A Bishop who Speaks with Authority

Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, ND walks in the footsteps of the Master. He speaks with authority preaching the hard truth in love. He's on record saying that pro-abortion Catholic politicians who refuse to act like Catholics should be treated like tax collectors and Gentiles as St. Paul advocated. Now he's warning of the coming persecution predicting that the state will try to silence the Church.

Anybody with eyes can see it. But what shocked me were the comments responding to the Catholic News Service article on the bishop's statements. Seems persecution of Catholics is just fine and dandy with a lot of folks. If Catholics don't want to "obey" the law that allows two men or two women to marry then forced closing of Catholic adoption agencies is just fine. I'm sure many of these same people would be happy to force Catholic doctors and hospitals to do abortions, Catholic pharmacists to fill prescriptions to kill babies and the elderly. They would no doubt be willing to fill the prisons with Catholics who engage in "hate speech," i.e., any criticism of homosexual behavior or those who refuse to photograph or cater homosexual weddings.  

Bishop Aquila warned his seminarians to be prepared to suffer persecution. Catholics, he says, “will have to stand for the truth [and] speak clearly to the truth no matter what the cost.”  And he predicts that, “Either we’re going to have to enter into conscientious objection and say we won’t do this or we will need to cooperate – which we cannot do and still be faithful.”

The persecution is already happening, but expect it to get worse as the culture sinks deeper and deeper into depravity. Evil can't stand to be challenged. It is never content with doing its own thing; it demands respect. In fact, it demands to be considered good. No better example of this exists than Planned Parenthood's claim that they are doing "sacred" work. (See here.) To define ripping a child limb from limb as "sacred" is diabolical. And the Bible makes that clear. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil," says Isaiah (5:20)

We are coming to a time when Catholics and other people of good will must choose whether they will serve God or the world, whether they will conform to the demand to call evil good. Many Catholics already serve Satan in this way. Look at the number of Catholic politicians, many of them Knights of Columbus, who publicly support abortion and same sex marriage and vote to make it the law of the land. They claim to be "devout Catholics" while they do the work of the devil.

We are in a critical time and the choice is looming for each of us as the persecution reaches out. Once and for all, we are being asked to choose for God or choose for the world. There is no middle way in this, for the lukewarm are condemned by Christ's promise to vomit them out of His mouth. God bless Bishop Aquila for his clear teaching and warning. He is blowing the trumpet of alarm as a good shepherd must. Pray that many will listen and draw near to Christ Jesus prepared to suffer in imitation of the Master.