There seem to be a lot of circus acts in the Church these days. My dad would be shaking his head and talking about the clowns, especially those in Roman collars. We certainly see them on a daily basis. Some clown around during the Mass dressing up as Barney or blessing the congregation with a guitar or singing silly songs (like Larry from Veggie Tales) or warming up the congregational audience before every homily with a joke.
No doubt many of these funny men got lots of practice growing up and entertaining their classmates as the "class clowns." We wouldn't want them to be under-appreciated so let us give their acts and those of their lay counterparts a rousing introduction.
Let's start with Bishop Vicente Ferreira from Brazil from the Diocese of Livramento de Nossa Senhora in the state of Bahia. He wrote on X that "the devil we fight is rather imaginary." (Just a circus clown.) He went on to say, “The greater exorcism should be: of homophobia, of femicide, of racism, of crimes against indigenous peoples. Of that legion of evils.” Oh and as for the consecration to St. Michael the Archangel which a fellow bishop inaugurated: Ferreira asked if there are any "theological justifications" for consecration to Saint Michael? Not in his diocese apparently. No doubt St. Michael is "rather imaginary" as well.
The bishop sent that imaginary little red devil with horns, pitchfork, and forked tale scurrying around the ring for a big laugh. He's a joke; no need to worry, folks. Tweek his nose as he runs by. As for St. Michael, he's swinging on the flying trapeze since he isn't needed to defend the audience against the imaginary little devil.
And now, says the ringmaster, turn your attention to the Catholic Biblical Society as its horde of clowns bounce into the ring led by newly elected Jewish president Amy-Jill Levine carrying a sign saying "Jesus wasn't the Messiah and the Pharisees were Misunderstood." Her partners join hands and dance around her singing "We are the one-world Church where all religions are pathways to God." They stop as Levine faces the audience and tells them Jesus "was not coming to innovate and start a new religion." He came “to reinforce the Torah.” Everyone in the circle is smiling because electing a non-Catholic, non-Christian to head the Catholic group is a historical event. They all backslap each other to celebrate their wokism. Levine is planning to rewrite the lectionary as if things weren't clownish enough in the synodal church.
Next in the main ring watch the Vatican acrobats perform flipping maneuvers. They change positions with every move. The Catholic Church is the one way to salvation; (flip) all religions are pathways to God. Church doctrine teaches that error has no rights; (flip) everyone has the right to follow his own religion (condemned by the Syllabus of errors of Pope Pius IX). The great commission calls on Catholics to convert the whole world; (flip) don't proselytize and don't try to convert the Jews who are already in a "saving relationship with God." (The apostles were obviously wrong to try to convert the Jewish communities they came from.) Sacraments of the Church may not be administered to heretics and schismatics (1917 Code of Canon Law); (flip) "Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church." (1983 Code of Canon Law) [Source]
Don't miss the Catholic Circus. Tickets are free and all are welcome (except the SSPX). All elephants have been banned from the circus because they "never forget" and forgetting the past is essential to the current ringmaster and his circus acts. All circus participants are committed to working against climate change and to protect the rights of illegal aliens.
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