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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Cardinal Wuerl: Comedian or Hypocrite?

I was just reading an article describing how Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. called an unnamed bishop a dissenter (pretty clearly directed at Cardinal Burke's recent interview when he said he would resist the pope if he attempted to change doctrine on Communion for the divorced and remarried). You can read Cardinal Wuerl's blog post here and the article about his post here. Here's the salient sentence from Wuerl's blog:
They (dissenting bishops) disagree with the Pope because he does not agree with them and therefore follow their position.
What a bunch of hooey! First of all, in the article Wuerl was talking about rejecting teachings in papal encyclicals which are not, by the way, necessarily infallible except to the degree they uphold the unchangeable doctrine of the Church. Cardinal Burke has not dissented at all. he has pointed out over and over that no one has the ability to change Christ's teachings, not even the pope. He has begged for clarity from the pope in the face of the confusion sown at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family where Cardinal Wuerl was among the smoke-blowers.

As for dissenters, the LifeSiteNews article emphasizes Wuerl's own dissent from Vatican instructions, i.e., his refusal to implement Canon Law 915 which is unequivocal in its demand to deny communion to those in persistent grave manifest public sin. And yet Wuerl happily subjects Jesus Christ to sacrilege because doing what Church Law says isn't his "style."

Cardinal Wuerl spins a web in his blog post with lots of nice words. He even implies that he supports encyclicals like Humanae Vitae, but his priests better never preach on that or same sex marriage. A priest friend of mine got the "tone-it-down" call from the chancery after one brave bulletin letter about same sex marriage. Wuerl is the spider at the center of a web of hypocrisy. And if anyone is a dissenter it's himself. He punishes good priests like Fr. Marcel Guarnizo and embraces heretics like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

Pray for him. With bishops like this in powerful positions, it's not hard to figure out why the Church is in such a mess! He has been an ambitious man since ordination and his "style" has helped to elevate him in the eyes of the world. Whether that corresponds to his status in God's eyes is another matter. For a history of his rise to the top read this article.

4 comments:

  1. yes, and when he was in Pittsburgh the presence of gay priests in local bars was a major scandal. And some of our neighbors were upset about the "sex ed" program he implemented in Catholic schools.

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  2. Have you seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kwb8VZMP5I - Vatican official threatening to sue Canadian Catholic blogger...?

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  3. Please also read Cardinal Wuerl's comment on his own article. He wrote that "Last October, our Holy Father encouraged those of us participating to speak our minds and hearts openly, listen with humility and be open to the Spirit."

    Here is the hypocrisy of Cardinal Wuerl: he then writes that "Nor do we want to preclude examination of particular issues by declaring, as some do, that even the discussion of such topics should not take place."

    Essentially, his comments amount to "speak your mind, follow the Spirit!" Then Cardinal Burke speaks his mind, and Cardinal Wuerl says, "You can't say that."

    What if the Holy Spirit is speaking through Cardinal Burke, and not Pope Francis, Cardinal Wuerl, C. Kasper, et. al.? What if those issues were settled in the New Testament, like Cardinal Burke has stated, and as a result further discussion would simply mislead the faithful and cause scandal that is mortally sinful? Cardinal Wuerl implies that the Holy Spirit is only speaking through him, Pope Francis, Cardinal Kasper, et. al. What if the Holy Spirit is saying, "eh em, pipe down Cardinal Wuerl, "Bishop of Rome", C. Kasper; you all are following the wrong spirit"?

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  4. I've heard about that before, Boinky. Sad that we cannot trust many of our bishops.

    Thanks, BetterKate, I did a blog post on this because of your comment. Check will be in the mail. LOL! (prayer of thanksgiving at least).

    And thanks for you comment, Anonymous and the very telling quote. These men speak with forked tongues. Ah...but it has always been such. The history of the Church is filled with bad bishops: Cauchon who engineered the murder of Joan of Arc, Wolsey the supreme politician who cared more about his position than the faith. In our own time the abuser bishops like Patrick Ziemann. We live in hard times. Catholics need to pray for discernment and be vigilant.

    As Shakespeare said through Hamlet, one can smile and smile and be a villain.

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