
Recently Michael Hichborn of Lepanto Institute gave a talk regarding the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and of the monkey business that comprises their entire purpose for existence. I'll post it below, but will also link to previous posts of mine in which the content coincides with Hichborn's statements. When we reach the 20:00 mark in the video, Hichborn talks about immigration. So consider:
The role of Catholic Charities in fomenting illegal immigration - see here and here
At the 38:15 mark, consider what Hichborn says about Ralph McCloud being both the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and a board member of Interfaith Worker Justice. Until now, I did not know that this huge conflict of interest existed.
At the 44:48 mark, Hichborn states that "there is no salvaging the CCHD. The only thing that can be done with it at this point is to shut it down permanently." I've been saying that for years. In fact, I've been saying that about the entire USCCB.
Bear in mind the very ending: an exhortation to pray the Rosary daily and maintain testimony to the truth. Please pass this along to your other contacts.
Yesterday the US Senate voted to pass H.J. Resolution 43, undoing Obama's executive order that forced states to fund Planned Parenthood. It was a split vote, with the Vice President breaking the tie. Last month it passed the House by a 230-188 vote split. It now heads to President Trump's desk. This bill does not cut Planned Parenthood funding in and of itself; rather, it allows states to do so. A number of them have already passed such defunding measures.
A little "aside" for my #nevertrump friends. You do realize that if you had your way, states would still be forced to fund Planned Parenthood, don't you? Deep down in your hearts, aren't you glad you didn't have your way? Let this be a lesson to you. As additional examples arise, I will be pointing these out to you!
Getting back to the main point of this post, state governments now take back control of their Title X funds and they now have the option of denying funding to the largest baby-killing racket in the nation, if not the world. I hope many states seize that opportunity. Alas, other states are infested with anti-life liberals and progressives. My home state of Maryland is one of them. I wrote last Saturday of the effort underway by pro-baby-murder politicians to fund Planned Parenthood. In that piece I also wrote of the de facto cooperation with these progressives that the Maryland Catholic Conference intends to give them. I speculated as to the cause(s) of the MCC's despicable stance, wondering if funding for some of their pet "social justice" goals hung in the balance. The video released by Michael Hichborn now causes me to fear that the reasons for MCC's lack of actions may be even more perfidious.
Deal Hudson had an article published today in Newsmax entitled "Catholic Bishops Caught In Conflict Of Interest Over Immigration". In the fifth paragraph down, we see that Catholic Relief Services received over $400 million from the Obama administration in 2016. In Obama's first year, he increased CRS funding by over $120 million. Hudson also mentioned that Planned Parenthood received approximately the same amount from the feds; he mentions it as a coincidence but maybe it's more than a mere coincidence.
So what does Catholic Relief Services have to do with Maryland Catholic Conference? Well, they're both headquartered in Maryland. CRS is directly controlled by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the MCC takes many leads from the USCCB. Six years ago, the USCCB did lobby for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This month it was utterly silent regarding H.J. Resolution 43. Why the change?
The video below is that of Michael Hichborn giving a talk at the "Bringing America Back To Life" summit held in Cleveland earlier this month. The title of his talk is "Catholic Charities And The Culture Of Death". He details how Catholic "social justice" groups (under control by the US hierarchy) have compromised their missions to the point of participating actively in the Culture of Death. He focuses heavily on Catholic Relief Services. Pay very close attention to the 15:55 mark, when he reveals how CRS actually partnered with Planned Parenthood. Just how close have the tentacles of Planned Parenthood gotten into the inner sanctums of the US Catholic establishment? Can this be some explanation of the inaction of both the USCCB and MCC regarding the various battles over Planned Parenthood funding? To my readers: what, if anything, have your state Catholic Conferences been doing about your states' funding of Planned Parenthood? Please advise via the comments box.
If you have one of those lenten rice bowl things and have been dropping change into it, please empty it and give that money to an organization that is fighting for the Culture of Life.
The CRS is under the direct control of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB is having its semi-annual meeting in Baltimore, starting today. Michael Hichborn, president of Lepanto, penned anopen letter to the US bishops regarding CRS's misbehaviors. Also today Archbishop Paul Coakley, USCCB Chair, asked the prelates in attendance to pay no attention to Lepanto's hours of research and the evidence pointing towards CRS's complicity with evil. His request is itself a betrayal of fear and resentment at having the dissidence of CRS, along with the USCCB, brought into light.
