The Bishops Left Baltimore; Did They Leave Us Behind as Well?

Things are a mess these days. The culture is a mess, the political landscape is a mess, the schools are a mess, the family is a mess. 

Francis didn't need to tell everyone to "make a mess" because the mess has been in the making for decades with one pope after another telling us that all faiths lead to God as they advance syncretism and undermine the reality that there is one true faith and one true Savior. 

The Church, which should be the main housekeeper cleaning up the mess, has, in many ways, become the messiest of all. The German Church allows gay masses, a vampire mass; anything edgy and bizarre makes the cut. The CDF (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), which is supposed to defend the faith, is run by a cardinal who wrote a sexually explicit book on kissing and, from all evidence, may have deep-sixed his own faith years ago. Sodomy champion Jesuit Fr. James Martin is welcomed at the Vatican while those who dare to embrace the traditions of our forefathers are ridiculed and despised. Yes, indeed, things are a mess.
Last week in Baltimore at the bishops' fall plenary session the mess was on display once more for everyone to see. Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, our U.S. bishops argue and vote on prudential issues as if they were the faith and ignore the faith as if it belonged in the broom closet. Their big concern last week was condemning the administration's attempt to control the onslaught of illegals invading the country. In a cringe-worthy video, several bishops recited their message about immigration. It expressed how much they care for all those breaking our laws to stream over our southern border. No matter that the drug cartels rake in billions selling their smuggling services. No matter that hundreds of thousands of children have disappeared once they cross, sometimes being rented by non-family invaders to gain more sympathy and easier access. No, the bishops appear to have no concern for that or for anyone in the country who has suffered from the silent war.

What a mess!

Sheryl Collmer writing at Crisis Magazine described the bishops' meeting as a "coffee circle" with the subtitle, The Bishops seem relentlessly committed to everything but teaching and defending the Truth.

US Coffee Circle of Bishops Meets in Baltimore

Her article hits the bullseye when it comes to what Bishop Bruskewitz once called a "pathetic bunch of bishops." That was at the Dallas meeting in 2002 when the band of bishop brothers shifted the blame for the sex abuse crisis to parish priests and laity and absolved themselves of any responsibility. Has anything changed? Oh yes. If anything they are more culpable than ever for the collapse of the faith in the United States. 

Collmer writes:

It is finally becoming apparent, even to the most hopeful, that no amount of begging, pleading, or shaming will cause the bishops to care about the laity and those things that are most important to us. If they’re confused as to what those things are, a good start would be to ask priests what they hear most in Confession. I guarantee it’s not offenses against climate change or synodality....

Young adults are turning away from marriage and family. Contraception, abortion, sterile lifestyles, pornography, and misplaced priorities are seductively proposed to them, guaranteeing that they will never have the joy intended by God through the family. Might that be of some interest to the bishops?

So many people who left the Mass under the Reign of Fear in 2020 never returned. We still have a crisis of catechesis, with adults in the pews who have no idea what their Catholicism teaches. The obsessive persecution of the Traditional Latin Mass has driven some of our most committed and hard-working parishioners out of diocesan parishes. Tens of thousands of our African brothers have been kidnapped, tortured, and executed for the Faith.

Could the bishops be troubled to address any of that?

No, they spend themselves on immigration, climate change, and synodality. They waste their time and our money to address things that have no bearing on the lives of the laity or the health of our beloved Church.

Collmer goes on to recognize the one bishop at the meeting who challenged his brothers, Bishop Joseph Strickland. The response? Crickets and a host of eyes staring at the ceiling. After the meeting, the bishop wrote a scathing description of what he should have said which he posted on his X account. 

Dear Faithful Catholics

Do the bishops care about us? There seems little evidence of it. But we are called to care about them. Even a bad father must be honored according to the fourth commandment and the bishops are, indeed, our spiritual fathers. 

When was the last time you or I prayed and fasted for our bishop or for the pope? We may not imitate their neglect by neglecting our duty to them. And so today what will you do for your bishop? What will I do for my bishop? Fulton Sheen reminded us that it is the laity who always bring the Church back on track when those with the responsibility fail in their God-ordained duties. I'm praying an extra rosary today specifically for my Bishop, Michael Burbidge, and for the pope. Will you join me by doing the same for your bishop? We need our fathers in faith. May all the saints and doctors of the Church intercede for them and, of course, the Queen of Angels and Saints, our Blessed Lady. 

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.