Attempts To Silence Us In The Church And Civic Life

When truth is spoken, those who revel in falsehood and fantasy lash out at those who speak it.  They fear both the searing of their consciences and for some the threat to their exploitation of the good faith of those who might be inclined to listen and obey them.  I believe that is why a plethora of these progressive wonks are trying to cajole and even coerce us into silence.

Let's examine the attempt being made by Bishop Barron.  He recently suggested that the US bishops introduce a mandatum for those "who claim to teach the Catholic faith online".  He laments "those trading in hateful divisive speech".  One wonders how he defines "divisive", for truth is divisive.  One either heeds it, or they don't.  There really is no "meeting of the minds" here.  If the bishops were really serious about cleaning up the teaching of the Faith, they have their work cut out for them at so-called Catholic institutes of higher learning like Georgetown University or Marquette University or Notre Dame.  Then of course there's Bishop Barron's heretical "hope" that no one is in hell.  Would that cause him to be denied this "mandatum"?  Of course not!

Then we have the chief of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Bassetti, telling Catholics who question the pope's ever-increasing indiscretions to consider leaving the Catholic Church.  In other wods, he is advocating schism.  Similarly, the pope himself had similar gripes.  He coined a new term: "deepfake news".  Of course, if he had been inspired with that phrase by watching CNN or reading the Washington Post I might understand, but the context makes clear his thinking.

The close timing of these two statements by Barron and Bassetti are, I suspect, no coincidence.  They understand that they no longer have total control of the public arena of ideas.  They also know that not only will we spread the word, we will NOT spread our money; recall Saturday's post.  Both of these facts threaten their progressive schemes for the Church.

We are seeing similar backlashes against the truth in the secular arena as well.  In Virginia, the now-Democrat-controlled house is considering HB 1627.  This bill would essentially criminalize any criticism of the governor and other elected officials.  Please note that it is the progressives, mostly Democrats, who are devoid of any sense of obedience to God.  Thus, perceiving themselves to be de facto gods, behave as authoritarian, jack-booted thugs and tyrants.

As we assume the mantle of Church Militant, evil will push back.  We must double down on our prayers, particularly Mass and Rosary.  We must also stand for the Faith.

The Best Defense Is A Good Offense

I suspect the title of this post summarizes the strategy that Pope Francis is employing in the wake of the impending heretical circus known as the Amazon Sin-Nod, scheduled for next month.  No doubt this hootenanny will be so chock-full of spiritual poison, designed to mutate the Faith beyond recognition, that the pope would love nothing more than for us to dissect and analyze the mess.  He knows in so doing, that we would disarm at least some of the bombs that will be flying from that sin-nod, so he is trying his darndest to scold us into silence.

How else do you account for these gaffes?

• On the plane yesterday, he stated that "dissent from American Catholic conservatives would not lead to a schism in the church".  Oh, there is so much to unpack in that article.  We who are "rigid" (that is, we who hold to the Traditions of the Church), well, "there are problems" and we have to be "accompanied with tenderness".  What will cause schism is any disobedience to Tradition, such as pretending to ordain women, pantheism, admittance of those in mortal sin to Holy Communion.  Does he know that is coming down the road, hence his attempt to shift blame for rupture to faithful Catholics?  He said he was willing to listen to critics and make necessary corrections, but meanwhile the dubia still sit on his desk, utterly disdained.
• Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former head of doctrine for the Vatican, has raised concerns regarding the direction in which the pope is leading the Church.  The pope, ever willing to listen to correction (per the previous bullet point) responded by saying that the Cardinal "has good intentions but is like a child".  The condescension is palpable. 
• Let's not forget that the pope "is honored when Americans attack him".  So to criticize a person's actions is to attack him personally?  He knows better than that.  He simply is trying to vilify concerned Catholics who do not turn a blind eye to the obvious.  But a note to those who criticize this blog.  According to the pope, you should no longer accuse me of not honoring him, for he himself said that I honor him!  So, there!

I'm now going to post a screen shot from a Facebook post that Msgr Charles Pope wrote regarding these little jibes from the pope.  It's an open letter to the pope.

Regarding Father's last sentence, we're tired of it too but we must realize this is par for the course.  What the pope is doing is simply "advance damage control" as it were.  I think the idea is to shame us into shutting up if, and when, the real dissidence and heresies ooze out of the Amazon Sin-Nod and elsewhere.  I for one will not fall for that.

Homosexualists Attempt To Shut Us Up

From the attempt to control our conversations at my parish last week to Cardinal Wuerl's failed attempt to spin his yarn at Annunciation last week, we see attempts to stifle the voices of faithful Catholics who are tired of debauchery in the highest levels of the Church.  I just mentioned local instances.

At his Mass on Monday, the pope tried to get us to resign ourselves to "silence and prayer".  The entire homily is here.  Notice the none-too-subtle swipes he takes against faithful Catholics: "people who do not have good will", "people who seek only scandal", etc.  I suppose these could be added to the Little Book Of Insults.  But if he's truly convinced that "silence is golden", might I suggest a little leadership by example?  For starters, he can stop uttering bloopers about "the emergency of plastics littering the oceans".  He also tossed in some shilling for open borders.

Good ole' Cardinal Cupich certainly got his talking points right, didn't he?  In his "rabbit hole" interview, he flat out said that the environment and immigration was more important than the victimization of countless boys at the hands of perverted clergy.

But somewhere along progressive communications lines, the talking points became a bit garbled.  A few days ago, a USCCB official informed Catholics everywhere of the latest update to Christ's Great Commission.  He said that "the struggle of working people...is the Gospel, pure and simple"!  Of course that's rank heresy, as the Church's first mission, given by Christ, is the salvation of souls.  But isn't it telling, though, how the progressives are throwing out every worn-out canard to distract us from the moral rot in the Church, starting at the papacy?  They might have a fleeting chance at being believable if they could coordinate among themselves what heresy they're going to promote this week.

So such are their pathetic attempts to get us to shut up.  For the most part, they are almost comical.  Almost, I said, for the latest attempt aimed at Archbishop Vigano is nothing short of sinister.  The pope is consulting with Cardinal Coccopalmerio (aka Cocaine Cocco) and canon lawyers to explore canonical penalties against Vigano.  Cocaine Cocco is one of the prelates implicated in Vigano's testimony, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has some axes to grind.  I'm looking at the Rorate Caeli account of this and its analysis.  Canon law cannot be wielded at whim against anyone without canonical crimes being committed, and these would entail the commission of sin.  Of what sin could they accuse Vigano?  The fact that the pope et al are even trying is telling both of their fear of discovery and their vindictiveness against those who shine the light on their evil.

I saw a comment on another site that pointed out that if the pope actually does sanction Vigano, then he'll just further enrage faithful Catholics who have already had enough.  Is he foolish enough to try it?  Your guess is as good as mine.