LifeSiteNews has details of Carolyn Woo's sniveling reaction to Lepanto's work. I don't think she realizes what she revealed when she claimed that "original sin was kind of abstract". In her time at CRS, particularly with the cover-up of the "gay-married" CRS vice president, she betrayed an abysmal lack of basic Catholic moral teaching.
As always, the only language that gets the attention of the progressives who occupy high places in the USCCB is the language of money. Thus, in addition to prayer, we must speak that language by withholding our donations. It is not time for the annual in-pew CRS collection. However, the in-pew collection for its national counterpart, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (also under direct USCCB control) is this coming weekend. I urge all to boycott that collection this coming weekend. Here are some tools to assist you in this boycott.
Over the years I have had too many occasions to write about the scandals of Catholic Relief Services. Some of their actions have been outright murderous, as several of their workers in Africa have been caught dispensing abortifacients.
Therefore, it surprises me not in the least to hear thatBill O'Keefe, CRS's vice president for government relations and advocacy, told CNN that "..we do not attempt to engage in discussions of faith. We're proud of that..." Father Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International, chided CRS for not sharing the Gospel while praising them for "serving the poor and marginalized". I believe Father was being way too generous to CRS; whatever else "serving the poor" may mean, it does not mean inducing them to practice contraception.
Now notice this lovely statement came from their vp for government relations. Most telling! When one considers that CRS receives over 60% of its funding from USAID, we can see how O'Keefe might have wanted to keep his sugar-daddies happy. Considering how little of the Faith CRS knows or believes, it might be just as well they keep their yaps shut, lest they spew forth all manners of heresies.
Catholic Relief Services, like its parent organization, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is beyond repair. It's time to dismantle the whole sorry mess.
Today Sister Mary Ann Walsh penned an article on the USCCB blog entitled "Time to Listen to the Bishops on the Shutdown". A study of this piece makes clear that the title should be "Time for the Bishops to Abolish the USCCB".
The theme of this less-than-masterpiece is a simple regurgitation of the USCCB swan song heard throughout the fight over the passing and implementation of Obamacare. In a nutshell, the progressives controlling the various puppet strings at the USCCB support the idea of socialized medicine. Notice that they aren't even advocating that abortion and contraception be expunged from Obamacare. They simply don't want to be put in the position of paying for it. In other words, as long as they (believe that they) won't sully their hands with abortion, they've no problem whatsoever with these moral evils becoming even more ensconced within our medical system because of Obamacare.
Now notice in the fifth paragraph, the one that starts with "The bishops noted that the Catechism..". They claim to cite the Catechism as the source of their belief that the state must supply health care. I'll post the full paragraph below: The bishops noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church says it is the proper role of government to "make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life," including food, clothing, heath care, education and culture.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is a misquote of paragraph 2288; here is the link to the Catechism, and you'll need to scroll to the paragraph. I'll post it below. Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.
Are you noticing any differences?? There are two big differences. Notice that the USCCB claims that government is the agent of provision. The Catechism uses the word society. They are not synonyms. Let's look at the Catechism again, this time paragraph 1880, where "society" is plainly defined as "a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them". Thus, the Catholic Church is a "society" as much as any civil body. At this point, I'd also suggest a close study of paragraphs 1883-1885; they go into detail about the Principle of Subsidiarity and the danger of collectivism.
Bearing those last two points in mind, let's look at the second difference. The USCCB uses the phrase "make accessible" while the Catechism uses the phrase "help in the attainment". How can the government "make accessible" that which it doesn't possess? Why, it has to seize it, doesn't it? From whom? Remember the phrase "from each according to his ability to each according to his need"? That's straight from Karl Marx. On the other hand, help in the attainment is innocuous: it could mean job skills training or truly charitable outreaches - means that don't entail confiscation from those who honestly attain goods vis-a-vis onerous taxes/fines such as the ones that Obamacare is already starting to impose.
I would propose that the USCCB is not worthy of the audience of anyone.
Randy Engel, author of "The Rite of Sodomy", gives some valuable background information on the insinuation of the gay cabal into the Church. She links it with the promotion of abortion and contraception. She also makes very plain that a major facilitator of this plague was - and continues to be - the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Listen to this interview; it's well worth your time.
