Well today was a red-letter day. I've been called a lot of things: a fat cow (I admit I'm overweight.), a schismatic and excommunicated Catholic, a Protestant. Really, I was even once called a feminist. That blew my mind since I've fought the radical feminists for decades. But name-calling is often preceded by brain death. The "little gray cells" go on vacation.
This morning I reached the height of name calling. For the first time a commenter compared me to Satan using Christ's own words, "Get Behind me, Satan." Well, Jesus said his followers could expect to be treated like the Master (even when we're very little like Him). And what did the Pharisees say? "You cast out demons by the power of Beelzebul," another name for Satan. I reminded my reader that Jesus banned people from calling their brothers fools, but Satan? Actually I was kind of amused. It doesn't reflect on me as much as on the name-caller.
What outraged my reader you ask? I'll tell you. I said the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) should be dismantled. I would be happy to see the wrecking ball knocking down their D.C. mausoleum before all the liberal democrats who work there do any more damage to the Church (and the faith) in America.
The writer, in a rash judgment of major proportions, claimed my attitude meant I wanted to "destroy the bishops." Huh? How does that follow. It was a non sequitor on top of a logical fallacy. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.
At any rate, maybe others out there in Rio Linda who know little or nothing about the USCCB and share the ignorant writer's opinions. So let me give a little history.
The predecessor of the USCCB, the National Catholic War Council, was founded in 2017 near the end of World War I. Its purpose was to provide a national means to collect contributions from Catholics to provide spiritual care and recreation for servicemen. The name was changed in 1922 to the National Catholic Welfare Conference and its goals were broadened to include education, immigration, social action, etc. This continued until 1966 when the NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops) was established fulfilling the Vatican II mandate for bishops to "jointly exercise their pastoral office." At the same time, the earlier conference became the USCC (United States Catholic Conference) to address societal issues. Both groups were combined in 2001 to make up the USCCB.
There seems to be a mistaken notion among some laity that the individual bishop are like assistant CEOs under the USCCB who operate according to their directives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every bishop has the authority and responsibility in his own diocese to teach, govern, and sanctify his flock. He is NOT answerable to the USCCB, but only to the pope. The USCCB has no power to compel which means bishops could decide to stop supporting them.
Sadly, while recent popes have paid lip service to the authority of the individual bishops, they have snatched much of that authority and laid it in Vatican dicasteries which have no diocesan authority at all. Traditionis Custodes is a prime example basically banning a bishop's authority to allow the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments in his diocese. Pope Benedict acknowledged the overreach when he said the TLM never was and could not be abrogated. That didn't stop Francis and Leo from their draconian actions.
At any rate, over the years the USCCB has become what I describe as the evil bureaucracy C.S. Lewis introduced in That Hideous Strength, the third book of his space trilogy. During the political campaign that brought Obama into power to become one of the most evil presidents in history, an employee at the Conference described all the Obama bumper stickers filling the parking lot. No surprise there! For decades the official USCCB charity, the Campaign for Human Development (later relabeled the Catholic Campaign for Human Development) has picked the pockets of pew sitters to funnel money into organizations that support intrinsic evils. I made this video in 2009. It's still true today. I hope everyone will boycott the collection. Many already do. Let's make it 100% this year.
For years I have prayed that the faithful bishops in the country would ban the CCHD collection from their dioceses and work together to form a new group to challenge the evil agenda of the USCCB. That's what the faithful sisters did when they left the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in 1992 to found the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.
Isn't it time for the faithful bishops to do the same thing? I think Jesus would approve. And a big thank-you to my name-calling reader. This post is timely as the CCHD collection is taken up in the fall. I wouldn't have written it without the push from my silly reader whom I sure is a lovable little teddy bear.
The message about the CCHD is still the same. Stop feeding the nuts.
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