Cardinal Gregory, Restore The Mass NOW

He presented his conclusions (such as they are) in the Catholic Standard.  After stating the obvious fact that participation and membership has declined in the past generation, he quickly states that the pandemic has exacerbated the decline.  We all know that isn't exactly correct.  The bishops' craven reactions to the pandemic have caused that.  When the bishops literally barred their flocks from Church buildings and deprived them of the Sacraments for fear of temporal illness, they betrayed their own lack of supernatural faith and devotion to their mission of saving souls from hell and helping them towards heaven.

Notice how he tried to discredit those of us who decry the abuses that escalated in the wake of Vatican II.  He neglected (maybe on purpose) to mention that the decline in the Church, hence the saving of souls, predated the pandemic.  The deterioration of Catholic life accelerated after Vatican II:

• Shrinkage of Mass attendance
• Decline in religious vocations while already-professed/ordained priests and religious abandoned their vows in droves
• Drop in numbers of Catholic weddings, with a corresponding rise in couples fornicating
• Growing rebellion against the Church's moral teaching

The Church's problems happened long before the pandemic.  The headline of the Standard article mentions that the Church "must return to its central mission".  Do the bishops (including the pope) even acknowledge what the Church's central mission is?  It is the salvation of souls, for whom Our Lord died on the Cross.  The mission of the Church is not "social justice".  It is not physical safety from the pandemic or other temporal malady.

If Cardinal Gregory and his colleagues in compromise repent and remember their true calling, that is, the salvation of souls through Holy Mother Church, they will see real vitality return.  Just witness what is happening in places where the Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated.  The churches are full, and with a healthy percentage of young and large families to boot.  I will post now a talk by Father Zuhlsdorf entitled "Save The Liturgy, Save The World".  Listen to it.

Local CCHD Funds Alinskyite Organization

If anyone thought that the local CCHD in the Archdiocese of Washington was not funding any innimical organization, please be advised that they are.  Proof can be found in the November 11th issue of the Catholic Standard, page 9.  If you don't have a copy, no problem - it's online right here.

We read that Holy Comforter-St Cyprian parish has a "relationship" with the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), which in turn receives CCHD funding.  Let's look at the website of the Washington Interfaith Network.  Right off the bat we see that they are affiliates of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).  Let's look at the "about the IAF", then "overview" page.  They unabashedly admit to being founded by Saul Alinsky, the self-proclaimed "radical" who has made it his publicly-stated aim to remake our country into his image of a socialistic utopia.  Read his book, "Rules for Radicals", obtainable anywhere online.  Read as he states quite plainly that he believed that the "ends justify the means".

Let's go to the "links" page and look at VOICE.  My colleague at Les Femmes, being based in Virginia, has done much research on them.  Rather than rehash what she's learned, I post two of her links:
http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2009/09/fr-mitch-pacwa-and-thoughts-on-alinsky.html
http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2009/09/fr-gerry-creedon-trivializes-murder-of.html
http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2009/09/turn-up-heat-on-catholic-campaign-for.html

Have you noticed something that seems to be a problem for the CCHD, everytime there's an effort to convince Catholics that the CCHD is "on the up-and-up"?  Their very attempts betray more squalid associations.  They simply can't get away from the putrid stench of Alinskyite organizing.  I regret saying that there is an obvious reason to this plight of theirs.  That foul stench doesn't merely permeate them; it is the very essense of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Let's step away from the dubious entanglements and look at some of the problematic statements made by archdiocesan officials.  Anthony Bosnick, the director of the archdiocese's Department for Charity and Justice, stated that the CCHD helps to "reach out to the poor and vunerable and that's really the most important thing that we can do as a community."  Well, that's not my understanding of the mission of the Church.  As I see it, and as I've been taught, the primary mission  of the Church is about the saving of souls.  That's not to say that "reaching out to the poor and vulnerable" isn't important.  It is an important thing that we do, but it is NOT "the most important thing."  Msgr Charles Pope, pastor of the church mentioned above, said something similar, "Certainly care for the poor is central to the Gospel, and every Catholic should support the poor."  Again, is not eternal salvation central to the Gospel?  Of course it is.

Now why do you think there is the emphasis on "reaching out to the poor" at the expense of eternal salvation?  Here it is, in a nutshell.  Saul Alinsky, the inspiration behind the CCHD, was an atheist.  As a non-believer in eternity, he saw only the here and now as being reality.  Unfortunately, some of the apologists for the CCHD are unwittingly chanting that Alinskyan mantra, even though they themselves believe in eternity.

Again, I urge a complete boycott of the CCHD collection this weekend.